On Jan. 14, Brandeis students, faculty and staff received an email from the Office of Equal Opportunity stating that the University would be rescinding the Title IX policies that were issued on Aug. 1, 2024 and reinstating the policies created by the Trump administration in 2020. Until Aug. 1, the Title IX policies had not changed from 2020, the ones Brandeis was following. In the email, the Office of Equal Opportunity reassured that this change “in no way limits the protections Brandeis extends to our community.”

In August 2024, the Biden administration issued a new set of Title IX guidelines, which provided protections against sex-based discrimination, pregnant people and parents, as well as including the recognition of harassment or exclusion based on sexual orientation and gender identity to be a form of discrimination. However, on Jan. 9, a federal judge ruled against these provisions, claiming that Title IX policies covered sex-based discrimination, saying “throwing gender identity into the mix eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless.” Any institution receiving federal funds must comply with Title IX policies, therefore all publicly funded universities, including Brandeis, were on the list of institutions that no longer needed to follow the 2024 policies.

The 2020 Title IX policies were created by the Trump administration, and when compared to the 2024 policies, are more lenient on what constitutes sexual harassment and when the school must intervene. The 2024 Biden policy expanded the parameters of what constitutes a school intervening over sexual harassment, saying that if sexual harassment “denies or limits” a person’s ability to participate in a school program or activity, the school must address it. The current legislature details that sexual harassment must be “severe and pervasive” if it “effectively denies” a person equal access to a school or activity. Additionally, Trump’s 2020 policy requires that a school’s response to sexual harassment is not “deliberately indifferent,” while Biden’s 2024 policy states that schools must respond with “prompt and effective action.” Additionally, the 2024 policy requires that all school employees be trained on how to recognize and report sex discrimination, while the 2020 policy has no such rule.

In a Jan. 31 interview with The Justice over email, Jacob Taber, Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, elaborated on how these changes in Title IX policies would affect the Brandeis community, stating, “the language our policy used to describe protected categories changed slightly but the actual scope of the categories did not change at all.” He says Brandeis remains committed to protecting every member of our community from discrimination, and does so by listing the University’s recognized “protected categories.” As stated on the University’s website, these protected categories include “race, color, national origin, ethnicity, caste, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, including transgender identity, religion, disability, age, genetics, active military or veteran status and any other characteristics protected under applicable federal or Massachusetts law.” While the Title IX policy no longer includes harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity in its definition of sex-based discrimination, Brandeis University remains committed to protecting the right against discrimination for everyone on campus. 

Taber says, “Brandeis was founded because of discrimination in higher education. Our community’s commitment to social justice runs deep.” Beyond Title IX, the Office of Equal Opportunity also complies with other state and federal laws and the Brandeis community values of social justice and equality. Taber explains that Title IX and other federal antidiscrimination laws provide the minimum requirements for Brandeis to follow, but the University strives to go above and beyond. To enforce their policy against Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Violence, the Office of Equal Opportunity works in tandem with the Prevention, Advocacy, and Resource Center to train individuals on how to intervene when they encounter sexual harassment or discrimination. 

With a majority of conservative federal courts, including the Supreme Court, there’s the possibility that more regulations regarding the protections of individuals and minorities could be overturned. But, Taber says, “the thing that will not change is the University’s efforts to provide its students, staff and faculty with an environment conducive to learning and working, where all people are treated with respect and dignity.”