AAUP Supports Attorneys General Urging Suspension of New Title IX Regulations during COVID-19 Pandemic

On March 27, following news reports that the Department of Education would soon be issuing its new proposed Title IX regulations, the attorneys general of 18 states (Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia) signed a letter urging the Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget “to suspend the rulemaking process for the proposed regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 . . . while our nation’s educational institutions respond to the national emergency caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and until both K–12 schools and institutions of higher education resume normal operations.”

In response to these reports, the joint subcommittee of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and of the Committee on Gender and Sexuality in the Academic Profession released these comments:

The American Association of University Professors stands for the fundamental values and standards of higher education, including academic freedom, shared governance, and the public mission of higher education. The AAUP agrees with the 18 Attorneys General who have urged the Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget to suspend the rulemaking process for the proposed Title IX regulations “while our nation’s educational institutions respond to the national emergency caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and until both K–12 schools and institutions of higher education resume normal operations.” The urgent need to focus time, attention, and resources to respond to this national crisis severely constrains the ability of educational institutions’ administrations, faculty, staff, and students to engage in meaningful shared governance to address new and complex Title IX regulations.