News and Announcements
Virtual OCR Title IX Public Hearing: June 7, 2021 – June 11, 2021
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announces a virtual public hearing to gather information for the purpose of improving enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (Title IX). OCR seeks comments from the public on steps the Department can take to ensure that schools are providing students with educational environments free from discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence.
For more information, and to register for the hearing, please visit the Department of Education’s site.
Statement about the Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, and Cornell University Policy 6.4 (Interim)
On March 8, 2021, President Biden signed the Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity. The Executive Order directs the Department of Education to review all of its existing regulations, orders, guidance, and policies to ensure consistency with the Biden-Harris Administration’s policy that students be guaranteed education free from sexual violence. It also directs the Department of Education to specifically evaluate the Title IX regulations issued under the previous administration and agency action taken pursuant to those regulations, to determine whether the regulations and agency action are consistent with the policies of the Biden-Harris Administration.
Last year, Cornell revised Policy 6.4 (“Prohibited Bias, Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual and Related Misconduct”) and its Procedures on an interim basis to comply with the Title IX regulations which took effect August 14, 2020. Following the start of the fall semester, the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX (OIETIX) convened a stakeholder review group to gather campus community input. The policy executives group considered the input and decided to extend the interim status to monitor developments at the federal level. Because the changes made to Policy 6.4 were required by the Title IX regulations, such as oral cross-examination in hearings, it is necessary and important for the University to consider whether such changes will continue to be required for legal compliance.
Consistent with the recommendations through the stakeholder review, the following updates and corrections, which are non-substantive and unrelated to the Title IX regulations, will be made to Policy 6.4:
- Listing all of the legally protected identities/statuses in the Statement of Policy (e.g., age, color, disability, gender identity, race, sex, etc.) and updating the definition of EEEO-Protected Status accordingly
- Adding the Prohibited Conduct definitions to the Policy (previously, the definitions were included in the Procedures only)
- Including a brief description of the process for responding to bias incidents
- Making updates to contact information
We anticipate that the above items will be reflected in an updated interim version published in the Policy Library this semester. OIETIX will continue to monitor federal developments under the Executive Order and provides updates here for the Cornell community.
Office operations continue to be conducted remotely consistent with state and university requirements. At this time, the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX is not accepting any physical mail. Please direct any inquiries to [email protected].