Good morning, and welcome to Thursday, January 11. Sarah Brown contributed today’s lead item, Julia Piper compiled Comings and Goings, and Rick Seltzer wrote the rest. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

How to improve Title IX protections without waiting for the feds

You’ve heard this before, but it remains a pressing concern on campuses across the country:

Many students who experience sexual misconduct aren’t comfortable reporting it to their colleges. Over the past decade, as colleges dedicated more resources to raising awareness and investigating complaints, a key goal was to build trust with students who were harmed. More students have come forward with reports of sexual harassment or violence. But the trust-building? Not so much.

Students have repeatedly recounted stories of feeling mistreated by colleges’ Title IX offices, which handle cases of alleged sexual misconduct, as outlined by federal regulations. Some students have even said that the Title IX process was worse than the actual incident they were reporting.

What’s frustrating students who come forward?

• Investigations are bureaucratic and confusing.
• The Title IX office does not serve as a victim advocate, but a compliance unit.
• Punishment for students who are accused is rare. Even if they’re found responsible for sexual misconduct, victims often see the sanctions as inadequate.

Take the California State University system as an example. Last July, a damning report documented shortcomings there.

• Administrators failed to fully investigate and document some cases, and often didn’t hold perpetrators accountable, leading to a widespread lack of confidence in campus Title IX offices.
• “Reporting has never solved anything for myself or my peers,” one student in the Cal State system wrote in a survey response.

The Biden administration vowed to reform federal regulations interpreting Title IX and reverse changes put in place under the Trump administration that some criticized as harmful to victims. Among the Trump-era policies that have drawn fire:

• Requiring colleges to conduct live hearings and cross-examine students as part of investigations. While advocates for students accused of sexual misconduct praised the shift as necessary for a fair process, victim advocates argued that such hearings could be traumatizing.
• Raising the bar for what constitutes sexual harassment under Title IX. For example, a single instance of reported stalking might no longer be severe enough to be investigated under the federal gender-equity law (although the college could still handle it through another process).

But Biden’s new regulations have been delayed for months, further frustrating some students and victim-advocacy groups. At the end of 2023, the Education Department pushed the release to March. Colleges can’t do anything about that.

Still, higher ed can do more to fix the lack of trust.

• Update students and attempt to resolve cases as soon as possible.
• Consider what resources would help overwhelmed Title IX offices communicate promptly.
• Evaluate how to manage sexual-misconduct response. This week, for example, a Title IX consultant shared a new tool that aims to help colleges more easily track cases and allows students to see the status of their case.

How else might colleges rebuild trust in Title IX? Some experts encourage developing restorative-justice options, which, at their best, can more quickly help repair harm for students. Colleges have had additional flexibility to use alternative resolutions to the formal hearing process since the Trump-era changes took effect.

Quick hits

• Congressional Ways and Means chair questions college tax exemptions: Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, sent a letter to leaders at Harvard and Cornell Universities, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a wide-ranging request for information including free-speech policies, protections for Jewish students, and diversity, equity, and inclusion spending. Smith suggested the committee could scrutinize the universities’ tax status. (Committee on Ways and Means)
• Florida governor invites Jewish-student transfers: Colleges elsewhere have failed to confront surging antisemitism inflamed by the Israel-Hamas war, Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for president, argued in his State of the State speech this week. In an emergency order, Florida’s university system is waiving some admission requirements and application deadlines for undergraduates who want to transfer there from out of state “because of a well-founded fear of antisemitic or other religious discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or violence.” DeSantis asserted that the state’s public colleges were “experiencing an elevated number of inquiries from out-of-state students to transfer.” (Tampa Bay Times, State University System of Florida, The Chronicle)
• Norwich U. president resigned after violating policy: Mark Anarumo said last week that his resignation as president of the private military college in Vermont was by mutual agreement, not precipitated by any one event. But the Board of Trustees said in a statement on Tuesday that preliminary findings of an investigation clearly showed Anarumo “violated Norwich’s core guiding values and University policy.” It didn’t offer further details on the nature of the infractions. (VTDigger)
• Indiana U. at Bloomington suspends professor who assisted pro-Palestinian event: Abdulkader Sinno, a professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies, has been suspended for the spring and summer semesters after university officials found he bypassed processes to help the Palestine Solidarity Committee organize a November event featuring an Israeli-American activist who has criticized Israel. A letter suspending Sinno cited errors on a room-reservation request and said organizers held the event after the university denied their request to host it. Some faculty members have objected to what they call “trumped up charges” and violations of university procedures, shared governance norms, and free speech. (The Herald-Times)
• Cal State faculty unimpressed by pay raise: The 23-campus system said it will increase pay by 5 percent for the California Faculty Association, describing as “not financially viable” a 12-percent increase that the union has been seeking to account for high inflation. The 5-percent increase is the university’s final offer, concluding contract negotiations and leaving faculty members pledging to follow through with plans for a weeklong strike starting January 22. (Cal Matters)
• Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts nixes degrees: The private institution in Philadelphia will end bachelor’s and master’s programs at the end of the 2024-25 academic year because higher education has been complicated by “rising costs, expanding requirements, and dwindling enrollment,” its president announced on Wednesday. Certificate programs, K-12 arts programs, and continuing education are set to go on. (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts)

Stat of the day

29

That’s how many universities spent at least $1 billion on research and development in the 2022 fiscal year, according to data from the National Science Foundation. The $1-billion club grew from 21 institutions the year before.

Find out which universities topped a billion, and more facts on research spending: Our Audrey Williams June explored the data.

Perilous presidencies

Here’s the latest from The Chronicle on the plagiarism and campus-antisemitism allegations that have felled two prominent college presidents and continue to threaten another:

• MIT’s President Is Still Standing
• For Sputtering Diversity Efforts, Claudine Gay’s Resignation Risks Further Setbacks
• How Harvard Tried to Save Its President
• ‘You Hand Them a Knife’: After Claudine Gay’s Ouster, Historians Worry About Weaponization of Plagiarism

Comings and goings

• Paul Brest, former dean of Stanford University’s Law School, has been named interim dean of the school after Robert Weisberg stepped down.
• J. Scott Angle, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida, has been named the university’s provost.
• Brian E. Farkas, chief science officer at McCormick & Company, has been named dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Delaware.
• Leslie Cornick, dean of the School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at the University of Washington at Bothell, has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Chico.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.

Footnote

After the birth of my daughter in November, I’m asking readers to share their experiences as working, teaching, and learning parents. Robert Kelchen, professor and head of the department of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, wrote in reflecting on his two children, ages 3 and almost 1. Here’s some advice he offered:

• Schedule calls and Zoom meetings at times with a higher likelihood of a happy baby. Most people enjoy seeing a happy baby on a Zoom meeting for a few minutes, even if the baby is making a pantload that they thankfully can’t smell.
• Both of my babies came while I was a department head. I can confidently say that approving paperwork electronically will put little ones to sleep, as will mundane data-collection tasks.
• I’m thankful that my deans at both Seton Hall and Tennessee were incredibly supportive with little ones. Given limited parental leave at most colleges, it’s crucial for supervisors to be as flexible as possible.

🍼 Parents, keep sending me your stories and insights.

📙 Logophiles, don’t think I’ve forgotten you. Take a look at Lake Superior State University’s annual banished words list, then send me tired words or phrases you’d like to retire.

Email dailybriefing@chronicle.com, and we’ll run some of your best submissions in future Footnotes.