On June 23, the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the Biden administration proposed new rules on sexual harassment and assault, reversing the Trump administration’s 2020 rollback of survivors’ rights. The new rules restore the Obama administration’s broad definition of sexual harassment and require schools to take prompt and effective actions to end sexual assault and harassment. The proposed rules also extend discrimination protection to LGBTQ students and clarify protections for pregnant and parenting students.
Tag: Colleges and Universities
‘A Whole Generation of People Who Don’t Know How To Take Care of People’: Training Ob-Gyn Medical Residents In a Post-Roe World
A peek into the first class of medical professionals applying to residency in a post-Roe America.
“My personal take is that it’s really hard to learn in an environment of scarcity and an environment of fear,” said Dr. Lauren Thaxton, an ob-gyn professor at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. “And I think that those are two things that are very realistic in some of these restrictive states.”
Title IX Reverberates Through Three Generations
When Title IX was passed 50 years ago this month, it helped girls gain access to spaces that they were not able to enter.
In my own family, Title IX changed the course of the lives of my activist grandmother, Silicon Valley executive aunt and my student-athlete cousin.
It’s Time To Close the Gender Gap in Education Leadership—and Give Women What They’ve Earned
Massive turnover among school superintendents and the corresponding gender equity gap in district leadership is simply staggering. But the issue is not just that turnover is happening; it’s that men are replacing women at alarming rates. From coast to coast, the gender gap is worsening dramatically in education leadership.
Brett Kavanaugh’s Yale Classmates Rally for Reproductive Rights at Class Reunion: ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Rights!’
Brett Kavanaugh was nowhere to be seen last Saturday when his Yale classmates attending their 35th college reunion held a rally to express their anger and frustration with their former classmate—as Kavanaugh is likely to join with other conservatives on the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade and end constitutional protections for the right to abortion.
Supreme Court conservatives Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh all graduated from Yale Law School. “What the hell are we doing here? How are we producing people who are taking away our longstanding constitutional rights?”
The Feminist Legislator Behind Title IX
One of the visionaries behind Title IX—the federal legislation passed in 1972 that mandates gender equality in education—was a fierce and fearless congresswoman from Hawaii, Patsy Takemoto Mink. As Congress’s first woman of color and a 1972 presidential aspirant, Mink served 24 years in Congress, from 1965–1977 and then again from 1990–2002. Mink broke traditional gender boundaries, championed peace, the environment, equality and social justice, and never wavered as an advocate and ally for social change.
Colleges Must Fill the Sex Ed Gap Left by High Schools
When it comes to preparing youth to lead healthy, sex-positive lives, we know that the state of sex education in our middle and high schools is dire. And although teaching sex ed is often considered the responsibility of middle and high schools, colleges often end up dealing with the fallout related to this lack of education.
Many first-year U.S. college students enroll in a college in the state where they live, so it’s especially important for states with lackluster high school sex ed to address it at the college level.
Incarcerated Women and High School Students Attend Class Together: ‘We’re All Americans in One Way or Another’
Horace Mann senior Simon Schackner created something that appears to have never been done before: a class simultaneously taught to 11 students at his high school and six students at a minimum-security women’s prison in Maine.
“Prison education is very important to the way that [people who are incarcerated] reenter society,” said Gwen Wellman, a student in a Maine correctional facility. “Having this opportunity has given our generation a look at how we are worth that opportunity.”
Celebrating the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act: A Conversation with Rep. Jackie Speier
Last week, President Biden signed the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act, bipartisan legislation included in the fiscal year appropriations package. Two of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.)’s bills were included in the VAWA reauthorization: a bill closing the law enforcement consent loophole, and another requiring climate surveys for college and university students to assess efforts to address sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, stalking and dating violence.
Speier, first elected to Congress in 2008, has announced that she will not seek reelection in November. She sat down with Ms. contributor Michelle Onello to discuss the improved VAWA and its critical importance for women, as well as her plans after she retires from Congress.
The Transformation of Mills College
A year ago, it seemed that we might lose Mills College. Today, Mills is on the cusp of a transformation that affirms its mission and offers greater opportunities for students, faculty, staff and alums. What got us here?