More than a decade after The Hunting Ground documentary first put a national spotlight on how colleges respond to sexual assault, Americans are once again embroiled in a reckoning over rape on college campuses.
After a former Cornell University student filed a high-profile lawsuit accusing seven former student fraternity members of sexually assaulting her in 2024, some are looking to Title IX for understanding on how widespread the problem is and what specifically college administrators are required to do when handling sexual assault cases.
Title IX is the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education and it's one area where President Donald Trump's Education Department has implemented major changes since taking office.
While the 2015 Hunting Ground documentary initially arrived during an era when the Obama administration was increasingly using Title IX to press colleges over their responses to sexual harassment and assault, schools operate under a very different federal framework governing when they must respond and how disciplinary proceedings must be conducted today.
“The restoration of the 2020 Title IX framework raises serious concerns,” Caroline Welles, founder and executive director of The First Ask, told Newsweek.
“Of course, accused students deserve due process. But due process should be a means of reaching a fair outcome, not an obstacle course that discourages survivors from coming forward.”
Why It Matters
The Trump administration has transformed both the rules governing Title IX cases and the Education Department office responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws.
Title IX has legally existed since 1972, but the federal government's interpretation of what the law requires from colleges in sexual misconduct cases has changed considerably from administration to administration.
Title IX itself does not explicitly mention sexual harassment. However, the Supreme Court has held that an educational institution's inadequate response to sexual harassment can amount to sex discrimination which is prohibited by the statute.
The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, plays a leading federal role in enforcing the law.
Under former President Barack Obama, much of the government's approach was communicated through federal guidance rather than the detailed regulations that exist today.
Trump's first administration subsequently changed the federal government's approach. In 2020, his Education Department issued detailed regulations governing how schools respond to sexual harassment and how formal complaints are adjudicated.
Former President Joe Biden's administration then adopted another set of regulations in 2024, changing schools' obligations and broadening the government's interpretation of sex discrimination. But the rule faced extensive litigation.
A federal court ended up vacating the 2024 rule nationwide in January of last year, and Trump's Education Department has since directed OCR to return to the 2020 regulations.
...
What's Different Under Trump's Title IX Rules?
Even under Trump’s different rules, sexual assault still falls firmly within the 2020 Title IX framework.
The rules explicitly define sexual harassment to include sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking. They separately cover unwelcome conduct that is so "severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive" that it effectively denies someone equal access to an educational program.
The 2020 regulations also specify when a college has "actual knowledge" triggering obligations under Title IX. At a college or university, that notice generally must reach the institution's Title IX coordinator or another university official.
When that occurs, schools are legally required to respond promptly in a manner that is not “deliberately indifferent.”
Michelle Caiola, partner at Phillips & Associates, a New York City-based firm specializing in sexual harassment, said it is undeniably harder today for campus sexual misconduct allegations to trigger federal Title IX obligations than it was during the Obama era.
“The standard for reporting used to be what the school knew or should have known but now the standard is actual knowledge,” Caiola told Newsweek. “Also, the conduct must be severe or pervasive. Misconduct outside school programs, such as in a private off-campus apartment, can fall outside Title IX entirely.”
There are also specific protections for students making allegations under Trump’s Department of Education policies.
Once a school receives a report, it must offer the complainant "supportive measures."
Under the Obama era guidance, the process was generally required to take 60 days.
“Now the regulation says it must be ‘prompt’ which allows for a lot of foot-dragging by some schools,” Caiola said.
“The pendulum has swung toward respondents, especially for students with means who pay attorneys to who use intimidation tactics including filing counter complaints and suing for defamation.”
She added: “Prior safeguards have been rolled back and the process has become more intimidating for a claimant. It used to be a safer alternative compared to going to the police, a route that many feared because of how sexual assaults are handled.”
When asked about the changes, Department of Education spokesman Sabin Sidney told Newsweek the 2020 rules provide "a balanced legal approach that protects survivors while ensuring the constitutional right to due process."
"It provides unprecedented protections for survivors of sexual assault: schools are required, for the first time ever, to offer supportive measures to victims, even if no formal Title IX complaint was filed," Sidney said.
"The Trump Administration remains committed to upholding Title IX, restoring commonsense safeguards against sexual assault, and vigorously protecting all students," he added.
Sidney also said the Biden administration spent years in office “pandering to an extreme ideology, illegally rewriting the law, and letting the safety and wellbeing of students fall to the wayside.”
“Both the Obama and Biden Administrations distorted Title IX, including by using it to suspend and expel students with no notice, giving no opportunity for evidence to be reviewed, and providing no right to a hearing,” Sidney told Newsweek.
How Have Campus Investigations Changed?
One of the most visible changes that has taken place at the federal level involves what happens after somebody submits a formal complaint.
Under the 2020 rules, universities must give both parties written notice of the allegations, presume that the accused student is not responsible during the investigation, and give both sides equal opportunities to present witnesses and evidence.
At colleges and universities, the rules also require a live hearing.
Advisers representing the parties can question the other party and witnesses "directly, orally, and in real time." When someone does not have an adviser, the institution must provide one at no cost to conduct cross examination.
“In most American criminal courts, the defense has no general right to depose the complaining witness before trial. The federal rule requires colleges to let each party’s advisor, who may be a lawyer, cross-examine the other party and witnesses live, and to keep an audio or audiovisual recording or a transcript,” Jasmine Mines, an attorney and the founder of Mines Law Firm, told Newsweek.
“Complainants must weigh whether that testimony could later be used to impeach them.”
What Happens to Cases Outside Title IX?
The Trump admin’s changes do not necessarily mean a university cannot punish conduct simply because it doesn't qualify for the federal Title IX process.
The 2020 regulations require schools to dismiss a formal Title IX complaint when the alleged conduct would not meet the regulatory definition of sexual harassment or did not occur within the institution's education program or activity.
Location can especially matter.
This could restrict the reporting requirements to crimes that occurred in buildings owned or controlled by officially recognized student organizations. If an incident occurs away from traditional classrooms and residence halls, there could be less protections in place.
The university’s knowledge requirement is different as well under Trump.
“Earlier federal guidance used a broader ‘sufficiently serious’ test, and it treated a school as on notice when a responsible employee knew or should have known,” Mines said. “Today a college must respond only when its Title IX coordinator or an official with authority to act actually knows.”
Cornell Puts Title IX Back Under Scrutiny
Allegations at Cornell University have put campus sexual violence back into the national spotlight.
In the Cornell case, former student "Jane Doe" filed a lawsuit accusing seven male students of raping her for a period of seven hours while she was under the influence of alcohol and ketamine.
Several of the accused students received university sanctions, including suspension and expulsion, but local authorities initially declined to bring criminal charges.
Now that the lawsuit has been filed, politicians and school administrators nationwide are reevaluating their sexual assault policies.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore subsequently ordered the state's Higher Education Commission to review college sexual assault policies and issue recommendations within 90 days.
“Deeply troubling accounts have emerged in recent days of how students outside of Maryland have bravely come forward to report sexual assault and have been failed by the institutions that are supposed to ensure their safety,” Moore said.
The commission's interim secretary, Elena Quiroz-Livanis, said the initiative wasn't dependent on Washington settling the federal debate.
"Our approach is not about waiting for Washington to finalize every rule; it is about establishing a gold standard right here at home," Quiroz-Livanis said.
Has Reporting Changed Under Trump's Rules?
The question of how reporting has actually changed under the Trump administration’s rules, if at all, is nuanced.
A study published in the Journal of Public Health Policy looked at sexual misconduct reporting following changes in federal Title IX policy specifically for 64 U.S. institutions belonging to the Association of American Universities and compared them to reporting trends at Canadian schools.
The researchers discovered a “marginally significant” decrease of 5.23 sexual misconduct reports per 1,000 enrolled students during 2020-21 following the 2020 Title IX changes.
What Happened to the Office That Enforces Title IX?
The rules themselves are only one piece of the federal system.
The Trump administration also attempted a major restructuring of the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) last year.
A Government Accountability Office investigation found that 299 of OCR's 575 staff received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in March 2025 and seven of its 12 regional offices were closed.
However, the planned job cuts were blocked by litigation, and the Department of Education ultimately rescinded the RIF actions for OCR staff in January of this year.
The Education Department told Newsweek that all OCR employees affected by the RIF had the opportunity to return.
But the GAO has still raised questions about what happened to complaints during the restructuring.
From March through September 2025, OCR received more than 9,000 discrimination complaints and resolved more than 7,000. And about 90 percent of the resolved cases were dismissed, according to the GAO.
This number, however, includes OCR's entire civil rights caseload, not just Title IX sexual assault complaints. So that means allegations concerning disability, race, age and other types of discrimination are lumped into the group as well.
The GAO ultimately said Education had not demonstrated that it accounted for all the potential costs and savings of its restructuring and could not provide reasonable assurance that the actions had improved services or taxpayer savings.
“Education did not demonstrate that it accounted for all potential costs and savings associated with its RIF and reorganization actions, and did not document its analyses, though Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance directed it to do so,” the GAO wrote in January of this year.
The department has emphasized that the Biden rule was halted by multiple federal courts before ultimately being vacated.
Its September announcement said the regulations were enjoined by eight different courts and later vacated by two courts.
By the time the administration formally put the 2020 regulatory language back into the federal code on September 28, the Department had already been enforcing the earlier framework since the beginning of Trump's second term.
“Today’s rulemaking clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX from the Code of Federal Regulations and restores the commonsense language promulgated in the first Trump Administration, which we have been enforcing since the first days of the Administration,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a statement at the time.
“We will continue to relentlessly champion equal opportunity for all Americans and hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.”
What Happens Next
Under the Trump administration’s higher education changes, the central federal protection of Title IX still prohibits sex discrimination. And sexual assault is still explicitly included in the federal sexual harassment rules.
Now, however, the federal government gives institutions more detailed rules governing their investigations.
This includes the requirement for live hearings as well as preserving the rights of accused students.
With the Cornell allegations now prompting a larger debate nationwide, however, there’s another lingering question.
It’s not just whether colleges have federal rules for handling sexual violence, but whether universities’ actions and the criminal justice system actually create any real accountability, Welles said.
“The fundamental problem is that universities have become very good at designing processes to handle sexual assault allegations, but much less effective at ensuring those processes actually protect students,” Welles said.
“Universities have reputations to guard, donors to keep, and liability to minimize. Too often, those institutional interests take precedence over student safety.”
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Edward T. Cummins