U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to fix campus kangaroo courts. But opponents are using COVID-19 as a convenient excuse to delay much-needed reform.

Democratic senators, state attorneys general and the higher education lobby have asked the U.S. Department of Education to pause its implementation of a final rule on Title IX, the federal gender equality law that requires colleges and universities to investigate reports of sexual assault and harassment.

"We urge you not to release the final Title IX rule at this time and instead to focus on helping schools navigate the urgent issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic," Sens. Patty Murray, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote in a recent letter to DeVos.

The rule containing new guidance on Title IX was released in November 2018. Waiting to enact it would leave a patchwork of illegitimate policies in place.

In September 2017, DeVos rescinded a 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter from the Department of Education that required colleges to use the lowest evidentiary standard to adjudicate claims of sexual violence and sexual harassment. Many campuses adopted procedures devoid of due process, presuming guilt for students accused of wrongdoing.

Colleges and victim advocacy groups have fought reform at every turn, advancing a false narrative that President Donald Trump's education department wants to roll back protections for sexual assault survivors. Mounting evidence shows the status quo to be unsustainable.

Students found responsible for sexual assault in administrative hearings are increasingly filing lawsuits. Colleges are getting clobbered in the courts — it's no great surprise that judges take a dim view of students being railroaded in sham trials.

Last September, a Massachusetts federal jury awarded a former Boston College student more than $100,000 in damages after determining administrators had wrongly judged him responsible for indecent battery and assault.

In July, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Purdue University violated a male student's due process rights and discriminated against him on the basis of sex in its hopelessly biased internal proceedings.

The DeVos rules narrow the definition of what constitutes harassment. While Obama-era guidelines prohibited "unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature," the new regulations use the Supreme Court's definition of sexual harassment: "Unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the school's education program or activity."

Those definitions matter. Under the previous guidelines, many schools loosely defined clumsy come-ons and dirty jokes as sexual harassment. At public colleges and universities, which are legally required to uphold free speech rights, this unnecessarily pitted Title IX against the First Amendment.

Once campuses can grasp the difference between free speech and harassment, they can better educate students on the former and more effectively deal with the latter.

The most substantial changes deal with hearings on sexual misconduct claims. DeVos' rules end the single-investigator model, under which a lone administrator interviews students and passes judgment. Colleges would be required to provide a separate decision-maker, whether it's an individual or a panel.

Accusers and the accused would gain cross-examination rights. To prevent victims from being re-traumatized by their alleged assailants, attorneys or advisers for each party would handle the questioning. This reflects growing legal consensus that colleges cannot provide meaningful due process without cross-examination.

Campus sex assault probes can run parallel to law enforcement investigations, but the inquiries are nothing alike. College officials lack subpoena power. They often have no legal background, and their interview skills pale in comparison to those of seasoned police detectives. They are hopelessly out of their depth. The Department of Education's guidance is sorely needed.

While the realities of campus life require administrators to grapple with weighty matters for which they're ill-suited, students and parents should remember that sexual assault is a violent felony, not just a code of conduct violation. Report crimes to the police before dealing with college bureaucrats.

DeVos' rules represent an effort to restore a semblance of fairness to campus tribunals that have long lacked the legitimacy of the trials they mimic. But they're no substitute for the criminal justice system. Rapists belong in prison, not an academic probation.

Corey Friedman is an opinion journalist who explores solutions to political conflicts from an independent perspective. Follow him on Twitter @coreywrites. To find out more about Corey Friedman and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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