Like many firms with a leadership think tank, our consultants collaborate to inform how we advise our clients and ATIXA’s members. Recently, we discussed the Trump Administration’s Executive Order (EO) that limits its...more
5/13/2025
/ Colleges ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Students ,
Title IX ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
Fifteen years ago, I received what seemed like an odd request: would I be willing to serve as an expert witness in federal Title IX litigation? My perception had always been that most Title IX litigation focused on questions...more
5/7/2025
/ Colleges ,
Educational Institutions ,
Expert Testimony ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Negligence ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Students ,
Summary Judgment ,
Title IX ,
Universities
If you are a Title IX administrator, investigator, or decision-maker, you’ve no doubt found the federal regulatory definition of the Fondling offense to be vexatious, to say the least. It’s an attempt by the Department of...more
An ATIXA Tip of the Week -
Today, a federal district court in Kentucky issued a ruling in Tennessee vs. Cardona, one of the several lawsuits against the 2024 Title IX Regulations. This particular lawsuit was filed in the...more
As we noted in October, “Over the past few years, there has been a significant amount of noise, confusion, and sense of whiplash in the Title IX world.” With the presidential election behind us and the courts intervening...more
1/6/2025
/ Colleges ,
Educational Institutions ,
Pregnancy ,
Risk Assessment ,
School Districts ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Violence Policies ,
Students ,
Title IX ,
Universities
Consequent to increasing sectarian tensions on campus, ATIXA members tell us they are seeing a rise in anonymous racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, pro/anti-Israel messages, and other discriminatory comments...more
On the morning of August 1, 2024, Title IX experts from TNG Consulting and ATIXA participated in a webinar hosted by the Department of Education (ED) regarding the 2024 Title IX Rule. During the session, U.S. Secretary of...more
8/2/2024
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Colleges ,
Department of Education ,
Discrimination ,
Educational Institutions ,
LGBTQ ,
New Regulations ,
OCR ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Students ,
Title IX ,
Universities
Last week and early this week, two federal judges granted injunctions to halt enforcement of the 2024 Title IX Final Rule (“2024 Regs”), in its entirety. An injunction is a court order requiring an individual or entity to...more
6/21/2024
/ Colleges ,
Compliance ,
Department of Education ,
Discrimination ,
Educational Institutions ,
Gender Identity ,
Injunctions ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Title IX ,
Universities
The world is blessed and cursed by nuance. Most issues are complicated, and truly understanding them requires expertise, depth of insight, familiarity, and an appreciation for how nuances impact the issue and its context....more
A senior administrator at one of our client college campuses is a 77-year-old man. We’ve received several complaints over the last couple of years because he tends to call all of the women who report to him by the reportedly...more
The “single investigator model” describes a practice by which a single individual investigates allegations of misconduct and the same person also makes the final determination of whether policy was violated. This model became...more
Recently, ATIXA published a blog on charging correctly under Title IX, with respect to the legal requirement to charge respondents with the respective applicable sexual harassment definitions from the Fair Housing Act (FHA)...more
You’re investigating a Title IX complaint and discover evidence of other misconduct involving the respondent. Should the Title IX Coordinator charge them with it? You’ve received a complaint that alleges both stalking and...more
Last October, I wrote a column on what my colleagues and I at TNG Consulting had learned from serving as hearing decision-makers in our first fifteen live hearings under Title IX. Since then, we’ve facilitated many more...more
Personally, perhaps you are. Legally, you are not. Neither am I. Why? The reasonable person (RP) does not exist. The reasonable person isn’t a person at all, but rather an idea. And it’s a fascinating idea, though...more
The inclusion of statutory rape as a form of sexual assault in the 2020 Title IX regulations can be confusing with respect to appropriate application of this rule to sex between minors, especially in jurisdictions with...more
Since the start of the spring 2021 semester, TNG’s consultants have been involved in about 15 hearings under the new 2020 Title IX regulations. We’ve served as party advisors, investigators, and decision-makers. Here is some...more
Another scourge is upon the education field … someone is bringing Yik Yak back. The Chronicle of Higher Education just did a nice analysis on the reinvigorated app, here, for background....more
Years ago, I took heat from activists who thought that TNG’s replacement of the terms “rape” and “sexual assault” with policy-based alternatives in our model policies was minimizing of the severity of the behaviors. Rape is...more
Many in the Title IX field watched last week as two different federal courts denied challenges to the validity of the 2020 Title IX regulations under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The regulations survived these...more
The field is awash in investigators of all kinds. I assume many of them are expert investigators, but who knows? What’s rare, though, is an investigator who’s also a subject matter expert (SME) on the topic they’re...more
The Title IX risk management space is complex and ever-changing. As such, TNG and ATIXA continue to leverage a non-linear approach to problem-solving to provide the best possible outcomes for our clients and members....more
Dear Brett:
My school needs an external civil rights investigation. We received quotes from a number of firms, and the per-hour cost varied by more than $200 over the various provider quotes. Can you help us understand...more
The following Q&A is reprised from a recent conversation with a client.
Q: Dear Brett, I have a Title IX complaint where the complainant has produced evidence, in the form of text messages, in which the respondent admits...more
Since the 2020 Title IX regulations have taken effect, colleges all across the U.S. are scrambling to find advisors to accompany the parties through the formal resolution process. While many colleges and universities elect to...more
1/25/2021
/ Administrative Hearings ,
Colleges ,
Disciplinary Proceedings ,
Educational Institutions ,
Evidence ,
Gender-Based Violence ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Violence Policies ,
Students ,
Title IX ,
Universities