Members of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition have written a public comment delineating their concerns with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ proposed changes to Title IX to submit to the Department of Education (DOE).

Board members Maia Brockbank ’21, Krithika Iyer ’21 and Julia Paris ’21 co-authored the comment, which examines nine specific provisions and argues why they do not accomplish the goals of Title IX. A petition to amass student support for the comment received more than 75 signatures within one hour of publication.

The proposed changes to Title IX are undergoing a mandatory public comment period until Wednesday, the comment submission deadline set by the DOE, which must read and respond to all feedback submitted during this time. The ASSU as a whole has also submitted their own public comment, authored by ASSU President Shanta Katipamula ’19 and Co-director of Sexual Violence Prevention and Ph.D. candidate Emma Tsurkov.

The Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition’s comment follows a Nov. 30, 2018 workshop held by the coalition, in which participants were taught how to submit effective comments of their own. 

“This is a really valuable way for the Stanford community to be involved in change directly, especially considering these proposed regulations will change Stanford’s own process drastically,” Brockbank said.

The ASSU coalition strongly urges all members of the Stanford community — alumni, graduate and undergraduate students — to sign the comment by Wednesday.

Contact Anushree Thekkedath at anuthekk ‘at’ stanford.edu.