Summary: The new Title IX procedures at Harvard Law School will be implemented as soon as they are approved by the federal government.
Comment has been sent by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to Harvard Law School for its new procedures on how it will handle cases of alleged sexual harassment, according to The Harvard Crimson.
A spokesperson for the law school, Robb London, said that the school will implement its procedures “as soon as possible.”
In December, the faculty at the law school voted to adopt new procedures that govern the school’s approach to how it investigates allegations of sexual harassment. With the vote, the school moved away from the Harvard University-wide procedures for Title IX, which created a central office to hear student complaints from across the entire university.
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London said that the comment received from the Office for Civil Rights focused on suggestions and clarifications, but not procedural objections. The procedures are in the midst of being revised right now and require final approval from the federal government. The approval is required due to a resolution agreement forged at the end of 2014 after the law school was found to have violated Title IX.
“There were no objections to the procedures—just a few suggestions and requested clarifications of the text in a couple of places, which we have now made,” London wrote on Monday in an email.
A new draft of the procedures has been created by the law school following the suggestions by the Office for Civil Rights and it is awaiting final approval. London did not provide which parts of the procedures the office asked the law school to update.
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Under the new procedures, the law school will conduct its own investigations into sexual harassment claims instead of sending them to Harvard’s Office for Sexual and Gender-Based Dispute Resolution.
The website for the law school says that students will be informed when the new procedures are activated.
Will these procedures make a difference for students? Use our poll to cast your vote.
[poll id=”520″]Source: The Harvard Crimson
