As part of resolving Title IX complaints against theUniversity of Montana for its handling of sexual assault reports involving its student-athletes, the federal government announcednew definitions of sexual harassment designed "to provide clearer notice [tostudents] of the conduct prohibited" on college campuses. The Departmentsof Education and Justice co-authored a letter of findings to Montana, stating theadministration's intention to make the policies in the letter "the blueprintfor colleges and universities throughout the country." On Friday, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education(FIRE), criticized those new policies in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, pointing out that the administration's new sexual harassmentdefinition includes "any unwelcomeconduct of a sexual nature" including "verbal conduct." Thisdefinition, FIRE argued, "makes virtually every student in the UnitedStates a harasser."
The administration's standards might affect more than FirstAmendment rights. Other language in the letter allows the university topunish students for sexual harassment before the school's investigation orresolution of the complaint. This new policy, FIRE noted, is far broader thanthe standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court for student-on-student sexualharassment in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education. Below is the announcement about the University of Montanaagreement by deputy assistant attorney general Roy Austin Jr., DOJ Civil RightsDivision.