Educational programs receiving federal funding must now adhere to the regulations established by the first Trump Administration in 2020, according to Jill Moffitt, Title IX coordinator at California Lutheran University.

According to the U.S. Department of Education website, Title IX is a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities receiving financial assistance from the federal government. This law was updated in August of 2024 by the Biden Administration, but the Supreme Court vacated the law on January 9 of this year, rendering updates made by the Biden Administration null and void.

“So, what you saw in a very quick period of time was, you know, July 2024, we were under Trump rules, Trump administration rules. August, we were under Biden Administration rules. January 2025 we’ve gone back, as required by the courts, to Trump Administration rules from 2020,” Moffitt said. “Most people are gonna be used to the 2020 regulations or procedures because the 2024 procedures were in place for such a limited period of time.” 

Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life and Student Conduct and Deputy Title IX Coordinator at Cal Lutheran Christine Paul said during an email interview that Title IX is a federal law; therefore, the university must comply with all regulations established by the government as well as California state law. Paul said that Title IX policy has undergone many changes over the last decade.

According to Paul, each time the federal government makes these kinds of changes, it has an impact on the community, and Cal Lutheran only has a minimal amount of control.

Paul said experts looked at the 2024 Title IX policy to ensure it complies with federal and state law, while also upholding the values and philosophies of Cal Lutheran. 

Moffitt said that under Biden’s 2024 Title IX policy, the definition of discrimination was expanded. Biden’s policy required schools to acknowledge gender stereotypes as part of a discriminatory harassment issue.

The other major difference between these policies is that the 2024 Title IX policy allowed institutions to address behaviours that were creating a hostile environment, while also not requiring students to file a formal complaint to address the behaviours, Moffitt said. 

“Biden really, sort of, opened up not only… what was defined as sex discrimination under Title IX, but also had more flexibility in the way a school could address it,” Moffitt said.

Moffitt said the first Trump Administration had a narrow definition of what Title IX encompasses, not looking at sex characteristics, meaning it did not include aspects like discrimination based on sex stereotypes. 

According to the United States department of education, under the 2020 Title IX regulations the conduct had to have occurred in the United States, between two people in an academic institution. According to this policy, it does not have an effect on behavior by people that are not part of the universities’ student body, faculty or staff. 

The other narrowed area in the 2020 Title IX policy, according to Moffitt, is that there are only specific ways in which the behaviour can fall under the policy: Quid pro quo, dating/domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. 

“So, you can see that it really narrows things, because, even though something like an inappropriate joke of a sexual nature would need to be addressed because we don’t condone that on our campus, we wouldn’t be able to address that through Title IX because it wouldn’t fit that criteria. We would be able to address it under SB [Senate Bill] 439,” Moffitt said.

According to Moffitt, in California there is an additional state law, Senate Bill 439, which also serves to address unwanted behaviours of a sexual nature and sex-based discrimination at institutions of higher education. Moffittt said Cal Lutheran is currently operating under both laws, SB 439 and Title IX. 

Moffitt said Cal Lutheran is opposed to prohibited behavior of a sexual nature, whether it is deemed under Title IX or SB 439. When a student reports behaviours to the Title IX office, the coordinator will communicate what policy applies and why, Paul said. 

Moffitt said that if there is behavior that doesn’t meet the requirements of the 2020 Title IX, then they can get addressed through SB 439. According to Moffitt, this provides more options for students who have been harmed by behaviors that aren’t covered by Title IX. 

“The university has policies that say we’re addressing all this behavior, no matter where it lands. So I want students to know that, because if you look at Title IX 2020 rules, it looks like we’re only addressing 10% of the behaviors that are coming in based on that rule, but that’s not actually true, because we also have SB 439 so that means we can address all behaviors that are reported to the office,” Moffitt said.

According to Cal Lutheran’s Sexual Harassment Title IX website, the university does not tolerate any degree of sex-based discrimination or harassment on or off-campus, acknowledging that sexual harassment is defined in different ways under federal and state law.  

Although the Title IX staff said the new policy is in place and updated on the website, the last version of the university’s policy of sexual harassment was updated on July 29, 2024. 

The website states the university has the discretion to determine whether the policy has been violated and determine the repercussions based on the 2024 Title IX Regulations as the Policy Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Sex Under Title IX.