Student Senate recently passed Resolution 2425-61, removing language that allowed the judicial panel to rule over Title IX claims.
Originally, the previous language allowed the Student Senate to create a judicial panel to rule over matters relating to sexual assault, harassment, stalking, hazing or cyberbullying.
Title IX, one of the Education Amendments, was passed in 1972. It stated no one in the U.S. can be excluded from participation or be subjected to discrimination in education programs receiving federal financial assistance based on sex.
“The judicial panel nor student senate has had the ability to rule on issues related to the office of Title IX,” Student Senate’s Associate Justice Clay Lewis wrote in an email. “The previous language was probably made in good faith assuming that we had the capabilities when we didn’t.”
Lewis said the decision to create resolution 2425-61 came after the judicial panel discovered they had no jurisdiction over any cases related to Title IX. All claims must be instead directed to University Equity and Civil Rights Compliance.
Lewis said the ruling was a simple update to the rules and procedures. The original rules and procedures were made in the 1990s based on state laws at the time.
“The goal I had in mind when changing the legislation was to keep transparency with all students, so they could know what Senate can and cannot do or investigate,” Lewis wrote in an email.
Student Senate President Dan Gordillo was contacted and did not provide a statement.
