To welcome to the stage, our dean, henry butler. Thanks, daniel. Welcome to george mason law school. We are recently ranked number 29 in the world in law by the shanghai academic ranking of world universities, our motto, learn, challenge, lead. Our students learn from the best, our professors are among the elite slaub for downloaded articles among law schools, our curriculum, which is built on economics and other Critical Thinking skills, teaches our students to challenge conventional wisdom in a constructive manner that improv improves management and outcome. Our motto learn, challenge, lead, is also refleck ctive of name sakes, george mason and Antonin Scalia. George mason was the colleges founder in 1787 was very suspicious of the potential for excessive federal government control over our lives, and was the person because of his insistence led to the adoption of the bill of rights. And of course, Antonin Scalia, as a justice was famous for challenging his colleagues and everyone recognized that he made everyone on the court better because he was basically looking over their shoulder at all times. With george mason, and Antonin Scalia as our models, scalia law is a free and open exchange of idea. Our students now have the opportunity to interact with one of our nations key policymakers, i would like to thank the federal Society Student can chapter to hosting our speaker, the honorable betsy devos. Betty devos is the 11th u. S. Secretary of education, the secretarys been involved in u. S. Education policy for decades, she is indeed a challenger and a leader. She has long been an advocate for children and the role of parents in educational decision making. She is pursuing, as secretary, the return of control of education to states and localities, greater power for parents to choose the educational settings that best suit their children and ensuring that Higher Education puts students on the path to successful careers. Secretary devos went to the university of michigan where she earned her bachelor of arts degree. Everyone please welcome secretary devos. Thank you dean butler for your kind introduction and for the opportunity to be here. I want to also thank president cabrera for his leader ship of George Mason University and to the students and faculty with us today, thank you for making time to be here during this busy say of classes. Its a great honor for me to be here today to address a very important topic. Earlier this year marked the 45th anniversary of title ix, that seeks to ensure that no person in the United States shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any Education Program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The amendment to the Higher Education act was initially proposed by democrat senator birch bye, signed into law by republican president Richard Nixon and was later renamed for congresswoman patsy mink, herself both a victim of sex based and race based discrimination as a Third Generation japanese american. Minks law has served an important title ix has helped make clear that educational institutions has a responsibility to protect every students right to learn in a fair environment. It is a responsibility i take seriously, and it is a responsibility it is a responsibility that the department of educations office for civil rights takes seriously. We will continue to enforce it and vigorously address all instances where people fall short. Sadly, too many fall short when it comes to their responsibility under title ix to protect students from Sexual Misconduct, acts of which are perpetrated on campuses across our nation, the individual impacts of Sexual Misconduct are lasting, profound and lamentable. And emoetions around this topic run high for good reason. We need look no further than outside these walls to see evidence of this. Yet i hope every person, even those who feel they disagree, will lend an ear to what i outline today. Im glad wily ine live in a cou where exchange of ideas is important. Violence is never the answer when viewpoints diverge. I appreciate that you have the opportunity to attend a university that promotes a higher legal of discourse. So let me be clear at the outset, acts of Sexual Misconduct are reprehensible, disgusting and unacceptable. They are acts of cowardice and personal weakness, often thinly disguised as strength and power. Such acts are atrocious. And i wish this subject didnt need to be discussed at all. Every person on every campus across our nation should conduct themselves with selfrespect and with respect for others. But the current reality is a different story. Since becoming secretary, i have heard from many students whose lives were impact eed by Sexual Misconduct. Student who is came to campus to Gain Knowledge and instead lost something sacred. We know this much to be true. One rape is one too many. One assault is one too many. One aggressive act of harassment is one too many. One person denied due process is one too many. This conversation may be uncomfortable, but we must have it. It is our moral obligation to get this right. Campus Sexual Misconduct must continue to be confronted head on. Never again will these acts only be whispered about in closed off counseling rooms or swept under the rug. Not one more survivvivor will b silenced. We will not abandon anyone. Weamplify the voices of survivors who often feel voiceless. When i listened to the stories of survivors over these past several months, i couldnt help but think about my own family, i thought by my two daughters, i thought about my two sons, every mother dreads getting that phone call a despondent child calling with unthinkable news. I cannot imagine receiving that call. Too many mothers and fathers have been left on the other end of the line completely helpful. I am haunted by the story one brave young woman told me, she was targeted and vibctimized by her college boyfriend, someone she thought cared about her. He tried to rape her, she escaped her harrowing encounter, but so many do not. For too many, as incident like this means something much worse. There is no way to escape the issue of campus misconduct, lives have been lost, lives of victims and lives of the accused. Some of you hearing my voice know someone who took his or her own life because they thought their future was lost, because they saw no way out. Because they lost hope. One mother told me her son has attempted to take his life multiple times. Each time she opens the door to his bedroom, she doesnt know whether she will find him alive or dead. No mother, no parent, no student, should be living that reality. We are here today for those families. We need to remember we are not just talking about faceless cases. We are talking about peoples lives. Everything we do must recognize this before anything else. And were here today because the Previous Administration helped elevate this issue in American Public life. They listen to survivors who have brought this issue owl of the back rooms of student life offices and into the light of day. Im grateful to those who endeavor to end Sexual Misconduct on campuses. But good intentions alone are not enough. Justice demands humility, wisdom and prudence. This is why i hosted a summit to better understand all perspectives, survivors, falsely accused students and educational institutions, both k12 and higher ed. I wanted to learn from as many as i could because a conversation that excludes some becomes a conversation for none. We are having this conversation with and for all students. Here is what i have learned. The truth is that the system established by the Prior Administration has failed too many students. Survivors, victims of a lack of due process and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved. Thats why we must do better, because the current approach isnt working. Washington has burdened schools with increasingly elab raorate confusing guidelines that even lawyers find difficult to understand and navigate. Where does that leave institutions which are forced to be judge and jury. It where does that leave parents . Where does that leave students . This system, failed system, has generated hundreds upon hundreds of cases in the Departments Office for civil rights, mostly filed by students who reported Sexual Misconduct and believed their schools let them down, it is also generated dozens upon dozens of lawsuits filed in courts across the land. By students punished for Sexual Misconduct who also believe their schools let them down. The current failed system left one student to fend for herself at a University Disciplinary hearing. She told her university that another student sexual assaulted her in her dorm room, in turn, her university told her she would have to prosecute the case herself. Without any Legal Training whatsoever, she had to prepare an opening statement, fix exhibits and find witnesses. I dont think its the rape that makes a person a victim, she told reporters, she said its the failure of the system that turns a survivor into a victim. This is the current reality. You may have read recently about a disturbing case in california. Its the story of an athlete, hi his girlfriend and the failed system. The couple was described as playfully rough housing but a witness thought otherwise and the incident was reported to the title ix coordinator, the young woman insisted she had not been abused. But University Administrators told her they knew better. They dismissed the young man, her boyfriend, in the Football Team and expelled him from school. When i told the truth, the young woman said, i was stereotyped and was told i must be a battered woman. And that made me feel demeaned and absurdly profiled. This is the current reality. Another student at a Different School saw her rapist go free, he was found responsible by the school, but in doing so, the failed system denied him due process. He sued the school and after several appeals in civil court he walked free. This is the current reality. A student on another campus is under a title ix investigation for a wrong answer on a quiz. The question asked the name of the class lab instructor. The student didnt know the instructors name so he made one up. Sarah jackson. Which unbeknownst to him turned out to be the name of a model. He was given a zero and told that his answer was inappropriate because it allegedly objectified the female instructor. He was informed that his answer, quote, meets the title ix definition of Sexual Harassment. Hiss university opened an investigation without any complainants. This is the current reality. I also think of a student i met who honorably served our country in the navy and wanted to continue his education after his service, but he didnt know the first thing about Higher Education, he googled how to apply to college and applied to one nearby hbcu, he was accepted and became the first of his family to attend college. He said that as his graduation approached, his grand mother beamed with pride. About three weeks before his graduation, he saw his future dashed. This young man was suspended via a campus wide email which declared him to be a threat to the campus community. When he tried to learn the reason for his suspension, he was barred from campus, he was not afforded counsel by the college and couldnt afford counsel himself. Eventually he found a lawyer who submitted a freedom of information act pro bono but would do no more. Only through the foya would he discover that he had been accused of Sexual Harassment but he was still denied notice of the specific allegations and he remains suspended. This young man was denied due process. Decemb despondent and absent of home, he tried to take his overwhelm life. He felt he let down everyone who mattered to him, including his grandmother, who so looked forward to seeing the first member of her family don cap and gown. Whatever your accusers say you are, he told me, is what people believe you are, that is the doesnt reality. Current reality. Heres what it looks like. A student says he or she was sexual assaulted by another student on campus, if he or she isnt urged to keep quiet or discouraged from reporting it to local Law Enforcement, the case goes to a schooled ed administr who will act as judge and jury, this individual may or may not be told the facts of the case before the decision is rendered. And the accused may or may not be allowed legal representation. What is presented may or may not be shown to all parties, whatever witnesses if allowed to be called, may or may not be crossexamined, and washington dictated that schools must use the lowest standard of proof, and now this campus official, who may or may not need any Legal Training in adjudicating Sexual Misconduct, is expected to render a judgment, a july that change judgment that may or may not be able to either party and to one is permitted to talk about what went on behind closed doors, its no wonder so many people call these proceedings kangaroo courts. Washingtons push to require schools to address these quasilegal casings of Sexual Misconduct comes up far too short for far too many students, the Current System has not won widespread support nor has it encouraged confidence in its current judgments. The result of the approach, everyone loses. Some suggest that this Current System while imperfect, at least protects survivors and must thus remain untouched. But the reality is, it doesnt i even do that. Survivors arent well served when they are retraumatized with appeal after appeal because the failed system failed the accused. And no student should be forced to sue their way to due process. A system is not fair when the only students who can navigate it are those whose families who can afford to buy good lawyers or any lawyer at all. No school or university should deprive any student of his or her ability to for fear of shaming by or loss of funding from washington. For too long rather than engage the public on departmental issue, the schooffice for civil rights has written letters to unelected political appointees. In doing so, these appointees failed to comply with basic legal requirements that ensure our socalled Fourth Branch of government does not run amok. Unfortunately, School Administrators tell me it has run amok. The office for civil rights has terrified schools one said. Another said that no school feels comfortable calling the department for simple advice for fear of putting themselves on the radar and inviting an investigation. One University Leader was rightly appalled when he was asked by an office for civil rights official, why do you care about the rights of the accused. Instead of working with schools on behalf of students, theized office of civil rights to work against schools and against students. One administrator summed this up clearly when he was told his staff should be forward looking advocates to stop future misconduct. Infed thstead they have been foo be past data collector. They where and i quote, it exerts improper pressure upon universities to adopt procedures that do not afford fundamental fairness. Too often, they wrote, outrage at heinous crimes becomes a justification for short cuts in processes. Ultimately they concluded, there is nothing inconsistent with a policy that both strongly condemns and punished Sexual Misconduct and ensures a fair ajudicatory process, these professors are right. The fail eed political by polic letter, failed to test ideas with those who know these issues all too well. Rather than inviting everyone to the table, the department insisted it knew better than those who walked side by side with students every day. That will no longer be the case. The era of rule by letter is over. Through intimidation and coercion, the failed system has clearly pushed schools to overreach. With the heavy hand of washington tipping the balance of her scale, the sad reality is that lady justice is not blind on campuses today. This unraveling of justice is shameful, its wholly unamerican and it is and an there must be a better way forward. Every survivor of Sexual Misconduct must be taken seriously. Every student accused of Sexual Misconduct must know that guilt is not predetermined. These are nonnegotiable principles. Any failure to address Sexual Misconduct on campus fails all students. Any school that refuses to take seriously a student who reports Sexual Misconduct is one that discriminates. And any school that using a system biassed toward finding a student responsible for Sexual Misconduct also commits discrimination. A better way begins with a reframing this conversation as too often been framed as a contest between men and women, or the rights of Sexual Misconduct survivors and the Due Process Rights of accused students, the reality is, however, a different picture, there are men and women, boys and girls who are survivvivors there are boys and girls, men and women who are wrongfully accused. I have met them personally, i have heard their stories and the rights of one person can never be paramount to the rights of another. A better way means that due process is not an abstract legal principle only discussed in lecture halls, due process is the foundation of any system of justice that seeks a fair outcome. Due process either protects everyone or it protects no one. The notion that a school must diminish Due Process Rights to better serve the victim, only createsmore victims. A better way also means we shouldnt demand anyone become something they are not. Students, families, School Administrators, are generally not lawyers and theyre not judges. We shouldnt force them to be so for justice to be served. A better way is also being more precise in the definition of Sexual Misconduct. Schools have been compelled by washington to enforce ambiguous and incredibly broad definitions of assault and harassment. Too many cases involve students and faculty who conduct investigations simply for speaking their minds for teaching their classes, any perceived offense could be a full blown title ix investigation. But if everything is harassment, then nothing is. Punishing speech protected by the First Amendment trivializes actual harassment. It teaches students the wrong lessons about the importance of free speech in our democracy. Harassment codes which trample speech writes derail the primary mission of a school to pursue truth. A better way is ultimately about recognizing that schools exist first and foremost to educate. Their core obligation under title ix is to ensure all students can pursue their education free of discrimination. Co schools tend to do a good job, as they should be, of making appropriate accommodations that dont infringe on the rights of others. While a title ix complaint is spending, schools usually make academic accommodations such as adjusting schedules, changing dorm assignments and postponing papers or exams. But there is a fundamental difference between making these accommodations for the accusers, and make there is a competency gap here, washington has insisted that schools step into roles that go this doesnt mean schools dont have a role, they do. But we should also draw on medical also draw on medical professionals, counselors, clergy, and Law Enforcement for their expertise. And so a better way includes pursuing alternatives that assist schools in achieving justice for all students. In order to ensure that americas schools employ clear, equitiable, just and fair procedures that inspire trust and confidence, we will launch a trance parent notice and comment process to incorporate the insights of all parties in developing a better way. We will seek Public Feedback and combine institutional knowledge, professional expertise and the experiences of students to replace the current approach with a workable, effective and fair system. To implement sustainable solutions, institutions must be fi mindful of the rights of every student. No one benefits from a system that doesnt have the publics trust, nogt survivors, not accused students, not institutions nor the public. Oer groups have already made progress on these difficult issues. The American Bar Association established a task force comprised of lawyers and advocates from various backgrounds and varying perspectives. They found consensus and offered substantive ideas on how we can do better. Schools should find the recommendations useful. The American College of trial lawyers also gathered experts from across the country, to produce reasonable responses to the current failed system. An open letter from harvards Law School Faculty provides important perspectives and insights that will be helpful as we pursue a better way. Another promising ideatwo forme gina smith and leslie gomes, both of them have spent their career careers litigating cases. The model sets up a voluntary option center where professionally trained experts handle title ix investigations and adjudications, it looks Something Like this. In Partnership Among states and their attorneys general, participating schools refer to the center any title ix incident write ri which rises to a criminal level. The school cooperates with local Law Enforcement and collect evidence. And apply fair investigative techniques to evaluate and gather all relevant evidence. This ensures that students are not tried by tribunals on the basis of hearsay. These are only a few examples that allow for a more effective and equitable enforcement of title ix. Our interest is in exploring all alternatives, that would help schools meet their title ix obligations and protect call students, we welcome input and we look forward to hearing more ideas. Schools have an opportunity to help shape and improve the system for all their students. But they also have a responsibility to do better by their students. This is not about letting institutions off the hook. They still have important work to do. One survivor told me that shes tired of feeling like the burtd of ensuring her students title ix falls on her shoulders. Shes right, the burden is not hers, nor is it any students burdens, we need to act like these students were one of our loved ones. One woman made this clear to me when she told me her story of the failed system. Both as a falsely accused student and as a survivor. She had recently gone through a bad breakup wheith her boyfrien another female student, one of her Close Friends sought to console her, except in all the wrong ways, the friend showed up and made an unwanted sexual advance. Upset about being rejected bier t by the heart broken student who was supposed to be there as a friend instead turned a light hearted gesture into a full scale title ix incident. The school punished the school who only needed a friend after a break up. This student then revealed to me that she had been sexual assaulted earlier in life. I have been on both sides of this issue, she told me, and on neither side did they get it right. We can a and must get it right for her, and for all students. We must continue to condemn the scourge of Sexual Misconduct on our campuses, we can do a better job of making sure the handling of complaints is fair and accurate. We can do a better job of preventing misconduct through education, rather than reacting after lives have already been ruined. We can do a better job of helping institutions get it right. And we can do a better job for each other. The truth is, we must do better. For each other, and with each other. Thank you, and god bless all of you he continue to bless our great nation. [ applause ]