Institutional News

Opinion: Title IX in the Age of Trump

In an essay in Inside Higher Ed, President Mariko Silver argues the presidential campaign has underscored that sexual harassment is widespread throughout American society, and colleges must take a similarly broad-based approach to address it.

We must think beyond a model that puts the onus entirely on student life programs, even excellent ones, toward a more holistic one that foregrounds the structural inequalities that shape our world. Our driving question must be: How do we give our students the tools they need to identify, analyze, engage and eventually dismantle those structures that may foster gender inequality (and the intersecting issues of race, sexuality, class, immigrant experience) -- both on their campuses, where they will spend four very important years of their lives, and in the world, where they will spend many more?

Ithaca College's student newspaper, The Ithacan, also spoke with Bennington president Mariko Silver for a piece about Title IX's future under a Trump administration. 

The piece, "Title IX's future is uncertain under the Trump administration" examined the power of the U.S. president to make changes to Title IX without approval from Congress, and the possibility that the law's extension to transgender students might be reversed.

Silver, who recently published an article in Inside Higher Ed on the subject, was quoted. 

"Mariko Silver, president of Bennington College in Vermont, contributing writer for Inside Higher Ed on the topic and former Obama administration staff member, said it is unclear what the Trump administration will do regarding Title IX but that schools still have moral and ethical responsibilities to be attentive to Title IX policies and education regarding sexual harassment and assault.

“I think colleges and universities need to be vigilant and need to be clear about our own principles and how we want to pursue issues of sexual harassment and assault, regardless of if the government holds our feet to the fire,” Silver said.