Message to the Bowdoin Community (January 14, 2019)

To the Bowdoin community,

I am writing to follow up on my message of November 19 regarding proposed new Title IX regulations focused on how sexual misconduct cases are handled on college campuses. Our careful review of these proposed rules reveals areas of serious concern, and today we have submitted detailed and extensive comments about the proposal to the federal government. I urge you to review the proposed changes and our comments, and also to submit comments of your own to share your perspectives, experiences, and insights—whatever they may be. You can do so by visiting regulations.gov​ and searching for ED-2018-OCR-0064-0001. The deadline for commenting is Monday, January 28. 

I am grateful to Benje Douglas, Tim Foster, Janet Lohmann, and Kate O’Grady for the many hours of work they put into reviewing the proposed rules and crafting the comments we have now submitted. And, as I wrote in November, whatever changes may eventually occur, they will not alter our fundamental principle that sexual and gender-based violence, sexual misconduct, and sexual harassment will not be tolerated at Bowdoin. We remain committed to prevention through education, to a process that is transparent, rigorous, and fair for all parties, and to a process that reflects our values.

I hope you will enjoy this final week of the break and will return to campus next week rested and energized for the semester ahead.

All the best,

Clayton