Title IX Basics

This section is about safety and the legal protections that American university students have a right to. No matter what university you go to---if it is in America---you have the right to seek Title IX protections. That being said, this section can be a bit more serious than the rest of my advice.

Title IX was established to help provide female students with protection against sexual harassment, relationship violence, and prejudice during pregnancy or for gender. Now any student who is facing these issues has the ability to ask for no contact orders, restraining orders, help moving, and other protections against abusers.

If you have been sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, are in a manipulative relationship, being stalked, or have had someone treat you poorly for being pregnant, please find your university Title IX office.

I know it feels scary to ask for help. I know it feels scary to admit someone hurt you because we have been taught that being the victim is something to be ashamed of. But in reality, you did nothing wrong. No matter what happened to you, the blame is on the person who did it.

I had a friend who was stalked by an older university student and considered moving dorms so he couldn’t find her. Title IX said they would help her move dorms, even offering to get some students to help carry her things out and into the new room.

I had a friend who was with an emotionally abusive boyfriend who began stalking her (and also all her friends which included me). Title IX offered to put a no contact order in place that meant if he spoke to her, put things on her car again, texted her, or approached her, she could call the police and campus security.

I cannot tell you if your campus has a Title IX office or if the policy is upheld by the campus security office. But I can tell you that you have the legal right to seek any and all protections against people who do you harm.

There is a lot of misinformation about Title IX at my university. Even professors who told me it was not helpful or sent me the policies of other universities when I needed help. So be the informed person. Look up your university Title IX office or webpage or find the campus security and ask them. Get a written handout of what Title IX includes. Below I will put the official federal Title IX document. But each university seems to amend to it based on what I have seen.

You can ask for help. You deserve to be safe. You deserve to be heard.

Please know that you can take back consent at any time. Even if you said yes at first, you can change your mind and say no afterwards.

If you have to be convinced to say yes, that is not consent it is coercion.

Ask before you make a move on someone, because their consent matters just as much as yours.

No matter what, if you have had any kind of mind-altering substances or are extremely emotional, you are not in a state to provide consent.

Title IX and Sex Discrimination _ U.S. Department of Education.pdf

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