SAVE
May 22, 2020
A dramatic tale includes the elements of conflict, controversy, unexpected character behavior, and resolution. Here’s how the Tale of ATIXA recently unfolded….
On Monday, May 11, the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) sponsored a webinar titled, Ten Things to Know About the New Title IX Regulations. Brett Sokolow, President of ATIXA, instructed over 4,200 webinar attendees that they were not to follow the Department of Education regulation to post all training materials on university websites.
Instead, they were to follow ATIXA’s guidance to post only the training material titles. Inquirers could request to look at the training material in person, but could not photocopy or make a copy.
An audio recording of the webinar was then posted on the ATIXA website [1].
SAVE then wrote a commentary regarding Sokolow’s instruction to the ATIXA membership. The article, ATIXA Puts Members into Legal Jeopardy Regarding Requirement to Publicly Post Training Materials, posed this question: “So what part of ‘A recipient must make these training materials publicly available on its website’ does the Association for Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) not understand?” [2]
SAVE’s commentary was posted on May 13 at 12:19pm. That’s when the elements of conflict, controversy, and unexpected character behavior came into play.
Within hours, Sokolow posted a series of critical remarks directed at SAVE. Sokolow deleted the posts several days later, but not before they were captured by screenshot: [3]
5/13/20 @BrettSokolow
3:54pm
“I suppose I should respond with a tweet “SAVE Advocates Colleges and Schools Engage in Violation of Federal Copyright Laws.” Somehow you seem to think OCR has the authority to abrogate other federal laws. Interesting.”
“How embarrassed are you that you worked this hard, transcribed our content (sharing of which likely violates fair use), and never even bothered to read the regs, which explicitly protect our copyright. Egg on your face much? Going off half-cocked much? You’re a hack.”
“Ed. Take this crap down. Immediately.”
Sokolow then quoted a passage from the new Title IX regulation [4]:
1/2 “Read ‘em and weep. To the extent that commenters’ concerns that a recipient may be unable to publicize its training materials because some recipients hire outside consultants to provide training, the materials for which may be owned by the outside consultant and not by the….
2/2…recipient itself, the Department acknowledges that a recipient in that situation would need to secure permission from the consultant to publish the training materials…Rescind your garbage communication, now, Ed. It violates our copyright, too.”
SAVE did not respond to these inaccurate posts, because the truth is its own witness.
The plot thickens.
On Monday, May 18, just one week after the ATIXA webinar, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Blog cleared up any misunderstanding. The Department issued a clarification for posting (1) Contact information for the school’s Title IX Coordinators; (2) A school’s non-discrimination policy; and (3) Training Materials used to train the school’s Title IX personnel.
The blog post reads in part [5]:
- Section 106.45(b)(10)(i)(D) does not permit a school to choose whether to post the training materials or offer a public inspection option.
- If a school’s current training materials are copyrighted or otherwise protected as proprietary business information (for example, by an outside consultant), the school still must comply with the Title IX Rule.
- If a school is unable to secure permission from a third party to post copyrighted training materials, then the school must create or obtain training materials that can lawfully be posted on the school’s website.
This clarification soon led to the tale’s resolution…
5/19/20 @BrettSokolow to another Twitter user:
“We have withdrawn and are revising this guidance based on the most recent OCR clarification of its expectations.”
Conflict, controversy, unexpected character behavior, and resolution.
This cautionary Tale represents a victory for students and faculty members who are facing a Title IX investigation; and for universities who will not have to face legal battles for ignoring federal Title IX law.
Citations:
[1] https://atixa.org/r3/#Webinars
[3] Available upon request at info@saveservices.org
[4] https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/titleix-regs-unofficial.pdf
[5] https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/blog/20200518.html