Queens College Failed To Inform Students and Faculty of Title IX Policy

Title IX regulations, which originate from the Education Amendments of 1972, forbid discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities. CUNY’s Title IX policy —intended to provide protections against sex-based discrimination —have undergone a complex series of changes and reversals since 2020. Queens College failed to inform students and faculty about these changes.

To summarize, CUNY adopted a policy in accordance with the United States Department of Education (ED) Title IX regulations on April 29th, 2024, expanding protections on gender identity, sex-based discrimination, and pregnancy. However, Queens College never adopted this new policy because of a federal court decision in Kansas that included QC among a number of colleges involved in a court case brought forth by conservative organizations. Because of this, the less expansive 2020 Title IX policy remained in effect at QC.

In January 2025, the Trump administration reversed the Biden policy, eliminating the expanded protections of the 2024 policy. As a result, CUNY reverted to its 2020 policy, which had remained in place at QC because of the lawsuit.

It’s unclear why QC students, faculty, and staff were never informed about the lawsuit that prevented the college from updating its policy in 2024.

“On Friday, January 31 the U.S. Department of Education issued a Dear Colleague Letter stating, ‘[E]ffective immediately, the United States Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will enforce Title IX under the provisions of the 2020 Title IX Rule, rather than the recently invalidated 2024 Title IX Rule.’ For this reason, CUNY’s 2020 Policy on Sexual Misconduct replaces the fully rescinded 2024 Policy on Sex-Based Misconduct as the policy applicable to all open and future Title IX matters, including all ‘open Title IX investigations initiated under the 2024 Rule,’” states Chief Diversity Officer and Dean of Diversity, Jerima DeWese, in an email sent to the QC community on Feb. 13th.

The Knight News has compiled a timeline of key events leading up to CUNY’s reversal of the 2024 Policy from the CUNY Board of Trustees Feb. 18th meeting minutes and the CUNY Board of Trustees July 23rd, 2024 Special Meeting of the Executive Committee’s meeting agenda. Some of the key events in the timeline are:

April 29th, 2024: The US ED releases new Title IX regulations, including wider sex-based discrimination coverage, including pregnancy, gender identity, and changes in staff mandated to report sex-based misconduct, which colleges and universities needed to comply with by August.

July 23rd, 2024: The CUNY Board of Trustees pass a resolution to update CUNY’s Policy on Sex-Based Misconduct to comply with the U.S. ED’s new regulations.

Aug. 1st, 2024: CUNY’s 2024 Policy on Sex-Based Misconduct becomes effective.

Jan. 9th, 2025: The US District Court for Eastern Kentucky rules to rollback the 2024 Title IX regulation.

Jan. 31st, 2025: Six days into CUNY’s 2025 Spring Term, the US ED released a communication to universities informing them that, effective immediately, the US ED Office for Civil Rights will enforce the 2020 Title IX Rule, instead of the recently invalidated 2024 Title IX provisions.

Feb. 18th, 2025: The Board of Trustees pass a motion to replace CUNY’s 2024 Policy on Sex-Based Misconduct with CUNY’s 2020 Policy on Sexual Misconduct, effective immediately.

In a request for comment from DeWese and QC Director of Investigation and Title IX Coordinator Christine McKeithan, Esq., The Knight News inquired about the effects of this policy reversal on QC students, staff, and faculty. In response, McKeithan and DeWese stated, “[D]ue to a federal district court injunction in Kansas, Queens College has never implemented this policy. Instead, we continue to operate under the 2020 policy, and weremain committed to ensuring compliance with its provisions. So please keep in mind that although many other CUNY schools did implement the new 2024 policy, Queens College was not one of those school.”

In research conducted by The Knight News regarding this injunction, the US District Court of Kansas passed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the case of State of Kansas, et al. v. United States Department of Education, et al on July 2nd, 2024. The plaintiff was represented by a Plaintiff Association, including two conservative organizations: Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United, as well as students who were members of these organizations.

According to a court update on July 15th, “Plaintiffs Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United come forth and submit their notice of the list of schools attended by their members.

The Plaintiff Association resubmitted the list of schools attended by members of their organization, expanding the federal district court injunction to universities outside of the state which included the following CUNY Colleges: Lehman, LaGuardia, Borough of Manhattan Community College and QC.

On March 18th, The Knight News reached out to CUNY Interim Title IX Director Kareem Peat for a request for comment inquiring on how CUNY reacted to the injunction and its potential effect on transfers between colleges that used 2020 Policy and colleges that used the 2024 Policy. CUNY did not respond to The Knight News request for comment.

When asked by The Knight News why the QC community was not informed of the change from 2020 to 2024 CUNY Policy or about QC not following the CUNY Policy change due to the injunction, DeWese states, “The campus community was not notified of the policy change because, as previously mentioned, Queens College has continued to operate under the 2020 Sexual Misconduct Policy due to the nationwide injunction.”

However, in response to the same request for comment, DeWese states, “In compliance with the 2024 policy, the college posted the new guidelines on the website. Subsequent to the injunction, it reposted the 2020 policy and related guidelines.”

However, this is despite the fact that the CUNY Board of Trustees approved the 2024 CUNY Title IX policy on July 23rd, a week after DeWese and QC were made aware of the injunction placed on QC on July 16th.

Prior to a Feb. 13th 2025 email sent out by QC’s Office of Compliance and Diversity’s discussing CUNY-wide change to Title IX policy there were no email communications sent to the QC community about any changes to Title IX since December 2020. At no point did the college communicate or acknowledge that QC was not beholden CUNY’s 2024 title IX policy to the wider QC campus community.