Hiring and Training Competent Title IX Hearing Officers

American colleges and universities are not ready to comply with new Title IX regulations concerning campus hearings. Regulations released in May 2020 by the U.S. Department of Education, effective in August 2020, require that colleges and universities use hearing officers who are “trained on issues of relevance, including how to apply. . .rape shield provisions” and legal privileges. Institutions must conduct “a live hearing” at which the hearing officer “must permit each party’s advisor to ask the other party and any witnesses all relevant questions and follow-up questions, including those challenging credibility.” This “cross-examination … must be conducted directly, orally, and in real time.”