Complying with federal law governing sexual assault on campuses can be a complicated business. But the recent expulsion of a Middlebury College student accused of assaulting a fellow student on an overseas program — and the expelled student’s subsequent lawsuit — raises questions that stretch beyond the usual boundaries of campus rape: What if an alleged incident occurs while a student is studying abroad? The two primary federal statutes that cover sexual assault on campuses — Title IX, the gender-equity law; and the Clery Act, the campus-safety law — do not directly apply to colleges and universities in foreign countries or to third-party providers that offer international programs, because none of those entities receive federal funding. Neither the foreign institutions nor the companies are required to report such incidents publicly, to have Title IX coordinators, or to follow the same investigative process that American colleges use.

November 23, 2015 ・ From Chronicle of Higher Education