I’d like to provide a few highlights and stats from the comments submitted to the Department of Education last month. Over 240,000 comments were submitted – although a supposed “clerical error” resulted in the deletion of somewhere between 150,000-200,000 additional comments as of Sept. 6^th, six days before the commenting deadline. The Department has incrementally made submitted comments publicly available. Nearly 120,000 are available for viewing now. It is not clear when, or if, the rest will be viewable.

You can get an idea of how many comments addressed a particular issue – or to some extent argued a particular angle – If you search viewable comments for exact-phrase matches and view the number of results. For example, “due process” – a word characteristically used by due process advocates (opponents tend to not recognize the term or concept) – now returns ~3,500 results. Most startlingly, “survivor,” a word most commonly used by organizations opposed to due process, now returns ~250 results, indicating that the turnout among such advocates was perhaps not the groundswell it was last time.

Exceptions abound. For example, a coalition of seventy-eight organizations describing themselves as anti-sexual violence jointly submitted a comment which, among other things, specifically demanded the removal of the presumption of innocence (page seven here).

In addition to our own comment, we would like to highlight the comments of the organizations and individuals below:

• Concerned Lawyers and Advocates; K.C. Johnson, Patricia Hamill, Lorie Dakessian
• Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression; Joseph Cohn, Tyler Coward, John Coleman, Greg Gonzalez
• Families Advocating for Campus Equality
• Coalition of 17 Attorneys General
• Title IX and College Discipline Practice; Kimberly Lau, James Figliozzi, Branden Lynn
• Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (Comment One, Comment Two, Among Others)
• Lance Houston, J.D.
• Vincent Morrone, a father and concerned citizen

Notably, many comments appear to have addressed issues other than due process or misconduct. For example, “gender identity” now returns an incredible ~44,000 (and transgender returns ~16,000) out of the viewable ~120,000 comments.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the process. The Department of Education will take some time to publish its final rule. Afterward, it will grant universities some time for implementation. We will be ready.