The new rules chip away at protections for sexual assault survivors. Among other changes, universities are no longer obligated to investigate most sexual assaults that occur off-campus, where an estimated 80 percent of college students live, or to complete their inquiry within 60 days. Professors and administrators no longer have to report sexual violence when they’re informed of an incident. The regulations also narrow the type of sexual harassment that universities are required to probe to behavior “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the [school’s] education program or activity.” At the same time, the DOE effectively raised the evidentiary bar for schools to take action from a “preponderance of evidence” to a “clear and convincing” standard—or from a more than 50 percent likelihood to a more than 75 percent likelihood. Universities would also be found in violation of the regulations only if they responded to sexual harassment in a way that was “deliberately indifferent.”