ASHE SCHOW: Campus sexual assault panel offered good, bad and ugly for due process.
This past Wednesday, college presidents and Title IX coordinators met on Capitol Hill to discuss the issue of campus sexual assault and what to do under the new Trump administration.
Under the Obama administration, colleges were required to adjudicate accusations of sexual assault in a way that denied due process and the presumption of innocence. While President Donald Trump hasn’t spoken on the issue, the media has stoked fears that his administration will roll back protections for accusers, who are always labeled as “victims.”
The media has seized upon a comment made by Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for U.S. secretary of education, to create a culture of fear. DeVos, when asked during her confirmation hearing about Obama-era guidance documents from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, said she couldn’t commit to upholding the guidance because of “a lot of conflicting ideas and opinions” that she needed to review.
This was a good answer, as the original 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter requiring colleges and universities to use a lower “preponderance of evidence” standard when adjudicating accusations of sexual assault didn’t go through the notice-and-comment period that almost certainly would have reined in the document’s overreach.
During the first of two panels put on by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, four college presidents said they would continue their post-2011 process for sexual assault claims even if the “Dear Colleague” guidance was overturned.
The panel, which featured Diane Harrison of California State University-Northridge, Alisa White of Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, Barbara Gitenstein of the College of New Jersey, and John Jasinski of Northwest Missouri State University, wasn’t all bad. Still, some statements should be concerning to anyone who values due process and the rule of law.
I’m beginning to doubt whether higher education institutions are capable respecting due process and the rule of law.