Emily Yoffe at The Atlantic recently wrote three articles concerning campus rape.
Op-ed piece from the WSJ the other day along the same lines.
Couldn’t agree more. Sent it to my current freshman.
It’ll be very interesting to see the new Department of Education guidelines come out.
I think her articles were well written and pretty balanced, as usual. She has been a objective source for many years. I’m very happy for those poor unis that they may get some guidance with legal backbone. I’m glad you posted these Zinhead, I almost did a couple days ago but I wasn’t in the mood for a slap-down that I feared would happen.
Well we know they will roll back enforcement of the DCL. They have already pretty much done that. It will be more interesting to see how the schools actually respond to whatever new guidelines are announced.
I think they will rollback the threats regarding federal funding and I think the legal guidance will come regarding what colleges can and cannot do as far as investigations and hearings. Depending on public sentiment and other involved legislature members there may or may not be police involvement in cases that meet the individual state language around sexual assault. I for one will be happy to have a reprieve from infantilizing women and demonizing men. I suspect uni administrations are also welcoming some change as they clearly felt between a rock and a hard place.
Personally I don’t think most universities will welcome much that comes their way from this administration. They oppose it at every turn – from climate change to DACA-- I doubt the issue of sexual assault will be much different. The article acknowledges that:
And the flippant as well as erroneous comments recently made by Candice Jackson regarding campus assault certainly did not help matters any either.
Thank goodness for that.
But what really changes @Proudpatriot? Reporting requirements will go away and some schools may decide to make some changes to their process. Some for better some for worse. But I don’t believe any school will ignore a report of sexual assault on it’s campus. They will continue to adjudicate these cases just like they did before the DCL. There will just be less oversight.
No they won’t ignore a report that is not going to change IMO but they may find that what they do with the report and ensuing steps and remediation will probably change and their jurisdiction may legally narrow and the oversight may shift slightly is my best guess.
I believe that rollback of the DCL will eventually result in a more fair process. I don’t think schools should ignore reports of sexual assault on campus. However, without the threat imposed by DCL colleges will be free to investigate complaints rather than simply believing them and taking action to discipline the accused.
Right now everything is set up to shield the university from any sort of blame with respect to complainants with no regard for the rights of the accused. Without the shield of DCL universities will be required to construct policies that are more fair to all involved.
As long as Title IX exists and covers sexual harassment they will continue to adjudicate these cases. Any legislative attempts to narrow their jurisdiction over these cases has failed even in states were I thought it might pass.
An investigation is actually a requirement of the DCL @Proudpatriot.
Some schools might decide to change the standard of proof or their rules of evidence or stop allowing accusers to appeal decisions.
I mean a real, impartial investigation, not one that presupposes the guilt of the accused. DCL forces universities to act in ways that are not impartial and thus the investigations are not really investigations (IMO).
@roethlisburger That is exactly what I am hoping.
So efforts to make the process better then? Something we all agree upon but the specifics of which we never discuss for very long.
I don’t think changing the standard of proof will change the results much in these cases – which by the way do not result in a finding against the accused in the majority of cases. This forum is very slanted in that regard because we only talk about the cases where there is a finding against the accused. But from the data we do have there are many, many more findings of “insufficient evidence to support the allegation” or informal resolutions of these cases that do not involve suspension or expulsion. That is something consistently ignored by many.
Yes I think that changing the process will make it better. Everyone who believes they are sexually assaulted deserves to have their allegations taken seriously. Everyone who is accused of sexual assault deserves to be able to adequately defend themselves.
Personally, I think that if a university believes sexual assault may have occurred the matter should be referred to law enforcement.
My own view is the now fairly long string of lost court cases on the part of universities (or settlements before losing) will end up being a factor in changing policies.
Sure it will. Not only legal cases from accused but the number of complaints filed with the OCR. Accusers think the unis do a poor job and made sure the OCR heard it and accused think the unis do a poor job and made sure the courts heard it. Not terrible difficult to understand the status quo isn’t working.