How should colleges and universities deal with sexual assaults that occur on college campuses across the country?
In 2011, the Obama administration provided top-down “guidance” from the Department of Education. But the Obama administration solutions, in the form of coerced mandates from the department’s Civil Rights Division, aren’t going over well—and not just because they are of dubious legality.
Schools—fearful of being targeted by the administration for not “complying” with the new rules and then possibly losing federal government financial support (think federal student loan program)—are buckling under and rewriting their sexual harassment policies to appease Washington.
Surprisingly, there is a growing consensus from the left (here, here and here), center (here, here and here) and right (here, here and here) that the Obama administration’s “answers” deny victims justice and the accused basic due process.
Even liberal elites are starting to push back against the Obama administration’s Washington-centric approach to how colleges should deal with sexual assaults on campus.
The most recent example comes from Harvard where, two weeks ago, 28 members of the Harvard Law School faculty published a letter voicing their objection to the school’s new policy and procedures on sexual harassment.
Those policies, according to the letter, were “imposed by the central university administration … on all parts of the university, including the law school” and will “do more harm than good.”
Among their chief complaints are:
- The rules lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process and are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused
- They are not required by Title IX (gender equality) law or regulation
- No opportunity for the accused to discover facts alleged, present witnesses or present a defense at a school adjudication of sexual assault trial
- Puts investigative, prosecution, fact-finding and appellate review in one office that itself is the school’s Title IX compliance office
- Fails to ensure adequate representation for the accused, especially for students unable to afford representation
The law professors (at least 13 of whom donated at least $104,550 to President Obama’s various campaigns since 2004) excoriated Harvard in their letter for “simply [deferring] to the demands of certain federal administrative officials,” for failing to engage the broader community in the “development of the new sexual harassment policy,” and for undermining and effectively destroying the school’s “traditional authority to decide discipline” for its students.
They assert the school’s new sexual harassment policies depart dramatically from previous rules and policies and fail to balance the need to “fully address sexual harassment while at the same time protecting students against unfair and inappropriate discipline, honoring individual relationship autonomy, and maintain[ing] values of academic freedom.”
Rape and sexual assault are serious crimes, whether they are committed by college students, military personnel or anyone else. How colleges should handle these cases is a serious question, and one that, as we have written before, deserves a measured response.
That is why we are drafting a report on the problem and how to fix it. Our report, just like our report on military sexual assault and how to fix it, will take a sober look at the problem and propose fair, common-sense solutions.
But one thing is becoming increasingly clear: The Obama administration’s top-down approach is unfair and unworkable to all parties involved.