mead berger shevtsova garfinkle michta grygiel blankenhorn bayles
Higher Education Watch
Campus Sex Wars Go to Court

Under pressure from the federal government and activist groups, U.S. colleges and universities have spent the last five years curbing due process rights for students accused of sexual assault. But now they have another problem on their hands: An explosion of lawsuits from young men who say that the university proceedings resemble kangaroo courts, presuming guilt and expelling them without cause. The Washington Post reports:

Since 2011, more than 150 Title IX lawsuits have been filed against colleges and universities involving claims of due process violations during the course of investigations and proceedings related to sex assault allegations, according to a database kept by a group called Title IX For All. In the two decades before that year, the group found, only 15 such lawsuits were filed against universities. […]

Many plaintiffs are finding success in court with arguments that internal college investigations were flawed or biased.

“Now judges are digging deeper,” said Brett Sokolow, a lawyer who is president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management. “They are losing trust in the good faith that colleges had when addressing these situations. And that’s a very dangerous position for colleges.”

The truth is that while campus sexual assault is a real and hideously difficult problem to address, many university administrators have leaned too far over their skis in an effort to win more convictions. It’s a good thing that judges are scrutinizing these findings; hopefully students who were railroaded by overzealous administrations will continue to have their names cleared.

In the meantime, Congress should revive its effort to pass legislation that offers colleges comprehensive Title IX guidance that is fair to both parties and that directs colleges to enlist law enforcement in the resolution of the most serious complaints. Until that happens, we are likely to see more improvised student conduct codes, more amateur bureaucratic sex inquisitions, and a continued avalanche of lawsuits from young women and men alike.

Posted: 2017-04-28 17:04:16
Newer Post Older Post
Features Icon
Features
show comments
  • ——————————

    Anything that can help colleges get sued, even into into bankruptcy, is a good thing as far as I’m concerned….

  • FriendlyGoat

    Congress could pass a law that Title IX was never supposed to address anything but high school girls’ and college women’s basketball. They could maybe tie it to the budget for the Department of Education and do it on reconciliation with only GOP votes.

    • Anthony

      Off topic but your Boy is wearing me out now that you’ve blocked him (maybe I need to seek some Title IX relief).

      • FriendlyGoat

        Block him and tell him. You’ll be happier not “worn out”. I haven’t missed those guys, even though their posts appear on my screen as nothing but “this use is blocked” (whether they are writing an original post or a reply). So I know they’re here when they’re here, but by choice I don’t know what they are saying. Except for seeing your side (only) of some of your exchanges with them, I “think” I am seeing them here less often AT ALL. We do not have to energize people who might otherwise give the whole thing a rest if they know we have lost interest in their incessant pestering.

        • Anthony

          Blocking is excessive (and I understand why you were compelled to do so) and I’ll try to finesse my way through (but over the years it’s been trying). So, we’ll see how it yet plays out sans blocking option. Still, reading your reply has me laughing and the ‘laugh” itself makes the complaint to you worthwhile – Thanks (and also for the advise).

          • FriendlyGoat

            I thought it was excessive, too, until I decided one day that enough was enough. We can use these sites as a place to muse, to occasionally be affirmed, to be challenged by interested debaters to think harder and e x p a n d. But we seldom convince anyone of anything they don’t already believe. So why do fight club?

          • Anthony

            Nothing to argue against and you are definitely correct (though I’m, as I’ve said to you before, not here to convince let alone engage in matters that have been discussed on this site countless times before self-absorbed idealists descended). Again, you are absolutely correct X-ing out may be the only practicable response – we’ll see.

          • FriendlyGoat

            I can’t be their “shrink”. I can only be my own. Love the wife. Pet the dog. Pet the goats. Be nice to Anthony because he is neither unkind nor unwise.

          • Anthony

            Thank you for the kind words and as I left you on Peter Berger God Bless you because it ain’t easy doing what you do.

          • Jim__L

            Being a mouthpiece for the Democrats is actually really, really easy.

            Unless you have self-respect, that is.

          • Anthony
          • Tom

            The answer, by the way, to Goat’s question is that you don’t argue on the Internet to convince your interlocutors. You argue to convince the lurkers.

          • Anthony

            Tom, you’re engaging (most times) and amply contributing but FG is not a nemesis and at root you guys want similar end (only methods might differ). Time, Tom, time reveals much (as your study of history informs).

          • Jim__L

            Tom, do you really have any desire to see a Leftist totalitarian state?

          • Anthony

            washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/marchaprilmay-2017/how-to-make-the-electoral-college-work-for-everyone/

          • Jim__L

            “be challenged by interested debaters to think harder and e x p a n d”

            The idea that FG wants this is completely laughable.

    • Isaiah601

      God forbid laws do what they say they do as opposed to whatever the Left feels like at any given point in time. Can’t have that, now can we?

    • Beauceron

      No, you’re right. It should be weaponized and used to smash the patriarchy.

      • FriendlyGoat

        Girls’ basketball?

        • Isaiah601

          I find your lack of reading comprehension….. disturbing.

          • ——————————

            I think…no, I hope..he was being facetious….

      • Isaiah601

        If smashing the patriarchy is what it takes to establish complete control of State over individual, Comrade FriendlyGoat is for it.

  • Tom

    Ah, due process of law. Once a touchstone of liberal thought, now an obstacle to “equality.”

  • Proud Skeptic

    “In the meantime, Congress should revive its effort to pass legislation that offers colleges comprehensive Title IX guidance that is fair to both parties…”

    We already have a system. The accuser and accused meet in court and the existing legal system does what it has done for a couple of centuries. The fact that such things happen on a college campus is irrelevant.

    • ——————————

      Exactly, “we already have a system”!
      So why in the heck are colleges allowed their own private court system?

      • Proud Skeptic

        No. They would simply use the system for the state in which they are located. We have a whole criminal justice system already. Why not use it?

        • ——————————

          I am in agreement with you. They should use the criminal justice system.
          While I think it is okay to do their own internal investigation, they should not be allowed to be the detective, judge, jury, and executioner….

          • Proud Skeptic

            I don’t understand why they should e involved at all, other than to receive information about the crime and investigation. Think about it this way….would a YMCA do its own investigation? How about a Lions club….or Free Masons?

            If there were a murder on campus, should the college investigate? I doubt the police would permit it.

            This is just an alleged criminal act that happened to occur on college property.

          • ——————————

            That makes sense…your right….

      • Eurydice

        I suppose it might extend from the reason why they have their own private police forces.

    • Andrew Allison

      Exactly. Can’t be said too often.

  • Beauceron

    “In the meantime, Congress should revive its effort to pass legislation that offers colleges comprehensive Title IX guidance that is fair to both parties and that directs colleges to enlist law enforcement in the resolution of the most serious complaints.”

    I’m afraid you’ve rather missed the goal of campus “feminists.”

    Like BLM, the very last thing they want is to be fair to both parties. They want to crush men and destroy the concept of maleness. You cannot, after all, expect an oppressed group to treat their oppressors with equanimity– those who have been violated deserve recompense for their injuries. If that comes at the expense of privileged males, well then boo-hoo for them.

    Like all things generated from the Left, they need to fix us. They’re the new Victorians.

    • Isaiah601

      Who knows? Maybe this is a sign of a growing backlash against the heavy-handedness of the Inquisition. Let us dream together.

    • ——————————

      “They’re the new Victorians.”

      Nah, that’s disgracing the Victorians…at least the Victorians built really cool buildings….

      • Jim__L

        At least the Victorians presided over (and provided the Christian moral underpinnings for) the most profound expansion of human potential (the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions) that our species has ever seen.

  • DiogenesDespairs

    Meanwhile, if you’re a white, heterosexual male at a college or university, date townies.

  • PierrePendre

    Re enlisting law reinforcement to take responsibility for the investigation of campus sex allegations, is it sure that the police want to be inundated with the heaps of complaints that would come their way every Monday morning? They’re probably well content to let university administrators reap what they’ve sown without getting involved unless blood is shed. Law suits costing universities millions in settlements and lost matriculations and endowments will eventually be their own corrective.

© The American Interest LLC 2005-2017 About Us Masthead Submissions Advertise Customer Service