Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, who has previously expressed concerns about the fate of accused students on campus, endorsed her efforts: "Victims and the accused deserve to be treated fairly and receive due process, and I support Secretary DeVos's work to restore and support these fundamental principles on every campus." None of the other committee members responded, including Susan Collins, who had been so eloquent about the importance of the presumption of innocence when the accused was a powerful jurist rather than a simple college student.
In New Jersey, a bipartisan state senate committee approved a measure to codify the Obama-era Title IX guidance and create a state "Campus Sexual Assault Commission." Cosponsored by the state senate's minority leader, Republican Thomas Kean Jr., the commission will include multiple figures representing the perspective of campus accusers-including at least one "Individual who is a campus sexual assault survivor"-but no one specializing in defending accused students or representing a civil-liberties organization.
During oral arguments in September in a case against Purdue University, Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was shocked to learn that a student was suspended from school and dismissed from the NROTC after a hearing at which the accuser neither appeared nor had to submit an official statement.
Thapar's opinion is one of more than 100 federal and state court decisions since 2011 in which universities found themselves on the losing side in lawsuits brought by students accused of sexual assault.
The rule DeVos is proposing seeks to end such abuses by requiring unbiased adjudicators and training materials; rights for accuser and accused alike to see the case evidence and the relevant training materials for adjudicators; and the right of accused students to designate agents to cross-examine accusers and other witnesses.
At a time when the campus climate across the nation is quick to "Believe the victim" and dismisses due process as part of "Rape culture," DeVos and her team are almost alone in the federal government in showing concern for the rights of the accused.
"Male students accused of sexual misconduct are found guilty, and their lives destroyed," he wrote, "By campus panels operating without any semblance of due process and all too frequently on the basis of grossly inadequate information." Barr's willingness to speak out against campus injustices contrasts sharply with the timidity of GOP legislators.
https://www.weeklystandard.com/k-c-johnson/why-arent-republicans-more-vocal-in-supporting-title-ix-reform
In New Jersey, a bipartisan state senate committee approved a measure to codify the Obama-era Title IX guidance and create a state "Campus Sexual Assault Commission." Cosponsored by the state senate's minority leader, Republican Thomas Kean Jr., the commission will include multiple figures representing the perspective of campus accusers-including at least one "Individual who is a campus sexual assault survivor"-but no one specializing in defending accused students or representing a civil-liberties organization.
During oral arguments in September in a case against Purdue University, Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was shocked to learn that a student was suspended from school and dismissed from the NROTC after a hearing at which the accuser neither appeared nor had to submit an official statement.
Thapar's opinion is one of more than 100 federal and state court decisions since 2011 in which universities found themselves on the losing side in lawsuits brought by students accused of sexual assault.
The rule DeVos is proposing seeks to end such abuses by requiring unbiased adjudicators and training materials; rights for accuser and accused alike to see the case evidence and the relevant training materials for adjudicators; and the right of accused students to designate agents to cross-examine accusers and other witnesses.
At a time when the campus climate across the nation is quick to "Believe the victim" and dismisses due process as part of "Rape culture," DeVos and her team are almost alone in the federal government in showing concern for the rights of the accused.
"Male students accused of sexual misconduct are found guilty, and their lives destroyed," he wrote, "By campus panels operating without any semblance of due process and all too frequently on the basis of grossly inadequate information." Barr's willingness to speak out against campus injustices contrasts sharply with the timidity of GOP legislators.
https://www.weeklystandard.com/k-c-johnson/why-arent-republicans-more-vocal-in-supporting-title-ix-reform
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