need help learning about colleges holding rape cases.

DaneWhitman · 2015-08-30T03:04:51+00:00

FIRE is the best resource for reading up on the legal/constitutional issues surrounding attempts to undermine due process rights on college campuses.

Information on some important recent cases can be found here and here. The New York chapter of the ACLU came out against that state's proposed affirmative consent law on due process grounds, which you can read about here.

There was also the letter signed by 28 Harvard Law School professors pointing out the due process problems with that school's affirmative consent policy.

The main issue is, of course, that public colleges and universities are required by the constitution to provide students with due process rights when investigating claims against them.

Edit: FIRE's entire website is a good resource, not just the articles linked.

RapeAnalyst · 2015-08-30T04:18:10+00:00

Yes. What Mr. Whitman said. But in addition to that, you should be advised that this is a debate you can't win. Just the fact that you are in college means that, by definition, you are surrounded by, and outnumbered by, people who are insane. You'll lose the debate; you'll lose friends; you'll lose GPA; you'll lose job prospects; and you'll lose the ability to safely date women. And, in addition to having pissed off the people who handle your food, you'll be sitting alone in the cafeteria.

STILL going all in? OK. Then you deserve my support. I want you to win. Follow Dane's links for the resources that cover the Constitutional parts of the issue. But when the debate swerves away from The Constitution--as it must, because they can't win if it doesn't--here's an essay I threw together long ago, that you can reference (Unfortunately, it contains some uncited sources, so you can't just turn it in as a paper. But the info it contains is extremely valuable.)

I'll post it below, as reply to this post (in 9 minutes)

bertreapot · 2015-08-30T08:08:46+00:00

Schools argue these aren't trials, as they're not criminal courts, and they're not putting accused men in jail. So because of that, again schools argue, that students don't deserve the same due process rights as a defendant would in court. (Right to a lawyer, right to subpoena witnesses and evidence, right to cross-examine your accuser, a burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, voir dire of jurors, etc.)

There was a due process Supreme Court case from the 60s or 70s where students were expelled from college just for attending a rally. The court held that the level of due process that must be given a student is proportionate to the seriousness of the accusation and punishment. If you compare that to today's campus rape cases, the burden of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, and the campus definition of sexual assault is usually much broader than what you'd find in the criminal code. Most schools have a "clear and convincing" evidence burden of proof for accusations such as plagiarism or theft, so arguably more due process should be accorded for an accusation of sexual assault, not less. I believe this Supreme Court case was in the opinion of one of the two recent California university wins for accused males, as the judge said the process that expelled the student was unfair.

The recent furor of course spawns from the 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter. In it the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (DoE OCR) wrote universities telling them they must use a "preponderance" of evidence for accusations of sexual assault or harassment on campus. They based this interpretation on the Title IX Act of 1972, which forbids universities which receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of sex. There is nothing in Title IX about campus sexual assault hearings or the preponderance of evidence that should be used, nor has Congress passed a law mandating such rules. DoE found a nice little gray area to play in here, as technically Title IX is not a law forcing any colleges to do anything. It's just saying that if you want federal money, here are rules you have to follow. Almost all colleges take federal money, in the form of research grants and student loans. DoE has even more wiggle room legally-speaking as the "Dear Colleague" letter isn't law, but "guidance" on how DoE says it feels Title IX should be enforced on campus. So technically, there is no federal law forcing campuses to have campus sex offense hearings with a very minimal due process protections. Campuses are simply acceding to the DoE letter rather than fighting it. Mostly because of the strength of the feminist movement on campus, and the presumption of guilt against accused men in sexual assault accusations. Universities are more than happy to kick men off of campus, because they presume women don't lie about rape, and too many men are getting away with raping women.

Of course the only reason public schools are to afford students any due process at all is because as public schools they are acting as an arm of the government. Private schools hypothetically don't owe you any due process at all, besides what is stated in the school's code of conduct, which is considered a contract. Accused men at public universities have also argued breech of contract under the same theory.

In the end I think the courts will find that men deserve more due process on campus than what is currently being given them. A lot of these cases have the woman sending texts to her friends or the accused where she said the sex was consensual, but these texts weren't known to the campus disciplinary hearing because colleges have no power to subpoena evidence. Also not being allowed to cross examine a witness is pretty cheap. That and the fact that most campus disciplinary committees are made up of volunteers, a lot of them with an axe to grind. This doesn't happen in actual court.

ee4m · 2015-08-30T08:39:52+00:00

Community for the Wrongly Accused .

Title	need help learning about colleges holding rape cases.
Author	Alchemist27ish
Upvotes	11
Comments	9
Date	August 30, 2015 2:46 AM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/3iwzux/need_help_learning_about_colleges_holding_rape/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/need-help-learning-about-colleges-holding-rape.972327 https://theredarchive.com/post/972327

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