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Has it become too easy for women to accuse men of sexual assault on college campuses? Is due process for those accused being denied? The questions matter because the current administration of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos proposed sweeping changes to federal rules on how institutions handle such accusations.
Tracey Vitchers and the It’s On Us organization she heads came to town this week to provide sexual assault awareness and prevention training to students at Wilkes University. Vitchers made it clear her group fully opposes those proposed changes, but that’s no surprise. It’s On Us was founded in 2014 by the Obama administration, which put the old rules in place in 2011.
From the start, critics argued those rules denied the accused due process by requiring schools to determine guilt with a “preponderance of evidence” standard rather than a “clear and convincing” standard. Critics also pointed to the lack of a right for the accused to cross-examine the accuser.
DeVos claims she wants to change the rules so the system is fair to both victim and accused. Her proposal would allow a school to use either standard of evidence (they would have to use the chosen system for all civil rights cases, not just sexual assault). Cross-examination would be allowed through an intermediary. And the definition of harassment would be narrowed from “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” to “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school’s education program or activity.”
While Vitchers saw much that is “egregious” in the proposed changes, it was that last one that rankled her the most. She’s right in opposing it.
Men have controlled the levers of powers pretty much since such levers existed. Women who felt harassed — or worse, assaulted — frequently believed there was more harm than good in coming forward with an accusation. Studies show the results: At best, no more than 30% of victims report an incident.
A primary goal of the Barack Obama-era rules was to make it easier for victims to tell someone of their situation and get needed support. There are weaknesses in his guidelines, not least of which is the fact that, unlike DeVos, he did not subject them to public comment before implementing them — making it that much easier for her to rescind them.
Some of the changes she has proposed can be justified. Others are highly questionable (allowing cross-examination, experts argue, is a good way to prevent victims from coming forward, while a proposal to restrict the list of officials to whom an incident is reported could have the same chilling effect.)
But redefining sexual harassment so narrowly is flat-out wrong. DeVos should reevaluate that and other proposed changes. And if she does go through with the more dubious revisions, colleges and universities would do well to follow Wilkes’ example in embracing the training and approach of It’s On Us (as Gov. Tom Wolf has done on a state level).
“If the federal and state and local government will not take actions to protect our nation’s students from sexual violence,” Vitchers said, “we’re going to do it without them.”
— Times Leader