And an update on the Sulkowicz matter - Columbia files a motion to dismiss Nungesser’s lawsuit:
http://columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/09/25/columbia-moves-dismiss-nungesser-lawsuit
The Yes Means Yes training starting up …
http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/California-high-schools-to-learn-yes-means-yes-6544152.php
A forceful article by Janet Napolitano on the burdens that Title IX mandates place on college campuses.
http://ylpr.yale.edu/sites/default/files/YLPR/33.2_policy_essay_-_napolitano_final.pdf
(Napolitano, in case you don’t know, is the President of the University of California system and was previously Secretary of Homeland Security during President Obama’s first term and the Governor and Attorney General of Arizona.)
She comes down hard on the OSR’s regulatory overreach and their ambiguous and contradictory instructions and suggests that college students would be better served if sexual assault cases were handled by law enforcement agencies.
I hope other university presidents will be encouraged to speak out.
Except that bearing down on the criminal justice system to improve the handling of rape cases, if done successfully, is going to mean that some MC/UMC college men are going to find themselves convicted of felonies and going to jail. I think the current college tribunal system is what some people in power see as a better alternative to that potential outcome.
If it was rape they should go to jail.
I agree that some men will be found guilty and end up in jail – if it is rape then it is illegal and they will run the risk of going to jail. Meanwhile under the law, the entire case is open to investigative and judicial scrutiny by people hired, voted and trained to do those jobs day in and day out and all involved will be protected under due process.
The legal tides are turning as was to be expected. Here’s two recent newsie stories:
http://www.npr.org/2015/10/15/446083439/for-students-accused-of-campus-rape-legal-victories-win-back-rights
to a rather interesting twist:
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cited from here: http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/24610/
The criminal justice system can be a very tough venue @momofthreeboys. But I think you acknowledged that in some of your comments in the Owen Labrie thread. For all of the investigational and judicial scrutiny, we still had a result that many, many people had problems with. Different set of facts without the college campus setting or tribunal, but a good example of what a “roll of the dice” it can be when a young man finds himself in that system.
As I have said many times before, I think the college tribunal system is an exercise in risk management when you take into account the high incidence of sexual assault on college campuses.
I have, since the very beginning of all of this way over a year ago, felt that eventually through law this all would sort itself out. It’s just a very slow process getting this cases through the courts.
The U.S. military also has a separate tribunal system for the handling of sexual assault. In the U.S., intra-military sexual assaults are governed by the military’s own justice system. Again, I believe it to be an effort in risk management.
“bearing down on the criminal justice system to improve the handling of rape cases, if done successfully, is going to mean that some MC/UMC college men are going to find themselves convicted of felonies and going to jail.”
I’m totally fine with that, if a jury of their peers finds them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. There are SO MANY controls within the CJ system that protect defendants from summary proceedings and wrongful convictions. It starts with the right to counsel and to call your own witnesses, but there’s plenty more. The obligation of the prosecutors to share any exculpatory evidence they find is a huge one in this context. There’s no similar obligation on the part of a Title IX investigator.
Of course, these protections aren’t always executed properly, and the right to counsel can be a hollow one for indigent clients, but most kids currently in trouble under Title IX aren’t indigent. I’m with Napolitano on the idea of devoting our limited resources to fixing the CJ system where necessary rather than to creating an second, amateur imitation on every American campus.
I am all for a reformed system that encourages women to report and that " improves the handling and prosecution of sexual assault cases." We do not have one right now. And besides a lot of press I am not seeing much meaningful effort in that regard. Women at least currently have another option.
And I also have my own personal bias. My own son will be starting college soon and I am very much aware that even the best counsel in the world cannot control the outcome of an unpredictable jury or a biased judge. The college tribunal system is far from perfect, but I would rather see reforms made to that system than subject my own son to the criminal justice system. Far less is at stake when you consider the penalties that each system can levy.
But Harvest Moon, I don’t believe that the Title IX system precludes a victim from also seeking redress in the criminal courts. Under the current system, the accused can be forced to fight both at the school and in the criminal courts, isn’t that right? So the college tribunal is simply an additional administrative layer that I suspect costs a boatload of money to implement and administer, albeit not very effectively. Do we really need precious tuition money to be spent amateurishly recreating our already-extensive (and already expensive to taxpayers) criminal justice system? I would love to see a breakdown of how much of a college’s budget is forced to go to this.
“In the U.S., intra-military sexual assaults are governed by the military’s own justice system. Again, I believe it to be an effort in risk management.”
Poor analogy. The military has a real full blown criminal justice system of its own – criminal code, rules of procedure and evidence, prosecutors, defense counsel, appeals courts, etc. Each of the Army, Navy and Air Force also operate their own military law schools.
It has to be full monty criminal justice since certain offenses are punishable by death under the UCMJ.
So nothing like college tribunals.
Nothing like college tribunals because being expelled from school is nothing like death.
Most sex crimes don’t have the death penalty as a possible outcome unless you consider decades in jail some sort of “dead” so not apples to apples. I’m also with Ms. Napolitano.
Decades in a military jail is also nothing like being expelled from school.
It wouldn’t matter if they ALL spoke out. The feds will never change their position until the courts invalidate the regs, one by one.
“I don’t believe that the Title IX system precludes a victim from also seeking redress in the criminal courts. Under the current system, the accused can be forced to fight both at the school and in the criminal courts, isn’t that right?”
That’s right. And one can impede the other – if you are under investigation for a felony, you can’t take even a tiny risk that something you say at a Title IX hearing will be used against you in court. So some accused students are advised not to defend themselves at the school proceeding and lose by default. By the time the criminal investigation is resolved in the defendant’s favor, as it generally is, s/he is already expelled.
“My own son will be starting college soon and I am very much aware that even the best counsel in the world cannot control the outcome of an unpredictable jury or a biased judge.”
Unless we’re talking about statutory rape, it is vanishingly unlikely that CC kids will wrongly go to jail for acquaintance rape. It’s just too hard to prove. Prosecutors won’t even bring charges unless there’s damning evidence (unmistakable physical injury; roofies in the accuser’s system; etc.). “He said, she said” cases resulting in felony convictions are like deaths from lightning strikes. Maybe rarer.
“It wouldn’t matter if they ALL spoke out. The feds will never change their position until the courts invalidate the regs, one by one.”
What makes you say that? “The feds” in this case (Dept of Ed big shots) have close ties to universities. If they get a lot of pushback from powerful interests, you might see shifts. It’s not unusual. Anyway, we’ll have a new administration in 16 months; everything might be up in the air.
Yes, and it also is vanishingly unlikely that CC kids will rightly go to jail for acquaintance rape. Very few people are imprisoned for acquaintance rape.
If I’m going to worry about bad things happening to CC kids, I should spend my time worrying about the large chance that a CC kid will be raped, not the itsy bitsy chance that a CC kid will be either wrongly imprisoned for rape, or wrongly disciplined by a college for rape.