Colleges and Universities Responsibilities to Sexual Assault Victims

Sexual assault on college campuses is a problem that continually draws the attention of the nation and how to best deal with it. The conversation primarily focuses on the responsibility that an institution has when the crime has already been committed. This has become even more heated in the wake of recent events like Penn State and UNC-Chapel Hill. The hope and intent of the “Dear Colleague” letter from the Office of Civil Rights was that under Title IX institutions would be held responsible to protect victims of sexual assault, Title IX call for non-discrimination on the basis of sex. Recent events and this letter have led to many more questions. The line between legal and social responsibility begin to blend and makes a painful situation confusing as well.

                The “Dear Colleague” letter, published on April 4, 2011, requires institutions to “have transparent, prompt procedures to investigate and resolve complaints of sexual misconduct, protecting the rights of alleged victims” (Lipka, 2011). This letter was to try to insure that victims were not being left unprotected because of the process of cases. The letter has called into question if institutions are being asked to make legal decisions. As soon as it was released many suggestions were made for revision. “Congress approved a bill renewing the Violence Against Women Act (S 47) that incorporates the first major campus-security legislation in years, the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, which is known as the Campus SaVE Act (Schnoebelen, 2013). The Campus SaVE Act make the “Dear Colleague” letter a requirement for institutions.

One response in particular that campuses have had is to call in the experts. Amherst College and UNC have both called on Gina Smith. She is a lawyer with background serving as prosecutor for sex crimes; she now serves as a consultant to higher education institutions in sexual misconduct cases (Sander, 2013). Her role is to help the institutions respond to incidents on their campuses and help them form policies to deal with future cases. Ms. Smith has helped lead discussions on campuses after incidents and her knowledge of the issue allows these institutions to have someone assist them in navigating this sensitive issue. I believe this also shows that Title IX coordinators alone have an extremely large task laid in their lap under the “Dear Colleague” letter, perhaps something that is too large for a non-expert to undertake.

Some are under the opinion that these actions will actually lead to discrimination of the accused. The concern is that “a lower evidentiary standard implies that more students accused of sexual misconduct will be found responsible” (Lipka, 2011). Christina Hoff Sommers wrote an impassioned article that greatly defended that it would greatly discriminate against males (2011). “Now, on campuses throughout the country, we face the prospect of academic committees—armed with vague definitions of sexual assault, low standards of proof, and official sanction for the notion that sex under the influence is, ipso facto assault or rape—deciding the fate of students accused of a serious crime” (Sommers, 2011). She further argued that:

“The new regulations should be seen for what they really are. They are not enlightened new procedures for protecting students from crime. They are a declaration of martial law against men, justified by an imaginary emergency, and a betrayal of the Title IX equity law.” (Sommers, 2011)

Several people responded very angrily to her article. However, she raises an important question. Are we asking our higher education institutions to take on more legal responsibility?

               

Sources:

Lipka, S. (2011). Campuses Strive for Compliance and Fairness in Policies on Sexual Assault. The Chronicle of Higher Education.         

Sander, L. (2013) In Campuses' Sexual-Assault Crises, an Outside Voice Offers Guidance. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Schnoebelen, A. (2013). Push to Improve Campus Policies on Sexual Violence Gains Momentum. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Sommers, C. (2011). In Making Campuses Safe for Women, a Travesty of Justice for Men. The Chronicle of Higher Education.