Category: Sexual Assault

Contact: Gina Lauterio

Email: glauterio@saveservices.org

‘Something is going seriously wrong’: Colleges Grapple with Wave of Sexual Assault Lawsuits

WASHINGTON / April 18, 2016 – Following a recent California ruling in favor of a student accused of sexual misconduct, state lawmakers and college administrators are beginning to consider the budgetary implications of these claims. On April 5  the California Second Appellate District Superior Court overturned a University of Southern California decision that found a male student responsible because he allegedly “encouraged or permitted” other students to slap a female student on her buttocks. The Superior Court explained, “it is not too heavy a burden to require that students facing disciplinary action be informed of the factual basis for the charges against them.” (1)

The University of Southern California decision is the eighth ruling in 2016 in which a court found in favor of a student accused of sexual assault, or allowed the case to proceed because the pleadings were sufficient to state a cause of action. (2)

The growing number of rulings in favor of accused students was the focus of a recent Inside Higher Ed article. (3)  The account quoted Gary Pavela, editor of the the Association of Student Conduct Administration’s Law and Policy’s Report, as saying, “In over 20 years of reviewing higher education law cases, I’ve never seen such a string of legal setbacks for universities, both public and private, in student conduct cases….Something is going seriously wrong.”

These lawsuits represent a growing financial burden for colleges. According to Brett Sokolow of the Association of Title IX Administrators, responding to a due process lawsuit “can run into the high six or even seven figures, not counting a settlement or verdict.” (4)  In February, the University of Montana agreed to pay a former student $245,000 because of the university’s biased adjudication of a sexual assault allegation. (5)

Risk management efforts to forestall these lawsuits are becoming increasingly costly, as well. Salaries for Title IX coordinators can range from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. Sokolow estimates the cost of lawyers, counselors, and educational campaigns run from $50,000 a year at small colleges, to half a million dollars and more at large universities.

Harvard University now employs 50 Title IX coordinators across its 13 schools. At Yale, nearly 30 faculty members and staff are involved in its Title IX programs. Columbia University now has a Title IX staff consisting of 11 educators and 7 case workers, and covers the legal expenses of both accusers and the accused.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni recently issued a statement sharply critical of the U.S. Department of Education for issuing directives that have “unconscionably conflated ‘conduct and speech cases’ in a way that has grossly expanded the intrusion of this unaccountable bureaucracy at the expense of faculty and student constitutional rights.” The Council warned, “It’s time that institutions—and their boards—fought back.” (6)

(1)   http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B262917.PDF

(2)   http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/affirmative-consent/court-decisions/

(3)   https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/14/several-students-win-recent-lawsuits-against-colleges-punished-them-sexual-assault

(4)   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/us/colleges-beef-up-bureaucracies-to-deal-with-sexual-misconduct.html?_r=0

(5)   http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/university-of-montana-to-pay-ex-qb-jordan-johnson-245k-over-handling-of-rape-accusation-021616

(6)   http://www.goacta.org/news/acta_praises_aaup_report_the_history_uses_and_abuses_of_title_ix_outlines_l

SAVE is working for evidence-based, constitutionally sound solutions to campus sexual assault: www.saveservices.org

Contact: Gina Lauterio

Email: info@saveservices.org

Dept. of Education Sexual Assault Program Falls into Disarray; SAVE Calls on Congress to Take Action

WASHINGTON / October 7, 2015 – The Department of Education has long claimed that universities must comply with its campus sexual assault policies or risk loss of federal funding. But in testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, two Department of Education officials recently admitted that its 2011 Dear Colleague Letter is non-binding guidance that does not hold force of law: https://www.thefire.org/second-department-of-education-official-in-eight-days-tells-congress-guidance-is-not-binding/

This admission portends the necessity of a major overhaul of Department of Education’s sexual assault policies and practices:

1. The Education Department will need to rewrite existing guidance documents, such as its 2014 Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence, to conform to the altered legal status of the Dear Colleague Letter, often referred to as the “DCL.”

2. The legal validity of settlement agreements with dozens of universities, which were based on the DCL “requirements,” is now called into question.

3. The Department of Education must decide whether to suspend or terminate ongoing investigations at over 100 universities.

In addition, universities across the nation will need to consider revamping their sexual assault policies, especially in light of the growing number of lawsuits by expelled students alleging the university removed their constitutionally protected due process rights.

In direct violation of legal requirements, the Dear Colleague Letter was published without prior public review and comment. Given the long-standing pattern of improper and unlawful Department of Education actions in this area, SAVE is calling on Congress to assert its full oversight and legislative authorities.

“For over four years, a rogue Department of Education has strong-armed schools with the threat of removing their federal funding,” notes SAVE spokesperson Sheryle Hutter. “These practices amount to nothing less than illegal bureaucratic extortion.”

The DCL has become a lightning-rod for legal controversy. Last October, 28 Harvard law school faculty members published an open letter expressing “strong objections” to a new Harvard sexual assault policy. Hundreds of editorials have criticized the Dept. of Education letter and resulting campus policies: http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/editorials/2015-2/

Contact: Gina Lauterio

Email: info@saveservices.org

Survey Labeled Students as Sex Offenders for Violating Policy that Didn’t Exist:

SAVE Calls on AAU to Retract Flawed Campus Study

WASHINGTON / September 23, 2015 – A widely publicized survey on campus sexual assault by the Association of American Universities (AAU) classified male students as violators of affirmative consent policies, even when such policies were not in existence on the campus at the time the survey was conducted. SAVE is calling for AAU to retract the survey and recalculate its findings.

On September 21, the AAU released its Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct, which was conducted at 27 colleges around the nation. The survey reported that 23.1% of female undergraduates experience sexual assault or sexual misconduct sometime during their college careers.

The survey defined “sexual misconduct” to include failure to obtain affirmative consent. But affirmative consent is a controversial, possibly unconstitutional policy, and most colleges had not implemented the policy when AAU fielded the survey in April 2015.

An internet search of the terms “affirmative consent,” “student handbook,” and the name of each university reveals that at the time the AAU survey was conducted:

— For 15 out of the 27 colleges, no affirmative consent policy was in place when the survey was conducted

— For 9 colleges, an affirmative consent policy is currently in place, but the date of implementation is unknown

— For 3 colleges, affirmative consent policy was known to be in place when the AAU survey was carried out

The AAU report makes the claim that 11.4% of undergraduate females were “victimized” by the absence of affirmative consent. But for at least 15 out of the 27 colleges, no affirmative consent policy was in place. Therefore, absence of affirmative consent cannot be considered to represent sexual misconduct at these institutions, and the 23.1% female victimization figure is substantially over-stated

“Only in an Orwellian world would students be smeared as sex offenders for violating a policy that didn’t even exist,” notes SAVE spokesperson Sheryle Hutter. “The Association of American Universities needs to retract the survey and recalculate its findings based on whether an affirmative consent policy was in place when the survey was conducted.”

The AAU survey has been criticized for its low response rate, its failure to adequately explain “incapacitation” to respondents, and other reasons. A listing of the status of the affirmative consent policies for the 27 colleges can be seen here: http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/aau-survey/

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is working to promote effective solutions to campus sexual assault: http://www.saveservices.org/