ANY sentence containing the phrases “Donald Trump” and “campus sexual assault” could reasonably be expected to conclude with the word “outrage”. Yet when Mr Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, announced her intention to “revoke or rescind” directives to universities on handling sexual assault issued by the Obama administration, the move was quietly welcomed by plenty of colleges. The Obama administration’s determination to discourage campus sexual assault—which is suffered by as many as a fifth of women attending college—was well-intentioned, but poorly thought out.
In 2011 the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) sent a “Dear Colleague” letter—named after its misleadingly congenial salutation—which issued a sweeping reinterpretation of Title IX, a federal law prohibiting gender discrimination. The letter urged universities to investigate sexual assaults and conduct hearings assessed on a lower standard of proof, requiring just a “preponderance of the...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2h4sieO
EmoticonEmoticon