Democratic Senators Call Out Fraternities For Wanting Fair Investigations In Campus Sexual Assault Cases
Two Democratic senators are pressuring Greek organizations over a bill that could determine who investigates sexual assault allegations.
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) held a conference call with reporters on Thursday over the Safe Campus Act, a bill regarding who can do what when sexual assault allegations arise. This is the same bill former Senate Majority Leader/Mississippi Republican Trent Lott is lobbying for.
From Slate:
The so-called Safe Campus Act would prevent colleges and universities from taking action to make their campuses safer under Title IX after a sexual assault unless the victim made an official report to law enforcement. Even then, the university would not be able to enact final disciplinary measures against the perpetrator until the police finished their investigation—a process that could take months or years, during which the perpetrator could remain on campus.
So, essentially, due process for the accused student or students. Insane, right?
McCaskill, a former Kappa Alpha Theta at the University of Missouri, sent three Mizzou fraternities letters recently asking why their nationals supported this bill.
Not surprisingly, McCaskill and Gillibrand are co-sponsoring a competing bill, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, or CASA. That bill says, in short, that universities can investigate and take disciplinary actions against students accused of sexual assault even when the law enforcement investigation isn’t complete or even when police aren’t involved.
That is a scary notion.
Sexual assault allegations are messy no matter how you look at them. I have personally seen it time and time again: students lives absolutely ruined due to one false sexual allegation claim. The accusation comes up, the university catches wind of it, the fraternity is forced to kick the student out, the university “investigates” and expels the student, only for the accuser to admit in court that they weren’t raped and only made it up so they didn’t have to come clean about cheating on their boyfriend.
The evidence for the accusations doesn’t even need to be that strong for universities to suspend students or fraternities first and then, maybe, ask questions later. Universities’ reputations are at stake when any rape allegations arise, and it’s in their best interest to distance themselves ASAP.
Let’s leave the investigations up to the police. They’re good at more than just handing out MIPs..
[via Slate]
Image via Twitter
Remember the Constitution? Liberals don’t.
10 years ago at 1:15 pmPepperidge Farm remembers
10 years ago at 2:13 pmWhen will the persecution stop?
10 years ago at 1:25 pmHow fucking insulting to the actual victims that some dumbasses in a Title IX office think they’ll just handle it themselves rather than filing a police report.
10 years ago at 1:27 pmThis is really the best point on this
10 years ago at 1:38 amGod knows it will fail… I mean who wants due process and being innocent until proven guilty.
10 years ago at 1:28 pmRight? What’s the point of due process if straight white males who don’t think they’re girls are sometimes found innocent?
10 years ago at 2:48 pmLiberals
10 years ago at 6:40 pmWhat the hell does sexual assault have to do with the federal government?
10 years ago at 1:32 pmWell besides the fact that the constitutional right of due process is continually ignored.. But that’s for the judicial branch not for the senate
10 years ago at 1:33 pmSenate creates laws, Judicial interprets them.
10 years ago at 2:02 pmI mean from what constitutional right does the federal government have to enact national college sexual assault laws? That’s an issue that should be left entirely up to the states (where it would also be 100x more effective as well)
10 years ago at 7:43 amYea but as of right now, universities are allowed to carry out their own bullshit investigations and punish students regardless of how the case is ruled in a real court, and unless students file a class action lawsuit against university kangaroo courts (which would put them at a high risk of expulsion), the judicial branch can’t really address it.
10 years ago at 2:02 pmEventually there will be a class action suit against the universities and also challenging Title IX. Title IX needs to go. It is patently unconstitutional in its denial off due process. And the days of parens patria are, de facto, over and should be de jure over. This is not 1900, and universities should not have the kind of powers they are able to exert over individuals who are legally of age for many purposes. Crimes should be investigated and charged by police and prosecutors, not institutional bodies. Instead of sticking their heads in the sand, the nationals ought to protect the rights of brothers and pledges. Fat chance of that, however.
10 years ago at 5:18 pmReally just shows you what national fraternal organizations are. Insurance companies
10 years ago at 1:45 amGod damn liberals
10 years ago at 1:45 pmThis is extremely irrelevant but will someone please tell my old, crusty, piece-of-shit, self what “TL;DR” means? I hate myself. Please. Anyone.
10 years ago at 1:47 pmToo long, didn’t read
10 years ago at 1:50 pmToo Long; Didn’t Read.
10 years ago at 1:52 pmThank you both. Free nut shots on Orville. Everyone’s welcome. I am an idiot.
10 years ago at 1:54 pmI don’t think police should be the ones who HAVE to handle sexual assault allegations at a university forever and always — I think these things can be handled institutionally at some point, so in that sense I’m opposed to this bill in its current form. But as it stands currently, the majority of universities 1) do not employ anyone properly trained to investigate something, and 2) put the responsibility of investigation AS WELL AS judgment on a person or persons who are not only not qualified, but also simultaneously tasked with counseling and providing support to the sexual assault victim, which completely and totally destroys their objectivity when deliberating on a judgment, and very likely causes confirmation bias when investigating. It is ABSURD that universities, feminists, liberals — basically anyone, think this is okay.
I think if the victim wants the case to just be handled by the institution, that’s fine, once universities have a system and personnel in place who are qualified and objective. (As it stands currently, a woman who works in a Title IX office because her calling — noble as it may be — is to help provide counseling and resources for women and sexual assault victims is, almost literally, the very antithesis of that.) Until those systems are in place, however, the only resource communities have that is both qualified to investigate and objective in its rulings, is the legal system. So in the interim, until universities can provide competent justice, which they absolutely cannot currently, the legal system should handle these cases.
I’ll probably write a column on this at some point (I’m halfway there with this comment).
10 years ago at 2:07 pmGonna disagree slightly.
Police SHOULD forever and always be involved in sexual assault cases both on and off campus. That is their job as law enforcement. The university should provide support for the victim and play the role as mediator between the police, perpetrator and victim until a verdict is reached.
This should hopefully satisfy the feminists that always claim college campuses aren’t safe for victims of sexual assault, while allowing due process.
10 years ago at 2:14 pmI mean, for a flat out kick down the door, physically assault you, rape, the police should definitely always be involved, but I think there are plenty of less intense situations that can be (assuming universities become competent, as stated above) justly handled on an institutional level.
10 years ago at 2:25 pmCertainly, there is room for that argument. Helping someone who feels as if they have been assaulted or being an intermediary to each party that had a disagreement would fall outside the bounds of lawful intervention. But as soon as someone is penalized by, say, expulsion, the rights of the accused have been infringed upon, and thus, must be justified with a lawful basis; enter police.
10 years ago at 2:35 pmWouldn’t the less ‘intense’ situations require just as much attention from police? The “He said she said” cases make up the majority of sexual assaults on male and female college students. The university is gonna side with the female on 99% of those cases, because the backlash of not supporting someone who may have been raped would have huge backlash.
Police should handle it entirely, with the university there to provide counseling and safety in situations where the victim and the accused have a class together etc…
10 years ago at 2:51 pmThis is all assuming the university has competent, well trained people handling it. If they don’t, then yes, it should be on the law.
10 years ago at 2:52 pmThose “less intense” situations (I know what you mean but a feminist would tear into you for that language so be careful in that column) you mention are the reason this law is being proposed. In fact the trend lately seems to be that the girl starts to hook up with a guy, then claims she changed her mind halfway through and the guy wouldn’t stop. That’s a tricky situation for your average incompetent university administrator to navigate. I also get that you’re pushing for them to be competent first, but how many competent administrative staff did you meet as an undergrad? Competence was never a job requirement in the past, plus the last thing most universities need is even more unnecessary staff so that they can raise our tuition even higher
Most importantly, as someone said below, the university stands to benefit from reacting swiftly and coming down on the side of the accuser. It minimizes the protests and internet outrage. Even if you got people qualified to actually investigate the allegations, there’s always an inherent conflict of interest. It’s as impartial as a Roger Goodell-sponsored “independent investigation”
10 years ago at 3:05 pmI’ll admit I’m probably giving the university, even if they do employ totally competent and objective investigators and mediators, way way way way way way too much credit in terms of them not knee jerking to save face for PR.
10 years ago at 3:25 pmThe bottom line is that Universities have a motive to always save face, as college has become a business. Even if they have a perfectly capable staff of investigators, they will always want to do the PC thing. Police should ALWAYS be involved in any aspect of a sexual assault claim. Not only because the perpetrator should be behind bars for a long time, but because even the stigma associated with such a claim can ruin a life.
Colleges can’t even properly discipline and investigate athletic infractions. I do not want them having the deciding hand in a sexual assault investigation.
10 years ago at 4:28 pmSexual assault is against the law, Bacon. Law enforcement should enforce the law.
10 years ago at 2:26 pmWhat a concept!
10 years ago at 4:15 pmDo you seriously expect me to read this, soldier? Fix it!
10 years ago at 2:27 pmI can see your point, however, these institutions of higher learning are exactly and only that: Institutions of higher learning. There is already a system for these cases to be handled: the police and their investigators. Each of these institutions has their duty in society, and there isn’t much of a good argument that the university can or will do any better at an investigation than the institution that is tasked by law and trained to handle these situations. The University also has a vested interest to make a situation such as rape to be handled swiftly and severely so that they can make their PR points, so there’s already a conflict of interest. Adding to the problem, is the fact that they are in no way bound by law to protect the constitutional and lawful rights of the accused, where a law professional would be.
10 years ago at 2:28 pmtl,dr
10 years ago at 2:38 pmYou know what would be a great place to have this conversation? The forums.
10 years ago at 3:25 pmYou’re up, FratPAC.
10 years ago at 2:14 pmI want to start by saying God Bless every victim of sexual assault, that can truly fuck someone’s life up. And to the people that have been falsely accused of sexual assault, I hope justice prevailed in your case. But let’s put everything aside for a second and cover some basics. If a woman is passed out drunk, high, etc. it’s not real hard to understand that you don’t make any sexual advances, period. I don’t care how much she drunkenly flirted with you at your local watering hole, if she’s incapable of giving you a simple yes or no….it’s pretty safe to always assume it’s a no. Don’t put yourself in a position to be scrutinized.
10 years ago at 2:25 pmAnd I specifically am talking about cases where alcohol or other drugs are involved because let’s face it, the media will attack a fraternity member accused of making drunk sexual advances on a woman before they report on any other sexual assault related cases. It all goes back to that stigma Greek life has. When negative stories about Greek life are published, they make money…period. We’re already under a microscope….don’t give them a reason to investigate.
10 years ago at 2:31 pm