PR: Harvard Law Professors Call for Sweeping Changes to Campus Sex Tribunals

Contact: Chris Perry

Telephone: 301-801-0608

Harvard Law Professors Call for Sweeping Changes to Campus Sex Tribunals

WASHINGTON / September 5, 2017 – Four Harvard Law School professors have issued a statement sharply critical of Department of Education policies on campus sexual assault. “While the Administration’s goals were to provide better protections for women, and address the neglect that prevailed before this shift, the new policies and procedures have created problems of their own,” the professors charge.

Professors Elizabeth Bartholet, Nancy Gertner, Janet Halley, and Jeannie Suk Gersen call on the federal agency to implement numerous reforms to assure fairness for both the accuser and the accused. These changes include narrowing definitions of sexual assault, assuring meaningful cross-examination, and involving legal counsel. The Harvard professors are especially critical of universities that allow investigators to also serve as adjudicators, a practice often referred to as the “single-investigator” model.

The professors’ memorandum, “Fairness for All Students Under Title IX,” can be viewed online (1).

This week SAVE is launching a national campaign designed to increase public awareness how campus rape tribunals are mistreating identified victims of sexual assault (2). Anecdotal examples of this mistreatment have been compiled (3). The criminal justice system offers 26 protections to identified victims that are not available on campus (3).

The SAVE report, Six-Year Experiment in Campus Jurisprudence Fails to Make the Grade, further documents how campus rape tribunals disappoint identified victims and accused students alike and frustrate the search for justice (4).

Citations:

SAVE (Stop Abusive and Violent Environments) is working for practical and effective solutions to campus sexual assault: www.saveservices.org

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