FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

Harvard Law Professors Accuse School of ‘Stacking the Deck’ Against Those Accused of Sex Assault

Nearly 30 professors signed an op-ed after the university overhauled its sexual harassment and assault policies to become more compliant with Title IX.
Image via Wikimedia

A group of Harvard Law Professors published a strongly-worded condemnation of the university's sweeping new sexual harassment and assault policy as an op-ed in the Boston Globe this week, criticizing what they say is an overreach by school administrators.

Harvard implemented the new policy this year, just months after a student filed a complaint with the federal Department of Education over Harvard College's handling of a sexual assault claim. The university has been taking steps to overhaul its response to sexual assault; in 2013 it hired a Title IX compliance officer, who put together a working group that spent two years creating the policies that are now being implement, according to the university.

Advertisement

Harvard is just one of hundreds of colleges across the country reevaluating how they handle sexual assault claims after a mostly grassroots movement by students over the past year has raised awareness of the issue, drawing attention from as far up as the White House, which earlier this year created the Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.

Historic California rape law tells college campuses: 'Yes means yes.' Read more here.

Harvard's new policy is a departure from the past. It applies to the entire university and mandates that all sexual harassment and assault claims be funneled through one office, run by the Title IX compliance officer. Under the previous policy, each college within the university had its own policies for dealing with sexual harassment and assault claims.

The 28 faculty members who signed the op-ed accuse the new policy of "stacking the deck"against those accused of sexual assault — broadening the scope of forbidden conduct including rules that govern sexual conduct while under the influence of alcohol or drugs — and violating the tenets of academic freedom and faculty governance. The Law School has more than 120 faculty members.

"The goal must not be simply to go as far as possible in the direction of preventing anything that some might characterize as sexual harassment. The goal must instead be to fully address sexual harassment while at the same time protecting students against unfair and inappropriate discipline, honoring individual relationship autonomy, and maintaining the values of academic freedom,"they wrote.

Advertisement

They blamed the new policy on Harvard bending to the will of the federal Department of Education and institutional fear of losing federal funding.

Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard Law professor who signed the document, called it a "disaster"and said it is clear that Harvard, Columbia, and other universities are bending to pressure from the federal government.

"The federal officials forced upon Harvard proposals they had developed, based on their thinking as to the right way to deal with sexual harassment," she said. "And they are telling universities they are at risk of losing Title IX funding, which is a lot of money, unless they adopt the federal policies in their entirety."

Bartholet criticized the new policies for broadening the scope of what constitutes harassment.

Students list alleged rapists on Columbia University's walls. Read more here.

"Among the problems of the signers is that it goes way too far to constrict and punish words as well as conduct that should be protected, particularly at an academic institution,"she said. "It's important to have a process designed to help get the facts right. This policy shortchanges those who are accused."

Our Harvard Can Do Better, a student-run group advocating for increased sexual assault resources on campus, said the op-ed "displays a callous lack of understanding of sexual violence and its effect on survivors in educational institutions."

Advertisement

"In sharp contrast to the professors' claims, Harvard's new policy is the first intermediate step we have seen from the administration to address their federally mandated obligation to place an equal burden on the respondent — that is, alleged perpetrator — and complainant — that is, survivor —during the investigation and resolution process," the group said in a statement.

Alison Johnson, history professor and chair of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures, defended the new policies today, saying that Harvard had to update its policies to become compliant with the increasingly specific requirements from the Department of Education under Title IX.

"The updated (Title IX) requirements differ from how colleges and universities have dealt with these issues in the past. They have ways of dealing with sexual harassment and ways of dealing with assault, a lot of colleges have been trying to figure out how to respond to the new regulations and also all of the new data about how prevalent sexual harassment and assaults are on campuses,"Johnson told VICE News. "So it's also about recognizing that we have a real problem at colleges and universities across the country that we need to address more robustly."

Some of the updates to the policy include provisions that the process, from complaint to investigation to completion, is done in a swift manner (ideally 60 days), and that both people involved can choose anyone they want as their representative or "personal advisor,"including attorneys. Johnson pointed out that the investigations and any punishments meted out have to do with anti-discrimination rules, not criminal law.

Advertisement

"This is not intended to replace or stand in for the criminal justice system. No one is prosecuted, found guilty, or accused of committing crime,"she said.

Neena Chaudry, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center, said that it was possible that Harvard's new policy was a provision of the investigation the Department of Education performed after it received a complaint.

"There are a lot of schools that are going to be making changes on campus in response to complaints and growing awareness and attention paid to this problem recently in response to what I think has been a grassroots movement by these students. I think they have done a tremendous services for others across the country,"Chaudry said.

Harvard, for its part, said in a statement that it "appreciates that not every member of the community will agree with every aspect of the new approach"and that a committee of faculty, staff, and students will continue working to improve the policy going forward.

Image via Wikimedia