Sexual assault on campus has gained national attention over the past 5 years. Reports of sexual assault have more than doubled across the country as media campaigns pushed the message of reporting, the federal government advised universities to identify problematic campuses and to institute reforms.
The Source covered this topic when the U.S. Department of Education released its list of campuses that had open Title IX investigations. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex at a federally funded program.
As a result there is growing concern among professors that the focus on sexual assault is going too far and the investigations are putting due process and academic freedom at risk.
Read Also:
- "Four Women file Title IX lawsuit against MSU [Michigan State University" The State News
- "Title IX Complaint Against Yale" in The Daily Beast
- "Sweeping sex assault suit filed against University of Tenessee" in The Tennessean
A new report out from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) points out several issues with how universities are handling Title IX investigations.
These cases have compromised the realization of meaningful educational goals that enable the creation of sexually safe campuses; they also have upended due process rights and shared governance in unprecedented ways. - AAUP Report
Fairness and due process, academic freedom, and obscuring the other goals of Title IX like gender equity are among the many problems AAUP cites in its draft report "The History, Uses and Abuses of Title IX"
Guest:
- Risa Lieberwitz, general counsel for the American Association of University Professors and a professor of Labor and Employment law at Cornell University
- Leona Pallansch, Title IX coordinator and associate provost for faculty, assessment and accreditation at St. Mary's University
