Title IX Bureaucrats Meet Due Process Once Again
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CounterCurrent: Week of 4/5
Title IX Bureaucrats Meet Due Process Once Again
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: Title IX; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Article - University of Michigan officials can be held personally liable for violating accused student’s rights: judge by Connor Ellington ([link removed][UNIQID])
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In recent years, more and more college students have found themselves wrongly accused of sexual misconduct and denied basic due process rights by their schools, with little ability to clear their names. Title IX, which began ([link removed][UNIQID]) as a necessary and reasonable part of the Higher Education Act (HEA) ([link removed][UNIQID]) designed to protect students from sexual discrimination, has morphed into an administrative behemoth with little regard for the rights of the accused, especially when the accusation is sexual misconduct as discrimination. The presumption of innocence becomes the presumption of guilt as students are punished before their alleged misconduct is proven.
One such case occurred back in 2018 at the University of Michigan, where student John Doe’s transcript and degree were indefinitely withheld ([link removed][UNIQID]) after he was accused of sexual misconduct by a female peer. Doe was never given a hearing or the chance for cross examination, prompting him to file a lawsuit against the school. He was but the latest in a long line ([link removed][UNIQID]) of students who have sued their colleges for violations of basic due process rights.
Late last month, Senior U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow handed down his decision ([link removed][UNIQID]) regarding UMich’s behavior in Doe’s case. He ruled that the disciplinary action taken, and importantly, that the school’s Title IX policy in general was unconstitutional due to administrators’ blatant disregard for Doe’s rights. Furthermore, these same bureaucrats have been stripped of their “qualified immunity,” meaning they can now be held personally liable for John Doe’s damages. In this week’s featured article ([link removed][UNIQID]) , Connor Ellington of The College Fix breaks down the history and full substance of Judge Tarnow’s ruling, placing it in context with similar decisions.
Regardless of whether or not the UMich administrators are penalized for their actions, Tarnow’s decision is a step in the right direction. Higher education bureaucrats must know that there are consequences for corruption: they can no longer hide behind a shield of immunity. With the shield removed, these bureaucrats will be far more likely to respect the rights of their accused students.
We’ve seen lawsuits like this succeed before. Just last October, a jury awarded ([link removed][UNIQID]) $100,000 to a Boston College student who was wrongfully punished for sexual misconduct he did not commit. The school’s administrators didn’t seem to care about the evidence or that there was another suspect. We hope that Tarnow’s decision will dissuade such corruption within the Title IX bureaucracy and restore the basic constitutional rights of all students.
Until next week.
John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
P.S.: Please remember to consider signing, and circulating, the Faculty Resolution drafted ([link removed][UNIQID]) by the nonprofit Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) in support of due process in Title IX campus proceedings. New regulations implementing Title IX are expected soon and deserve our support: They go a long way toward restoring due process protections for those accused of sexual discrimination and misconduct and therefore help fix a broken system that has hurt students and faculty alike.
To become a co-signer, send your name, academic degrees, title, university affiliation, city, and state — exactly how you want them to appear — to:
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]) . The final Resolution will be shared with lawmakers and college administrators.
Read More ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on Title IX history and policy:
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April 03, 2020
** NAS Commends Secretary DeVos, Encourages Education Department to Issue New Title IX Regulations Soon ([link removed][UNIQID])
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NAS
With most students off campus due to the coronavirus crisis, Title IX administrators have time to revise policies to comply with the new regulations.
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March 19, 2020
** Title IX Toolkit ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Teresa Manning
For your reference: the basics on the history of Title IX, how it is used today, and why we seek reform.
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October 28, 2019
** Jury Awards $100,000 to Wrongly Accused Student in Title IX Case ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Teresa Manning
Boston College appeared to have complete disregard, perhaps malicious disregard, for the wrongful treatment of one of its own innocent students. Is that what Title IX has become?
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October 08, 2019
** From Campus to Kavanaugh: The Title IX Trajectory ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Teresa Manning
When did presumption of innocence become presumption of guilt?
** About the NAS
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