By sending this letter, the federal government placed the burden of litigating sexual assault accusations on the schools themselves. It effectively instructs schools to use the lowest legal burden of proof, a preponderance of evidence, in the proceedings.
Colleges and universities are rarely equipped to fairly handle these types of investigations. But this is exactly what the Department of Education demanded that colleges do themselves. Schools have since been forced to establish dubious regulatory frameworks to handle cases. A group of 28 Harvard University Law professors had this to say about their school’s sexual assault policy in 2014:
“Harvard has adopted procedures for deciding cases of alleged sexual misconduct which lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process, are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused, and are in no way required by Title IX law or regulation.”
Following her speech, Devos was asked by CBS News if she will be rescinding Obama-era policies, to which she responded: “Well, that’s the intention, and we’ve begun the process to do so.”
