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Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post:

“The proof will be in the details of what the Trump administration produces. Still, you don’t have to be a DeVos-like conservative to have serious qualms about the existing approach — and to bristle at the dismissal of such concerns.”

“There is every reason not to trust” Ms. DeVos and the Trump administration when it comes to policing sexual assault on college campuses, writes Ms. Marcus. However, she still finds herself praising — “albeit tentatively and preliminarily” — the education secretary’s attempt to address the “seriously flawed” way in which colleges handled assault investigations, an “overcorrection” in response to the Obama administration’s attempts to get colleges to “take sexual-assault allegations seriously.” Read more »

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Christina Cauterucci in Slate:

“The chilling effect the DeVos Department of Education will have on sexual assault reports will certainly please Trump. But his larger goal is to send a message to women that the government is not on their side.”

Ms. Cauterucci argues that many of President Trump’s policies require “pretty impressive feats of intellectual dissonance. Police officers should rough up the suspects they arrest, but universities should go easy on accused rapists.” The only thread connecting these seemingly contradictory policy priorities, including the most recent Title IX decision, is that of identity, “his identity as a white man and his desire to protect the same.” Read more »

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And Finally, From the Center:

Emily Yoffe in The Atlantic:



“On too many campuses, a new attitude about due process — and the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty — has taken hold.”

Many of the writers featured in this roundup have cited Ms. Yoffe’s reporting on how the rules adjudicating college sexual assault have changed in recent years. The first installment of this three-part series addresses how students accused of assault lose their due-process rights when universities handle cases in accordance to Obama-era federal rules. “These directives,” she writes, “have left a mess of a system, and many unintended consequences.” Read more »

You can read part two of the series, about the “bad science” of the physiology of trauma and its role in sexual assault cases, here.

Part three explores whether campus sexual assault cases are biased against men of color. You can read it here.

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Christina Hoff Sommers in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

“Due process does not guarantee justice, but without it injustice is nearly certain.”

Ms. Sommers, who is best described as a classical liberal feminist, had little optimism for how Republicans would handle women’s issues. “I used to wonder what was worse,” she writes, “Republican politicians ignoring women’s issues or Republican politicians talking about them.” However, Ms. Sommers lauds Ms. DeVos’s “openness” and “fair and transparent procedure” in reforming Title IX procedures in cases of sexual assault. Perhaps, she writes, it will signal “a rare occasion for bipartisan cooperation.” Read more »

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The editorial board of The Dallas Morning News:

“Even when we strip away the politics, the content of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s message Thursday about sexual violence on college campuses leaves us queasy.”

As skeptics that victims of sexual assault “will be as fairly treated” as they were under Obama-era Title IX protections, the members of The Dallas Morning News editorial board also “welcome a constructive conversation about unintended consequences or confusion resulting from the 2011 guidelines.” The only thing that gives the group temporary comfort is that “nothing changes today.” The rules remain in place during a notice-and-comment period. Read more »