Story highlights Cathy Young: Betsy DeVos announced she'd reverse Obama guidelines on campus sexual assault, and was widely derided

Young: But DeVos was right to defend due process for the accused, who "must know that guilt is not predetermined."

Cathy Young is a contributing editor at Reason magazine and a columnist for Newsday. Her book, "Ceasefire! Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality" was published by The Free Press in 1999. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Last Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made a speech announcing the reversal of Obama-era policies on campus sexual assault under Title IX, the federal law on gender equity in education. This was met with a wave of outrage on social media and in progressive publications. There were angry accusations that the move would harm women and protect rapists; a #StopBetsy hashtag sprang up on Twitter.

Why the fury? DeVos offered a full-throated defense of due process, asserting that "every survivor of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously" but "every student accused of sexual misconduct must know that guilt is not predetermined."

It is the right message, whatever one thinks of the messenger.

DeVos had harsh words for Barack Obama's administration, charging that it "weaponized the [Department of Education] Office for Civil Rights to work against schools and against students." That was a reference to the administration's 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter to college presidents, which issued directives on Title IX enforcement — later backed by a threat to withhold federal funds from schools found noncompliant.

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Notably, those guidelines mandated a "preponderance of the evidence" standard in sexual misconduct complaints; previously, most elite universities and many other schools had used the higher standard of "clear and convincing evidence." Under the preponderance rule, those adjudicating the case must find against the defendant if the probability of guilt is even slightly more than 50-50. In practice, it's a de facto coin toss — with federal pressure to be tough on sexual assault adding strong incentives to err on the side of the accuser.