FIRE: College Students Deserve Due Process Protections

From the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression:

This spring, the government is expected to make investigations of campus sexual misconduct less fair and less accurate.

The Department of Education will release new rules on how colleges investigate allegations of sexual misconduct. The rules are likely to deprive students of important rights during the fact-finding process — such as a live hearing, the cross-examination of witnesses, and the ability to have an attorney present.

These are rights that any of us would want in a process designed to determine guilt or innocence. And they’re especially important during high-stakes investigations on serious misconduct like sexual harassment. 

The stakes are high — too high to get wrong. Colleges must punish students guilty of sexual misconduct, and they must not punish students who are innocent. That’s why colleges need to use every tool in the toolbox to get it right and increase the likelihood of uncovering the truth.

And the American people agree. In our survey with IPSOS:

• 63% agreed that interviews conducted through written testimony are less insightful than in-person interviews.
• 68% say schools must conduct a hearing where both the accused and accuser may hear and contest evidence.
• 79% agreed that all students involved in these investigations should have the right to hire a lawyer.

Despite the popularity of these rights for a fair investigation, they’re all on the chopping block.

"Our polling shows that the public overwhelmingly rejects the false choice between protecting victims and upholding due process for the accused," said FIRE Lead Counsel for Government Affairs Tyler Coward. "Americans believe that campus sexual assault is a serious problem, but that scrapping basic standards of fairness and impartiality isn’t the answer."