#122 Title IX and Sexual Assault: Jeannie Suk Gersen
Days ago, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos scrapped Obama-era Title IX rules on campus sexual assault, plunging herself into a furious controversy. This episode goes beyond name-calling and looks at how colleges and universities could improve their policies.
"This harmful step in the wrong direction may cause survivors of sexual assault to go back into the shadows, Democratic Senator Patty Murray said of the DeVos guidance. The co-founder of the group, End Rape on Campus, Sofie Karasek, went further, claiming the aim of the new policy was “to protect those who ‘grab’ by the genitals and brag about it”.
But Harvard Law Professor, Jeannie Suk Gersen, a longtime critic of the Obama Administration's 2011 letter to colleges and universities, wrote in NewYorker.com that if the DeVos statements "were made by a different official in a different Administration, they would seem rational, uncontroversial, and even banal."
In this episode of "How Do We Fix It?," we discuss arguments over "rape culture" on college campuses and the need to be fair to both the accused and the accuser. We look at the difference between "preponderance of evidence" and "clear and convincing" evidence when judging Title IX cases.