Sexual assault is a serious and important concern in higher education, as it is in all other communities. Incidents of sexual assault need to be investigated by the proper authorities and adjudicated in criminal courts. However, the recent survey commissioned by the Association of American Universities on sexual assault is more likely to add to the near hysteria on this topic—spurring schools to adopt misguided policies that curtail accused students’ due process rights—than address the real problems at hand. Sexual assault does not occur in a vacuum.
It is time educators focused on restoring a culture of academic seriousness, reducing grade inflation, scheduling classes five days a week, and demanding rigorous academic standards.
-Anne Neal
President, American Council of Trustees and Alumni
On July 12, ACTA sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions as they met to interview Ms. Catherine E. Lhamon on her nomination to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. This letter was sent to educate the Committee on the importance of due process […]
The 18th-century British jurist William Blackstone pronounced, “It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.” There are few principles of law we hold more sacred than “innocent until proven guilty.” For most of the last decade, however, this doctrine has had negligible impact in matters of campus sexual assault. There […]
WASHINGTON, DC—The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) today praised the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to replace its current guidance on campus sexual assault and submit new guidance to a formal notice-and-comment period. Known as the “Dear Colleague Letter,” the 2011 guidance from the Department of Education outlined how colleges should handle campus […]
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