DeVos cuts to civil rights make college students less safe

Updated Sept. 9, 2017

In a few short weeks, the campuses of American colleges will be full of new and returning students, as they rush to and fro, from the student bookstore to their classes, pausing, no doubt, to check their text and email messages. There will also be parties (keggers in my day) and the inevitable exchange of gossip and evaluations on both their peers, and teachers. Yet, for many of them, the flirting between the sexes could take a nasty turn in unwanted sexual advances that could end in assault charges.

During the Obama administration many of these young women, and some men, had gained a measure of protection, but with the Trump administration, and the new education cabinet head, Betsy DeVos, of Michigan, they will be a lot less protected.

In what might regrettably fall into one of the many embarrassing moments in the lives of public officials, NPR reported last week that “Candice Jackson, whom DeVos appointed as the top enforcer of sexual assault cases at the Department of Education, seemed to agree with that position in remarks to The New York Times on Wednesday. Campus rape "accusations — 90 percent of them — fall into the category of 'we were both drunk,' " she said in part. She apologized later that same day, calling the remarks "flippant."

Amongst the many moments that President Trump and his cabinet members, and staff, may have wished that they had been drinking,when they spoke, this was one that seems the most regrettable, not to mention insensitive.  Yet, it also seems to be part of this administration's goals, not only to reverse anything that President Obama legislated, but also to be even less, than sympathetic towards women, than has been previously acknowledged.

But, if the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then putting her foot in her mouth was Jackson’s boss, De Vos, who in her remarks to reporters, sent a mixed message: "lives have been ruined" by allegations of sexual assault. She also added, in a remark that could be also be read in two ways: "No student should be the victim of sexual assault," she added. "No student should feel unsafe ... and no students should feel like the scales are tipped against him or her."

Here are the uncomfortable statistics: “11.2% of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation (among all graduate and undergraduate students). Among graduate and professional students, 8.8% of females and 2.2% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation. Among undergraduate students, 23.1% of females and 5.4% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation; and 4.2% of students have experienced stalking since entering college.”

In one of those ironic, and straight from the pages of “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” moments, it was also reported by Mic.com that “Jackson is the self-described "libertarian feminist" formerly best known for accusing 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton of being a "rape enabler." As the Washington Post noted, Jackson's connections with women who had accused Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, of sexual misconduct "became an asset" for Donald Trump's campaign after video surfaced of Trump bragging about assaulting women.”

Perhaps even more disturbing is that despite definitive moves by the Obama administration to strengthen the hands of the Office of Civil Rights, “according to an internal memo issued by acting DOE office of civil rights director Candice E. Jackson, the [New York] Times wrote, investigators at the agency will no longer be required to "broaden their inquiries to identify systemic issues and whole classes of victims." They have also been instructed it is no longer mandatory to alert D.C. officials of "all highly sensitive complaints" like allegations of racial discrimination or failure to properly investigate campus sexual assaults.

President Trump's budget proposes cutting more than 40 jobs at the DOE civil rights division, and cut more than $ 2million, adds further fuel to the fire. And, to that effect, “Jackson also recently defended new policies on the rights of trans students after one employee told the Huffington Post "officials should investigate issues of discrimination just as they would have before the Obama-era rules were implemented.”

“During the Obama administration, the department's Office for Civil Rights named colleges that faced scrutiny for mishandling sexual assault; outlined protections for transgender students (which recently have been revoked) and identified patterns of discrimination in school districts and universities,” noted the Los Angeles TImes.

Key to the Obama policies was “that certain types of complaints could automatically trigger broader investigations that looked into more than just the particular instance of discrimination highlighted in a complaint.”

"It was something I created after resolutions that were insufficiently comprehensive, and realizing we needed to be more thorough," said Catherine Lhamon, who led the office under President Obama.

As most people are aware, the cost of a college education, at both private and public schools is rising, and with that most students need some form of financial aid to complete their degrees. For some, notably the more egregious for-profit schools, raiding the coffers of federal financial aid became a habit, much like the infamous episode at Corinthian Colleges, considered the poster child for fraudulent behavior.

The Obama Administration was aggressive in protecting students from schools like Corinthian (now forced to pay students delinquent loans) and last month, DeVos “walked back two Obama-era regulations aimed at protecting student borrowers. Beginning with two public hearings this week, in Washington, D.C., and in Dallas, the Education Department has reopened the "negotiated regulation" process, or "neg reg" as insiders call it.”

The "gainful employment" rule sanctions individual programs at colleges and universities based on how many students are able to payback their loans. Specifically, their "borrower defense to repayment" rule paved the way for students “to get their loans forgiven if their college is found to engage in fraudulent behavior, a situation that has befallen tens of thousands of students,”  at not only Corinthian Colleges but ITT Technical Institute, “among others, in the last few years,” noted National Public Radio.

The rollback by DeVos has sent waves of discontent among elected officials, and notably, “Several lawmakers and observers saw the department's withdrawal of the borrower-defense rule as unfairly tipping the scales in favor of for-profit colleges. Senate Democrats sent a letter to Ms. DeVos last week asking her to keep the regulations in place. "Delaying the borrower-defense rule would be a monumental dereliction of the duty you have to protect students and taxpayers," the senators wrote, "and would increase the risk of repeating the recent history of students left holding the bag while executives at collapsing institutions made away with millions in profits,” reported The Chronicle of Higher Education.

As reported, on this blog, and elsewhere in the media, DeVos has established herself as a clear and present danger to vulnerable college students. "At best, this administration believes that civil rights enforcement is superfluous and can be easily cut. At worst, it really is part of a systematic agenda to roll back civil rights," Vanita Gupta, the former acting head of the DOJ [Department of Justice] civil rights division under President Barack Obama, told ProPublica.

Thursday’s news that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has decided to rescind the basic principles of Title IX protection for sexual assault victims, and its adjudication, on American college campuses, and to go beyond the guidelines established by the Department of Civil RIghts, should, perhaps not come to the surprise of anyone, considering the statements that she made in July.

Now coming towards the beginning of a new Fall semester makes most, including students, parents and school administrators, look askance, at what might surely  damage to the process of adjudication.

"Every survivor of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously. Every student accused of sexual misconduct must know that guilt is not predetermined," she said.

Most observers, critics, and even pundits, recognize that this is a nod to a view that supports the male as perpetrator, and shoves the mostly female view to the side.

In the, by now, established, Obama trashing, the Secretary unequivocally stated The truth is that the system established by the prior administration has failed too many students," she said during remarks at George Mason University in Virginia.

"Survivors, victims of a lack of due process and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved."

While claiming that there will be solicitation of public comments, that is an old Washington ploy, that fools no one and, and involves no one, and might include, at best a small hand picked sample, to which the press would be invited: in short a photo-op, or what used to be called a “dog and pony show.”

In the vein of many Trump Administration cabinet heads, she seems determined to kill the very institutions that she purportedly protects, much like Ben Carson at HUD, and RIck Perry at Energy.

As NBC News reported, “DeVos' announcement drew criticism from advocates for survivors, who feared any impending changes would roll back key gains made by the Obama administration to prioritize combating campus sex assault.”

“Alexandra Brodsky, a legal fellow at NWLC, told NBC News she felt DeVos made "false equivalencies between the experiences of survivors and the experiences of accused students" and "misrepresented" Obama-era guidance,”  in her reaction to the news.

Feeling elated were, “advocates who have argued that the accused do not always receive fair investigations under the previous administration's guidance welcomed DeVos' new approach, the station reported.

"One of the reasons why we've been so concerned about this is because the current approach has really badly undermined due process on college campuses," said Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

"I think that here we have for the first time in my memory an education secretary who acknowledges that this is an issue that requires us to care about everyone on all sides of it," he added.

Huffington Post noted that “she did not announce any large policy changes to Title IX other than implying that the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter would be rescinded when she told the crowd “the era of rule by letter” has ended.

“The Obama-era Dear Colleague Letter, which was created by then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2011, is a comprehensive set of guidelines that essentially serve as a reminder to universities and Title IX administrators that schools need to follow the Title IX law.”

Echoing President Trump’s remarks in the aftermath of the Charlottesville violence, about blame on both sides, DeVos shared her own false dichotomy, since “Although just between 2 and 10 percent of reported rapes turn out to be false claims, DeVos devoted equal time to the stories of sexual assault survivors and those wrongly accused as if the group is the same size as survivors of sexual violence.”

“This campus official, who may or may not have any training in adjudicating sexual misconduct, is expected to render a judgment,” DeVos said, walking the crowd through the Title IX process. “A judgment that changes the direction of both students’ lives. The right to appeal may or may not be available to either party and no one is permitted to talk about what went on behind closed doors. It’s no wonder so many call these proceedings kangaroo courts.”

That term is used by certain men’s groups that claim, much like old-school gangsters that they were framed, or as Jackson noted, that it was a case of both students being drunk.

Another unknown fact is that since most sexual assault goes unreported, making most observers, who while not surprised, by her remarks, wonder why this emphasis on parity between victim and assailant?