Accused students presumed guilty at three in four top colleges, survey finds

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2017-09-05 23:05

Article here. Excerpt:

'If you worry that your children could be swept up in a baseless disciplinary investigation at their colleges, a “first-of-its-kind report” by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education will help you choose schools to blacklist.

Sadly, the vast majority of top schools as rated by U.S. News & World Report – including all but one Ivy League school – should be nixed.

The report evaluated the 53 institutions at the top of U.S. Newsrankings, finding that nearly three-quarters presume a student guilty in a disciplinary proceeding. (Most have separate procedures for sexual misconduct, where accused students fare even worse.) Less than half require their fact-finders, “the institution’s version of judge and/or jury,” to be impartial.'

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https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-campus-rape-policy/538974/

'Kadwo “kojo” bonsu, 23, was on track to graduate in the spring of 2016 with a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Bonsu, who was born in Maryland, is the son of Ghanaian immigrants. He chose UMass because it gave him the opportunity to pursue his two passions, science and music. He told me he hoped to get a doctorate in polymer science or chemical engineering. At UMass he was a member of the National Society of Black Engineers. He also joined a fraternity (he was the only black member), played guitar in a campus jazz band, and tutored jazz guitarists at a local high school.

In the early hours of Saturday, November 1, 2014, Bonsu, then a junior, was at the house where many of his fraternity brothers lived. There he ran into another junior, whom I’ll call R.M., a white, female marketing student. According to a written account by R.M., who declined to be interviewed for this story, the two started talking and smoking marijuana; eventually they kissed. As she wrote, “It got more intense until finally I shifted so that I was straddling him.” She told him she wasn’t interested in intercourse and he said he was fine with that.
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As she talked with her friend, R.M. wrote, she became distraught. She contacted the RAs on duty and reported that she had been sexually assaulted. The RAs called the campus police, who notified the Amherst police. R.M. gave her clothes to a police officer for evidence, although she said she was not ready to file charges. Then she went to the hospital, where she was given a battery of medications for possible STDs.

Just before Thanksgiving, according to a federal lawsuit filed against the university by Bonsu’s attorney, Brett Lampiasi, R.M. went to the dean of students and filed a complaint against Bonsu. She also reported him to the Amherst police. The police investigated and closed the case with no charges filed. On January 12, 2015, Bonsu got an email from a school administrator informing him that a “very serious” allegation had been lodged against him and that until a hearing was held, he was subject to “interim restrictions”: He could not contact R.M., he could visit no dormitories other than his own, he was limited to eating at a single dining hall, and he was forbidden from entering the student union.'

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2017-09-08 00:50