Article here. Excerpt:

'There was little discussion of due process rights in campus adjudications during a Wednesday hearing on campus sexual assault.

As expected, the one-sided hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee focused on how to make reporting easier for sexual assault accusers — which is very important — but failed to address the very real problem of false accusations. Typical statements from senators and other panelists consisted of long discussions about providing help for accusers, with a passing statement about ensuring a fair process tacked on at the end.

Most of the senators present — including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Claire McCaskill and Patty Murray – continually referred to accusers as "victims" or "survivors" and the accused as "accused," "alleged perpetrator" or "rapist." This, like the language of the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, imposes a clear bias.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'UC President Janet Napolitano told lawmakers that she believes the state's 10 UC campuses are already in voluntary compliance with the key elements that senators have included in the bill. For example, Napolitano says the UC system has established an office at each campus that victims can turn to for help.

Senators asked Napolitano how best to foster a culture of sexual assault prevention.

"It begins with creating that culture from the day they begin on campus and then consistency and persistency throughout the college experience," Napolitano said.'

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From 2012: Big Sis Janet Napolitano 'promoted woman with whom she had a 'long relationship' while her female staff tormented male colleagues with 'sexually charged games:

Article here. Excerpt:

'The SAFE CAMPUS Act, sponsored by Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ), Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), introduces meaningful and much needed reforms to the current system of investigating and adjudicating sexual assault allegations on our nation's college campuses.

"Fraternity and sorority members have been leaders in seeking solutions to the most important issues facing students. Campus safety and preserving a student's constitutional rights on campus are among our top priorities," said FSPAC's Executive Director Kevin O'Neill. "The SAFE CAMPUS Act includes numerous provisions that emphasize improvements in campus safety and engage law enforcement to bring more perpetrators of sexual violence to justice. It enhances the rights of all students in the campus adjudication system and reaffirms the importance of a student's right to be involved with a single-sex campus organization."

Article here. Excerpt:

'As heated debate continues over how to handle allegations of sexual assault on college campuses, another bill is about to be thrown into the mix – this one most notable for its efforts to ensure students are able to get a fair hearing on campus, and give law enforcement a more prominent role in such cases.

It also could trigger concern from victims’ advocates who have long pushed to make it easier for students to report violence, and who point to evidence that students may be hesitant to ask for help if they feel a complaint would automatically trigger a criminal investigation or other harsh sanction.

The House bill, sponsored by Republican Reps. Matt Salmon of Arizona and Pete Sessions and Kay Granger of Texas, is expected to drop Wednesday morning.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Kirsten Gillibrand and Patty Murray were among a group of senators speaking before a committee Wednesday on ways to deal with sexual assaults on university campuses.

Sen. Murray, D-Wash, said the issue impacts a huge number of college students.

"The harsh reality is that one out of five women is sexually assaulted in college, and men as well," she said.

As far as the perpetrators, Sen. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., argued that colleges have allowed many to stay on campus.

"They'll routinely kick you out if you cheat on a test, but the statistics for students who have violated other students, who have sexually assaulted or raped them and found responsible show that only one-third are actually expelled for the crime," Gillibrand said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman who made a false rape claim will not be charged, police said today.

The woman has now been given “strong words of advice” by officers after it emerged the incident never happened.

She told police she was sexually assaulted on Kenilworth Road in Billingham yesterday.

But Cleveland Police has decided against bringing criminal charges against her.

A spokeswoman said today: “The woman has been given strong words of advice by police for her actions.”

Police appealed for witnesses to the ‘incident’ after the woman claimed she was attacked in the early hours of yesterday.

A 32-year-old man was arrested but was released with no further action to be taken.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Just when did sexual conduct, not involving the crossing of state lines, become a concern of the federal government?

And what business do colleges have in passing judgment on whether adult students have observed proper sexual etiquette?

A petition for writ of mandate filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 29 prompts these questions—though these aren’t issues in the case. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant will be asked to decide whether Occidental College breached the “fundamental vested rights” of a 20-year-old male student who performed oral sex on a 20-year-old female student, not ceasing in response to an ambiguous utterance on her part that arguably constituted a directive to stop—and was expelled.

Article here. Excerpt:

'One of the most widely cited and uncritically questioned surveys on campus sexual assault has just unraveled.

No, it's not yet another 1-in-5 study, which purports to show that one in five women are victims of sexual assault in college. This one claims to show that the majority of campus rapes were perpetrated by a small number of repeat offenders. The study, authored by David Lisak, was first questioned last year by Slate's Emily Yoffe, who pointed out that the study's respondents were not limited to college students and couldn't be used as a representative sample of national college students.

Now, Reason contributor Linda M. LeFauve takes an incredibly detailed look at just how flawed Lisak's study truly is.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The public debate over the extent and causes of the campus sexual assault crisis is fraught with misleading information. The previously acclaimed work of psychologist David Lisak deserves that distinction as well.

The federal government, universities, and members of Congress have all used Lisak’s theories to justify rape adjudication policies that are biased against accused students. They should reconsider those policies in light of new discoveries about the inapplicability of Lisak’s work.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Colleges don't need any more sexual assault laws or policies, says Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA — Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

I would only disagree in that legislation might be needed to guarantee basic due process rights to students who are accused — sadly, the current campus culture ignores such constitutional rights.

Kruger, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, has taken issue with the notion that colleges were not previously taking campus sexual assault seriously.

"Advancing half-truths and twisting statistics for political gain does nothing to prevent incidents of sexual assault, help victims or make campuses stronger," Kruger wrote. "Public and private college and university administrators, advocates and other experts are working together proactively and students are safer now than they have ever been."'

The U.S. Senate HELP Committee will be holding a one-sided hearing tomorrow, July 29th, to discuss the Campus Accountability and Safety Act (CASA).

This bill does nothing to protect the due process rights of accused students OR get campus sexual assault cases back in the hands of criminal justice experts.

Help us contact the HELP Senators and tell them to vote against this bill before it leaves the higher education committee. This will be the best way to stop CASA.

Find the HELP Senators here to contact the whole list.

Make sure to call Chairman Lamar Alexander's office at (202) 224-4944 and Ranking Member Patty Murray's office at (202) 224-2621!

Tell the Senators to vote against CASA and to protect due process!

Very truly yours,

Gina Lauterio, Esq., Policy Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org

Article here. Excerpt:

The current and former heads of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) split last week on lifting the restrictions on women in combat in special operations and throughout the military.
...
In a separate panel at Aspen, retired Adm. Eric Olson, SOCOM commander from 2007 to 2011, said that the military and the nation must look beyond standards in making the decision and view women in combat in another context.

"I think that we are only having part of the discussion on women in combat," Olson said in a separate panel discussion at Aspen. "I think that we need to ask ourselves as a society if we are willing to put women in front-line combat units to take the first bullet on target."

Olson continued: "Are we willing to cause every 18-year-old girl to sign up for selective service? Are we willing to cause women to serve in infantry units against their will as we do men?"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Regarding the colossal farce of the Tim Hunt affair, about which I wrote previously on this site, more remains to be said about the doubling down of Hunt’s dissembling critics and delators. Connie St. Louis, his principal and most effective accuser, whose pre-redacted CV has now been rumbled as a document full of misrepresentations and “downright falsehoods,” is unrepentant about the snuff job she helped foment. Berating Hunt for sexism and old-boyism while bowdlerizing his text and excerpting only the “problematic” portion of his pre-luncheon toast, she essentially reverse-triggered the larger context of his speech. In this way she tampered with evidence in order to convict her prey.

For this piece of skullduggery, she suffered no qualms of conscience. “I’ve no regrets about breaking a journalistic story,” she boasted.

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s long been recognised that the teenage years are a particularly troubling time. During these formative years, young adults become more engaged in the external and online world; the nature of their relationship with the opposite sex – and their own – changes, all while they are striving to find their own identity.

Article here. Excerpt:

'One of the (very frank) stories I posted from the International AIDS Society conference in Vancouver last week pertained to a device used by nurses to circumcise men in Africa. The story (which you can link to here or read below) drew plenty of feedback, mostly from those in the circumcision-is-mutilation camp.

Some commenters doubt the validity of research showing that medical circumcision cuts the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission in heterosexual males. However, randomized, controlled studies like this and this (among others) have been done and the World Health Organization has based its recommendations on such research. This is an excerpt from WHO:'