Sexual Assault Inquiry Presents Conundrum for University

Story here. Excerpt:

'Experts say the differences between university sexual assault hearings and criminal trials are intentional. Forcing a student to testify in the same room as his or her attacker can be traumatic. It can also have a chilling effect on victims, who may be hesitant to report rape if they have to confront their attackers face-to-face.

"Whenever you are talking about something as sensitive and intimate as sexual violence, it behooves schools to be sensitive to their students, to make sure that the process is fair and comfortable and they are not putting victims in a position of feeling blamed and shamed and having to confront directly," said Neena Chaudhry, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center.

Given that risk, said John Foubert, a professor in the school of educational studies at Oklahoma State University, many college administrators feel it’s unnecessary to match the protections given to a criminal defendant.

“I think you need less due process,” he said, adding that, unlike a criminal trial, an accused student isn’t at risk of incarceration. “There is a different set of consequences.”'