SAVE: Law Professors and Groups Call on Congress to Rein in OCR, Restore Free Speech and Due Process on Campus

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Gina Lauterio
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: info@saveservices.org

WASHINGTON / December 9, 2015 – Today a group of law professors and leading organizations are releasing a letter that calls on Congress to require the federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to act in a lawful manner in its issuance of new regulations. Over the years the OCR has released numerous directives without seeking prior review and comment, as required by the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

The Department of Education’s OCR has treated its directives as mandates, threatening universities with loss of federal funding if they did not comply. These directives, known as Dear Colleague Letters, have eroded free speech and due process on college campuses, the professors say.

In one celebrated case, Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis published an article criticizing her school’s sexual harassment policy. Ironically, Kipnis soon found herself the target of a sexual harassment complaint alleging her article could create a “chilling effect” on future complainants. Kipnis later described the college’s full-scale probe a “Title IX Inquisition:” http://chronicle.com/article/My-Title-IX-Inquisition/230489

Northwestern University’s months-long investigation of the Kipnis editorial was based on a previous OCR Agreement specifying that “the University has an obligation to consider the effects of off-campus conduct.”

The professors and organizations expressed their “profound concern regarding the alarming erosion of free speech and due process on college campuses, which has arisen in response to the policies and actions of the Office for Civil Rights.”

Law professors signing the letter include Nadine Strossen, former president of the ACLU and now with New York Law School, Stephanos Bibas of Penn Law, Elizabeth Bartholet of Harvard Law School, Richard Klein of Touro College, and others. Organizational signatories include the National Association of Scholars, Independent Women’s Forum, and Families Advocating for Campus Equality.

A copy of the letter to Congress can be seen here: http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/ocr/

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is working to protect free speech on campus and promote effective solutions to sexual assault: http://www.saveservices.org/