I’VE KNOWN JANET HALLEY FOR A LONG TIME, AND I’M NOT SURPRISED TO SEE THIS: Law Professor Janet Halley on Why Harvard’s Sexual Harassment Policy Must Change.
The procedures, too, risk making victims of the unharmed and villains of the innocent. They deprive accused students of due process by placing the entire decision-making process in the hands of a single university officer, who has the authority to charge, investigate, adjudicate and hear appeals, all in a single case. That officer is in the impossible position of checking, testing and reviewing her own decisions.
The new policy also deprives accused students of due process by according complainants at least 14 procedural advantages that are withheld from the accused. For example, the accused is totally locked out of the inquiry into whether the alleged conduct, if it occurred, constitutes sexual harassment. These tilts go so far that the very presumption of innocence is under threat.
That isn’t by accident.