PENN STATE MORE INTERESTED IN POLITICS THAN IN SAVING A MALE STUDENT’S LIFE:
Pennsylvania State University appeared to be more concerned with federal pressure to “do something” about campus sexual assault than the life of one its students.
The student was found responsible using a process even the federal government has deemed unfair (more on that later) and suspended for two semesters. The problem is, the fourth-year architectural engineering student says that if the suspension is upheld he will be forced to return to war-torn Syria, where two members of his family have already been killed due to the civil war. . . .
The student in question was accused of sexual assault earlier this spring, months after a sexual encounter last December. The encounter, which occurred at a campus fraternity house, involved a young woman who went to the basement during a party, where Doe and two of his friends were, and performed oral sex on all three.
Doe says in his lawsuit that the woman initiated the encounter. She told the university that she had been too drunk to consent to such behavior. It was her sister that reported the encounter to police, but after an investigation, the police declined to file charges. The accuser then went to the school, which initiated its own investigation into the matter, using a single-investigator model of adjudication.
The single-investigator model used by Penn State replaced a hearing procedure where students could call witnesses and cross-examine their accuser. The new model employed by Penn State had one person interview the accuser, accused and any witnesses they provided, then present their findings to a hearing panel, without the students being able to participate.
The Education Department has deemed the single-investigator model to be unfair, as it creates conflicts of interest.
If it’s too unfair for the Department of Education, it’s too unfair. And shame on universities who care more about sucking up to federal educrats than they do about their own students. Which, sadly, seems to be nearly all of them.