SURVEY: UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS Support Due Process But Are Too Scared to Speak Up
Wonder why you’ve heard so little support for the Department of Education’s proposed campus sexual-misconduct revamp from college leaders? They may be too afraid to publicly agree with it.
The latest annual survey of college and university presidents by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup reveals some presidents are hiding their “true feelings” about the proposal by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, which would enshrine due process protections for accused students in binding regulations. Notably, Inside Higher Ed didn’t bother noting its finding in its news report on the survey. You have to turn over your personal information to Inside Higher Ed and its financial sponsors in order to see the full report, which buries the finding in a table. The Inside Higher Ed report on the survey at least acknowledges that many college presidents belatedly criticized the Obama administration’s guilt-first Title IX guidelines, which were never subjected to regulatory notice-and-comment procedures.
Skeptical as they are about the wisdom of the DeVos proposals, though, campus leaders say some action was needed to correct overzealousness on the part of the Obama administration on campus sexual assault. Half of all presidents – 42 percent of public university leaders and 60 percent of those at private colleges – agree or strongly agree that “the Obama administration’s approach did not place enough emphasis on due process for those accused of sexual assault or harassment.
thecollegefix Greg Piper
