Open Letter to the HLS 28
Open Letter to the 28 Faculty Signatories of the October 15th Op-Ed Opposing Harvard University's Title IX Policy:
AS STUDENTS of Harvard Law School, we write to voice our support for survivors of sexual assault, for promoting equal access to the benefits of education, for efforts to make our campus safer, and for administrators and faculty who treated federal civil rights law as a floor rather than a ceiling.
Members of the HLS community need to take seriously the epidemic of sexual assault on campuses around the country. For university sexual assault hearings, the criminal justice model may not be appropriate to address the unique problems both student complainants and accused face. That is where Title IX offices like Harvard University’s Office for Sexual and Gender-Based Dispute Resolution, and its new policy, have a positive role to play.
Regarding your due process concerns, the new university process is administrative, not criminal, but it still incorporates traditional safeguards of the American legal system. The policy is far from perfect and needs clarification, but it is clear that both sides in the process are encouraged to choose an advisor from among the university’s faculty, are given access to all the facts, have the right to present evidence, and are given the chance to appeal. The new policy explicitly recommends that students seek legal counsel before making written or oral statements. Firmly believing in the importance of due process and the rights of the accused, we recognize the existence of those protections in the new policy.
You claim that the new policy “effectively destroyed the individual schools’ traditional authority to decide discipline for their own students” by localizing arbitration in a university-wide Title IX Office. We believe that a university-wide structure is a fairer way of ensuring that all students, regardless of school affiliation, can access a neutral arbiter. Whether a student is studying design, law, or medicine should have no effect on the protections they receive. A Title IX Office has the expertise and commitment to equality to both uphold the law and implement university policy. This system was designed by a committee of faculty, students, and experts with frequent invitations to all interested parties to participate.
We appreciate your interest in assuring the university’s policy is fair, and we welcome your attempts to remedy some of the its shortcomings. But we worry that your letter has distracted many in our community from an important goal—ending the scourge of sexual assault at our university. On that account, the new policy represents a step in the right direction. Instead of condemning the Title IX Office, we should now focus our energies on improving its policy—always with the twin goals of preventing sexual assault and sexual harassment and of ensuring justice and fairness are served.
Because going to Harvard is a privilege, but safety is a right; because when you speak, people listen; because we respect you, and consider your voices when finding our own: we ask you to reconsider the positions in your October 15th Op-Ed.