Colleges Turning In Desperation To Outside SVUs For Date Rape Cases

WASHINGTON - April 14, 2015 - PRLog -- Colleges, faced with irreconcilable conflicts of interest, over $100 million in costs which are still increasing, inexcusably long delays, and fear of a total cutoff of federal funds or huge judgments in courts, are looking for better ways to handle allegations of date rape.

        One approach finally being seriously considered is to turn the investigations and even the adjudications over to a consortium of many universities in the same city or region which could handle the tasks with the expertise most can't afford and the impartiality which they cannot possibly achieve, but which is increasingly being demanded of them, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

        Banzhaf, widely credited with coming up with a compromise between having such cases handled solely by law enforcement authorities, or, alternatively, solely by individual institutions of higher learning, notes that the newspaper of record for higher education has just reported that: "Some college leaders are quietly talking about other alternatives. Could they pool their resources and create regional tribunals — staffed by legal experts — to handle rape allegations?"

        The article in yesterday’s edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education points out that even Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has championed the move to provide more protection for women on campuses, has conceded: "Right now, the process . . . on college campuses serves no one . . . "It's a broken system."

        The Chronicle also points out the "inherent conflicts" which occur when colleges try to do the job themselves.  Having too many guilty findings and a college can be "branded a 'rape haven,'" but being perceived as not having enough can lead to a federal investigation and possible loss of all federal funding.

        But, as Banzhaf has noted in several publications in which he is cited as a expert. colleges in the same city could pool the resources to establish a private SVU, staffed by experienced sex crime investigators who would have none of the inherent conflicts of interests or appearances of impropriety which individual colleges cannot escape.

        Here’s what U.S. News said:  "If there's one thing the anti-campus rape movement and the backlash it's prompted can agree on, it’s that schools have struggled with handling allegations of sexual assault. . . .  To appease the concerns of both victims and the students they accuse . . . John Banzhaf, a public interest law professor at George Washington University – is backing a solution he says would also benefit schools struggling to support the resources required to internally investigate sexual assault."     “And then colleges are pushed in the other direction by [the Department of Education] and many of the activists and organizations.  'But a consortium wouldn't be pushed in any way at all. They don't have donors, they don't have basketball teams. They are completely and totally impartial.'

    As a first step, Banzhaf says he would like to see the federal government offer grant funding for a trial program in a metropolitan area."  According to U.S. News, many experts also agree that the idea should be tried, especially since no one seems to be happy with the current system.

        Earlier, the Washington Examiner,reported: "Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University Law School and one of the leading voices on the issue of due process, provided the Examiner an extensive proposal for reforming how colleges handle sexual assault claims.  As for letting colleges and universities handle the cases exclusively, Banzhaf said that sexual assault is too serious an issue. ‘These system[s] are designed primarily to handle minor infractions (e.g., underage drinking, minor mischief, brawls, etc.), which can easily be investigated by campus police . . . because the evidence is usually pretty clear,’ he said. The punishments for these infractions are generally not that severe, Banzhaf said."

        "But for sexual assault, campuses need ‘specially trained investigators who follow standardized procedures/protocols, which include careful intake questions of the accuser as well as the accused, the careful preservation of evidence, etc.”  Banzhaf noted that ‘virtually no campus’ has enough sexual assault cases to employ a trained professional full-time. Banzhaf instead believes that, at least in areas with multiple universities, the schools could establish a ‘consortium’ - an independent entity with training that would investigate the accusations. ‘If these investigators concluded that prosecution/adjudication wasn't warranted, they would report that to the school, the matter would be dropped, and no one could reasonably suspect either bias or a careless investigation,’ Banzhaf said."

        ‘If prosecution was warranted, the consortium could also perform that function, presumably using retired judges, retired sex crime prosecutors, retired attorneys, etc. - this would be similar to organizations which now provide arbitration determinations for a reasonable fee,’ he added. ‘Alternatively, the consortium could prosecute the case before an existing arbitration organization or panel.’ Such a proposal would ensure, Banzhaf said, that the matter was ‘adjudicated properly without any possible bias.’”

        National Public Radio also reported favorably on the idea, saying:  "John Banzhaf, a George Washington University law professor, says schools who use their own staff to decide these cases always will be suspect.  He says it's only slightly better when cases are decided by outside investigators who are hired by schools. An even better idea, Banzhaf says, would be to create a totally independent consortium of professionals to both investigate and judge cases. Under such a program, he says, 'there can be no thought that favoritism is being given because someone is a big athlete or that daddy's a big donor, and the standards will be the same across the board — to me it's a win-win-win for everybody.'"

        When five experts were asked by the New York Times to address the problem of rapes at colleges and universities, Prof Banzhaf suggested the following: "One possible way to assure women effective and sensitive investigations, while protecting men from unfair procedures prompted by federal pressures to convict, might be to have all investigations and adjudications handled not by individual colleges, but by consortia of colleges that could afford to employ experienced sex-crime detectives to impartially investigate all allegations, and panels of retired judges to adjudicate guilt whenever the evidence warrants.”