Legal Duty to Investigate Sexual Assaults Costing Colleges Billions

WASHINGTON - April 10, 2017 - PRLog -- Claims of sexual assault on campuses which resulted in litigation cost colleges and universities an average of $350,000, with totals during a recent period of about $60 million, according to a new report by an insurance cooperative which handles such cases, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who says that's only a small fraction of the total cost.

        Banzhaf also noted that, according to a Risk Research Bulletin put out by insurance company United Educators (UE), student-on-student sexual assaults - which UE termed "a perfect storm - of alcohol, mental health, and sexual violence" - cost its members more than $36 million in losses from 2006-2010."

        Since the UE represents only about 1,200 educational institutions - including independent schools and public school districts, as well as colleges and universities - and because, according to many reports, the number of complaints and campus proceedings exploded only after that time period, it is likely that the sum of losses at all colleges and universities to date is much higher and will continue to grow.

        Banzhaf also noted that the Association of Title IX Administrators says it is the "professional home for nearly 7,000 Title IX administrators."

        If each administrator devoted only 50% of his or her time to complaints about sexual assault - especially since little effort is required at this point to assure compliance with the primary and original purpose of Title IX which was to equalize athletic opportunities - and each cost only $200,000 in salary, benefits, support staff, etc., the cost of this alone in student tuition dollars would be about $700 million a year.

        Because of the enormous costs imposed by the Department of Education's requirements that colleges investigate and deal with all reports of campus sexual assaults, and a growing chorus of concerns by courts, legal scholars, and others about gross violations of due process rights, there is growing pressure on the Department of Education to rescind this requirement, as it did with its transgender-restroom rule.

        A House Freedom Caucus Report was recently updated to recommend that the Trump administration roll back 2011 campus sexual assault guidelines that "deny the often-innocent accused basic due process rights" and have "pressured colleges to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and to create vast campus bureaucracies," notes Banzhaf.

        Incoming Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) updated the recommendations to follow the very strong position set forth in the Republican party platform which provides that the existing guidelines "contravenes our country's legal traditions and MUST BE HALTED." [emphasis added]

        Meadows' updated report says the guidance issued by the Department of Education "has pressured colleges to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and to create vast campus bureaucracies" to investigate sexual assault and date rape -  "the incidence of which may be overstated."

        The guidance "virtually dictates one-size-fits-all procedures which provide less protection to the accused," the report says, and denies the rights of  "the often-innocent accused."

        Indeed, the Wall Street Journal noted that the procedures include even fewer procedural protections than the dreaded Star Chamber, notes Banzhaf, who has helped students fight against unfair proceedings, and has suggested an alternative procedure about to be tested.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),
2000 H Street, NW, Wash, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/  jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com  @profbanzhaf