Finding the Right Balance

Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com

One of the most difficult issues currently on our campuses which impacts fraternities and sororities, as well as all students, is the issue of sexual assault, or sexual misconduct.

The issue is receiving intense attention while some challenge the numbers cited in the White House Report “Not Alone,” that one in five women will experience sexual assault during their collegiate experience.  Whatever the numbers, the attention is justified.  The issues involved are numerous.

Colleges, legislators and students struggle with what constitutes consensual sex.  Colleges and universities stretch to comply with the directives from the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and how to ensure both care for the victim and the basic fairness to which an accused perpetrator is entitled. Other issues include:  how to proceed when a victim does not want a criminal report filed, but only wants to not have to sit in the same classroom with the alleged perpetrator; when is it appropriate for a university to proceed with a disciplinary process while a criminal investigation or prosecution is underway; what is the appropriate standard of proof; what role may an attorney play in defending the accused in a campus hearing; how to afford the right of confrontation without re-victimizing the victim; and who should be on the campus hearing panel — seventy-six (76) student body presidents joined in a letter to the Secretary of Education objecting to removing students from disciplinary panels.

These are all difficult and serious questions.

This issue of Fraternal Law presents a special selection of articles as a part of this critical national discussion.