DOE tells Princeton "Clear and Convincing" Is Too High of a Burden

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Princeton had been one of the last hold-outs on the standard of proof in college rape trials. The university required adjudicators to obtain "clear and convincing" proof that a student was guilty of sexual assault before convicting him. That's too tough, said DOE. As part of its settlement, Princeton is required to lower its evidence standard to "a preponderance of the evidence," which means adjudicators must convict if they are 50.1 percent persuaded by the accuser.

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On the other side, Laura Dunn, executive director of victims' advocacy center SurvJustice, hilariously told InsideHigherEd that "ingrained male privilege" was the only reason for using a lower evidence standard. Thankfully, the federal government is beating that tendency out of colleges, she said:

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Unfortunately, no legal authority will ever have the chance to examine DOE's very due-process-unfriendly interpretation of the law, because colleges are either too afraid of standing up to the feds, or have an ever-weakening commitment to civil libertarian values. Or both.

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