When Colleges Abolish Due Process in Sex Disputes, Innocent Lives Are Ruined

As a victim of Yale University’s rush to abandon
any pretense of fairness in sexual harassment cases, Patrick Witt
has quite a sad tale to tell. The college football player, NBA
hopeful, and Rhodes Scholarship candidate lost everything after
Yale mishandled an informal sexual harassment accusation against
him. Now Witt is a law student at Harvard University and he is
worried his new college is equally committed to trampling accused
students’ due process rights.

Witt recently penned a column for
The Boston Globe detailing the travesty of justice that
ruined all his plans and put his life on hold. Relevant
excerpts:

Harvard’s new policies are substantially similar to those
already in effect at Yale, my alma mater. While an undergraduate
there, my ex-girlfriend filed an informal complaint against me with
the then-newly-created University-Wide Committee on Sexual
Misconduct. The committee summoned me to appear and styled the
meeting as a form of mediation. Its chairman, a professor with no
prior experience handling dispute resolution, told me that I could
have a faculty adviser present but no lawyer, and instructed me to
avoid my accuser, who, by that point, I had neither seen nor spoken
to in weeks. The committee imposed an “expectation of
confidentiality” on me so as to prevent any form of “retaliation”
against my accuser.

I would say more about what the accusation itself entailed if
indeed I had such information. Under the informal complaint
process, specific accusations are not disclosed to the accused, no
fact-finding takes place, and no record is taken of the alleged
misconduct. For the committee to issue an informal complaint, an
accuser need only bring an accusation that, if substantiated, would
constitute a violation of university policy concerning sexual
misconduct. The informal “process” begins and ends at the point of
accusation; the truth of the claim is immaterial.

When I demanded that fact-finding be done so that I could clear
my name, I was told, “There’s nothing to clear your name of.” When
I then requested that a formal complaint be lodged against me — a
process that does involve investigation into the facts — I was told
that such a course of action was impossible for me to initiate. At
any time, however, my accuser retained the right to raise the
complaint to a formal level. No matter, the Committee reassured me,
the informal complaint did not constitute a disciplinary proceeding
and nothing would be attached to my official record at Yale.

Nevertheless, Witt’s employer, the Rhodes Trust, The New
York Times, and the public at large eventually found out about
the accusation. He was disgraced but unable to rectify the matter,
since the claim was never investigated or adjudicated in any
logical way. Witt’s dream of playing in the NFL was crushed, he was
forced to withdraw his Rhodes Scholarship candidacy, and his
employment ended.

Witt warns that “the destructive power that Yale’s and now
Harvard’s new sexual misconduct policies wield is immense and
grossly underestimated.” For what it’s worth, 28 members of
Harvard’s law faculty
agree—and signed a letter saying so. Sexual harassment and rape
are serious issues that demand serious responses. They should not
be dealt with by kangaroo courts or extra-legal inquisitions.

Read Witt’s full story
here.