More Men Fight College Allegations of Sexual Assault

3-20-15 New York:

Lawsuit is one of more than 2 dozen similar suits since start of last year

A former undergraduate student sued Cornell University, alleging the Ivy League school wrongly accused him of forcing himself on a female student.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday by a man referred to as John Doe, is the latest to be brought against a school amid a crackdown on campus sexual assaults. It contends Cornell violated his due-process rights when the school concluded he raped a fellow student after a party in December 2013 and then withheld his diploma.

The suit says the Ithaca, N.Y., university “cherry-picked witness statements,” “ignored important…statements” and judged the credibility of witnesses “without any ascertainable rationale or logic.”

A spokesman for Cornell declined to comment.

Since the start of last year, more than two dozen men have sued colleges and universities over such cases, largely alleging that the schools’ disciplinary processes are stacked against them. The number is a dramatic jump from just a few years ago.

Last week, a Boston College graduate sued the school, saying it failed to give him a fair hearing after accusing him of sexual assault.

A spokesman for Boston College said the school “stands by the findings of its administrators who adjudicated the case, and we intend to defend our decision in court.”

Some of the suits have already fallen flat. But actions brought against Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado led to settlements in which the schools either set aside sanctions or reduced them. Others have led to judicial rulings that questioned whether the schools’ disciplinary processes afford men a fair shake.

In recent years, colleges have made it easier for female students to initiate actions against men they accuse of sexual assault.

In 2011, citing hotly debated statistics that about 1 in 5 women is a victim of “completed or attempted” sexual assault in college, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights set forth new procedures for schools to follow when handling sexual assault and harassment claims.

Among other things, the Education Department recommended that alleged victims be required to prove only that it was “more likely than not” the harassment or violence occurred to hold an accused responsible. ..Continued.. by Ashby Jones