Dive Brief:
- The University of California board of regents has appealed a July decision that said it failed to provide a fair trial to a UC San Diego student accused of sexual misconduct.
- The Los Angeles Times reports a male student was accused of making an unwanted sexual advance on a female student he met at a party, and, after a campus investigation and an appeal by the accuser, the male student was suspended for one year and one quarter.
- The San Diego Superior Court judge said the university’s investigation was unfair because it did not give the accused an opportunity to question the account of the accuser, and he ruled the evidence in the case did not support the campus investigation’s findings.
Dive Insight:
The July ruling was believed to be the first in which a judge said a university failed to provide a fair trial to a student accused of misconduct — at least since the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter in 2011 urging campuses to be more cognizant of their responsibilities to victims of sexual assault. Some have argued that colleges and universities are not equipped to properly respond when they have obligations to both the accused and the accuser. In many cases, however, local law enforcement is left out of the picture. The results of the University of California’s appeal could have major implications for schools across the country, as the initial ruling perhaps already has.