Good news...yesterday we broke through the 5,000 number. Yay Team! Now we need to turn aspiration into reality.

You probably are aware that last summer, the US Department of Education issued a new regulation requiring that colleges "promote impartial investigations" and assure due process. No surprise, the victim-centered crowd was very unhappy with the new regulation, and now they are trying to overturn it! UGH.

So next week, the Dept. of Education will be holding a Hearing to get public input. SAVE has put together a detailed Group Comment that details why the new regulation is so important. One section of the Group Comment addresses the topic, Impartial Investigations Are the Foundation of Equitable Proceedings -- I've reprinted the entire section below.

We are now inviting persons to be co-signers to the Group Comment, including the section on Impartial Investigations.

Can you help us out? If so, send your name, city, and state to: macwalther@gmail.com  

The Hearing starts four days from now....please take action today!

Sincerely,

Edward Bartlett

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Impartial Investigations Are the Foundation of Equitable Proceedings

An impartial and fair investigation is the foundation of an equitable adjudication. In a recent guidance, the Office for Civil Rights states, “The school must conduct an adequate, reliable, and impartial investigation that provides the parties with an equal opportunity to present witnesses and other evidence.”[1]

Accordingly, the 2020 regulation contains explicitly worded language about the need for truthful investigations:[2]

• "A recipient must ensure that Title IX Coordinators, investigators, decision-makers, and any persons who facilitate an informal resolution process, receive training on….. how to serve impartially, including avoiding prejudgment of the facts at issue, conflicts of interest, and bias… recipient also must ensure that investigators receive training on issues of relevance to create an investigative report that fairly summarizes relevant evidence. Any materials used to train Title IX Coordinators, investigators, decision-makers, and any person who facilitates an informal resolution process, must not rely on sex stereotypes and must promote impartial investigations and adjudications of formal complaints of sexual harassment."

Because the investigative process is subject to less scrutiny than the adjudication, investigative bias can be difficult to discern. Unfortunately, certain biased investigative philosophies known as “victim-centered,”[3] “trauma-informed,”[4] or “Start By Believing”[5] are believed to be widely utilized in campus investigations. These conviction-oriented philosophies presume the guilt of the respondent and engender confirmation bias.[6]

Trauma-informed concepts, in particular, have been derided as circular and unscientific:

• Title IX: The Big Mess on Campus[7]
• Title IX and “Trauma-Focused” Investigations: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly[8]
• Best-Practice Interviewing Spans Many Contexts[9]
• Title IX Investigations: The Importance of Training Investigators in Evidence-Based Approaches to Interviewing[10]

Recognizing the importance of impartial campus investigations, SAVE established an online petition in 2019. The petition features the plight of Matt Rolph, a former student at Hobart College in Geneva, New York. Despite the fact that a jury had found him innocent of all sexual assault charges, the college mounted a “victim-centered” investigation of him that:

·         Did not record any of the interviews.

·         Failed to review innocence-proving text messages sent by Jane.

·         Failed to get records supporting Jane’s claim of medical problems caused by the incident.

·         Did not resolve inconsistencies among witness statements.

The former student subsequently filed a lawsuit against the College. Judge Elizabeth Wolford eventually ruled in favor of Rolph’s claims of investigative bias.[11] As of June 3, 2021, 5,015 persons had co-signed the petition demanding an end to “Start By Believing” investigations.[12]

The name, location, and signature date of these 5,015 persons is attached to this Group Comment.