Harvard Professors Say New Sex Assault Policy Is ‘Stacked Against the Accused’

More than two dozen current and former Harvard Law School professors asked the university to reverse its new, more stringent sexual assault policy, arguing in a letter published Tuesday that the new rules unfairly disadvantage students accused of misconduct.

The new policy, which took effect this fall, includes a provision that requires a “preponderance of evidence” to determine whether sexual assault occurred and creates a university-wide Office for Sexual and Gender-Based Dispute Resolution to handle misconduct complaints like harassment and rape, the Boston Globe reports.

It was announced after the U.S. Department of Education said in May that the Ivy League university was being investigated for its handling of those and similar claims.

The letter, which was signed by 28 well-known academics, alleges the new guidelines “are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused.”

Harvard disagreed in a statement Tuesday, saying the new guidelines “create an expert, neutral, fair, and objective mechanism for investigating sexual misconduct cases involving students.”

[Boston Globe]