Justice, Due Process and Sexual Assault
The recent debate over Student Assembly’s Committee on Standards Student Task Force Report raises a number of very serious questions about undergraduate judicial proceedings at Dartmouth. The task force, a Student Assembly initiative consisting of seven students, produced a slate of eight recommendations for the consideration of the Dean of the College. While most of these changes were procedural, The Dartmouth Editorial Board found one reform to be particularly contentious — namely, to allow for the accused student to question the witnesses directly, including the accuser. The Dartmouth Editorial Board enthusiastically endorses all of the COS Task Force’s recommendations, with one caveat, which will be discussed below. We urge that Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson and his future successor act upon these recommendations as a whole to improve the Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Office and to correct the radical departures from due process by which Dartmouth students are currently judged within the Dartmouth community. These reforms are crucial — not to reduce the number of cases processed by COS, as Director of Undergraduate Judicial Affairs April Thompson suggested in a letter to the editor in The Dartmouth (“Responsible Behavior,” Oct. 19), but to ensure that all cases proceed according to a fair and just standard. More »
