One Year Later: OCR Stonewalls Objections to New Harassment Guidelines

Glenn Ricketts

It's been exactly one year since the Office for Civil Rights in the federal Depatrment of Education issued new requirements under which colleges and universities must process cases involving allegations of sexaul harassment or sexual assault.   The new rules as we noted here, seemed to stack the deck even more heavily against the accused, so that mere accusation was tantamount to conviction.   And not only due process:  freedom of speech and expression were directly threatened as well, given the broad and vaguely defined notion of "offensive" speech which OCR's definitions seemed to embrace.  College campuses, often remiss in protecting these areas, now seemed to be pushed even further down the road of censorship by OCR's new rules.

NAS, along with FIRE, the AAUP and numerous other organizations protested strongly, asking that the new regulations be rescinded.  To date, as FIRE notes in this press release today, OCR has been wholly silent, its new regime still firmly in place.  No public response, no acknowledgment of the legitimacy of these concerns, zero.

We'll be staying the course with FIRE and others who have risen to the defense of academic freedom of speech and the due process rights of those accused of harassment.  But it looks to be a very long haul, unfortunately.

  • Share

Most Commented

January 8, 2025

1.

NAS Condemns the AHA's “Scholasticide” Resolution

The National Association of Scholars condemns the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,” which the members of the American Historical Association passed by 428 t......

February 24, 2025

2.

NAS Applauds the American Bar Association's Suspension of DEI Rules

The American Bar Association must now move beyond suspending the enforcement of its misbegotten rules to the elimination of the rules themselves....

February 13, 2025

3.

The Grown Ups are Back: On Gender, Trump Replaces Confusion and Chaos with Clarity and Common Sense

With this administration, the grown ups are back: Trump is replacing confusion and chaos with clarity and common sense—not just for women’s sports but also for America....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

May 26, 2010

3.

10 Reasons Not to Go to College

A sampling of arguments for the idea that college may not be for everyone....