NO RIGHTS FOR THE ACCUSED: Why Have a Hearing? Just Expel Him.

“Why could we not expel a student based on an allegation?” That astonishing question was posed at a conference on how colleges respond to sexual assault issues by Amanda Childress, Sexual Assault Awareness Program coordinator at Dartmouth. According to Inside Higher Ed, Childress continued: “It seems to me that we value fair and equitable processes more than we value the safety of our students. And higher education is not a right. Safety is a right. Higher education is a privilege.”

Give Childress credit for candor–even the campus spokespersons for increasing the number of guilty findings in campus tribunals usually aren’t so bald in their disdain for basic principles of due process.

Childress’ jarring remarks coincided with news that Dartmouth had promoted her, and given her additional power over the college’s sexual assault policies.

Institutions should be free to determine who can enter and who can stay, and under what circumstances. But men should take notice that they aren’t welcome, and then act accordingly. And they should reconsider whether they want such institutions to receive public money.