Columbus, Ohio-The Ohio State University’s handling of sexual assault and harassment cases is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The review launched earlier this month comes in response to a complaint filed by students and victim advocates.

The complaint charges that OSU has established a process that denies victims their civil rights under the gender equity and sexual harassment requirements of Title IX by requiring too high a burden of proof to find their assailants responsible in campus disciplinary proceedings.

“The unreasonably high level of evidence currently in place for sexual misconduct hearings leaves victims reluctant to report violations,” said Jennifer Yoder, one of the students who filed the complaint against OSU and co-chair of Women and Allies Rising in Resistance (WARR).  “It is imperative that the University begin enforcing a just standard of evidence, as it is OSU's responsibility to ensure a fair and lawful judicial process for victims of sexual violence as with all forms of discrimination on campus.”

“Title IX requires schools to adopt equitable policies to redress sexual assault on campus,” said civil rights attorney Wendy Murphy who represents the students in this case and works with the non-profit advocacy group Security On Campus, Inc. (SOC). "Equitable means fair and it is our contention that it is simply unfair to require victims to comply with an unreasonably high burden of proof.”

“The OSU standard of 'clear and convincing evidence' is too harsh compared to the 'preponderance of evidence' standard applied by most schools and enforced by the Office for Civil Rights in other jurisdictions,” Murphy added. “A preponderance of the evidence requires determining that a person is probably telling the truth while the clear and convincing standard requires clear evidence which can be difficult in a case where the question is whether the offender had the victim’s lawful consent.”

“We are hopeful that OCR will support OSU in revising its policies in a manner that fosters more reporting and fairer resolutions of sexual assaults and gender-based violence on campus,” Murphy said.

A separate federal review, begun in 2004, of OSU’s handling of sexual assault complaints under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act following a complaint by SOC remains open.

-###-