Dear Ms. DeVos,
On September 7th, you made an announcement at an invitation only event at George Mason University.
In your announcement you said that “Dear Colleague Letter” from the Obama Administration will be formally withdrawn. You have decided that the standard of proof for school disciplinary proceedings needs to be raised in cases of sexual assault. You have decided that instead of improving what is already there, it would be better to basically go back several years and start over. These decisions have not received positive reactions and I do understand how people feel. With that being said, I can see what led you to make this announcement.
Now I agree that the way sexual assault is handled on college campuses could and should be improved. But I think that by withdrawing the “Dear Colleague Letter”, you are theoretically leaving colleges with nothing to rely on. How is that supposed to help victims of assault when they want the school to take action? How is that supposed to help the accused when the school decides to take action? What are you going to do to replace what you are taking away and changing? Everything that I have read has covered what you want to change or take away. But I have yet to see a solid replacement plan so that universities can move forward. Yes, you want to raise the standard of evidence but that is just one part of the policy. What about the investigation or the hearing or basically everything else? How is it all going to work? Also by raising the standard of evidence, doesn’t that mean it should become a legal proceeding? Should schools be handling sexual violence cases in the first place? I fear that all these questions will go unanswered or they will be answered without proof to back it all up.
As a female college student, an advocate for survivors of sexual assault, and an advocate for positive mental health, I am concerned about your decision. So I am going to hope that you come up with a plan to replace what you have taken away sooner rather than later.
Sincerely,
A concerned college senior