‘Innocent Until Proven Guilty’? Not At Most American Universities

Students attending America’s colleges and universities believe they should receive proper due process if they are accused of breaking campus rules, yet most schools fail to provide them with such fairness.

A recent report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) found some alarming statistics about the nation’s top 53 institutions of higher learning, including that nearly three-quarters of them do not presume the innocence of students accused of a range of crimes, such as vandalism, theft, or sexual assault. Some 90% do not guarantee accused students the right to cross-examine their accusers (or vice versa). Further, not one of the schools surveyed by FIRE includes the due process rights required under the new, proposed Title IX regulations from the Education Department.

“Students accused of serious campus offenses routinely face life-altering punishment without a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves,” Susan Kruth, lead author of the FIRE report, said in a statement. “Universities need to provide basic procedural protections that help ensure accurate outcomes, and right now they overwhelmingly do not.”

FIRE found the top universities using the U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings, and rated the institutions based on how many of 10 “fundamental procedural safeguards” provided to students. Those 10 safeguards are:

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