Men in college today have to be very careful. As KC Johnson of Minding the Campus points out in a new post, the deck is automatically stacked against them.

The White House Joins the War on Men

Two new documents out from the White House–the Vice President’s task force recommendations and a question and answer document from the OCR–continue the assault on due process at the expense of males accused of rape or sexual assault on campus. The administration tips its hand quickly with a telltale verbal switch–referring to complainants as “survivors,” rather than as accusers.

This language, which assumes guilt and the fact of a sexual offense before any hearing, is the terminology of hardline feminists who have the ear of this administration and have made it clear that they want more guilty findings. Yet what many observers call rape is viewed by others as a growing prevalence  of ambiguous and drunken encounters fueled by an anything-goes campus culture.

The administration’s thumb on the scale began with the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which lowered requirements for a finding of guilt. Some of what the documents contain (more statistics, more transparency, clearly articulated rules and guidelines) are non-controversial. But the consistent attack on any meaningful due process for accused students means that one thing can be sure from the administration’s move: more innocent students will be branded rapists by their colleges. For an example, see this report yesterday from the University of Virginia.

And Brett Sokolow, director of the Association of Title IX Administrators, delivered a bombshell in a newsletter to members last Thursday, saying that “in the last two weeks, I’ve worked on five cases all involving drunken hook-ups on college campuses. In each case, the male accused of sexual misconduct was found responsible. In each case, I thought the college got it completely wrong.” No hint of miscarriages of justice like this, or concern about the rights of the accused, is found in the White House report.