Have you ever read The Trial by Franz Kafka? Because Yale is hosting a live re-enactment of the acclaimed novel, starring young men accused of sexual assault as the novel’s Josef K., a man victimized by an unfair court system, never allowed to properly defend himself or even told what his crime was.

…Wait, what? Really? I’m sorry folks, but I’ve just been told that this is not, in fact, a reenactment. Yale is really, actually punishing innocent students and branding them as rapists for life.

Here’s KC Johnson at Minding the Campus with the story:

How Yale Brands Innocent Males as Rapists

Last semester’s Spangler Report revealed that no sexual assault cases were handled through the “informal complaint” procedure. I speculated at the time that this development might have represented a response to outside criticism, which has focused on the guilt-presuming nature of Yale’s “informal” process, which allows the finding of culpability on the basis of an accuser’s “worry” and promises the accuser “considerable control . . . as the process unfolds.”

My speculation, it turns out, was wrong. Seven cases this semester have gone through the “informal” process—which can best be seen as a kind of “Scarlet Letter” approach. That is: given the limitations on the accused student’s ability to present evidence, it’s almost impossible for an “informal complaint” to end without the accused student being branded a rapist. But beyond the branding, Yale allows only limited punishment through the informal procedure. Of the six students (one case remains pending) who faced charges of sexual assault through the “informal complaint” process, each received the same punishment—“counseling” and a prohibition on contacting the accuser.

For one student last spring, the allegation was just the beginning. Yale’s “formal complaint” procedure prevents the accused from having an attorney as part of the process; brands the accused a rapist based on a 50.01 percent finding from a panel specially trained panel; and denies the accused any right to cross-examine the accuser. Even under these guilt-tilting procedures, one accused student was found not culpable—meaning that Yale’s disciplinary panel concluded that it was more likely than not he was the subject of a false allegation.

The outcome of the case? The accused student was punished. He received a no-contact order with his accuser (there was no reciprocal order)—meaning that if the two happen to enroll in the same course, the accused student would need to drop the class; or if the two happened to be assigned to the same dorm, the accused student would have to move.