The days in which the purpose of government was to protect the rights of its citizens seems to have passed us by.

Matt Lamb at the College Fix has the story:

Princeton Forced To Lower Evidence Standard In Sexual-Assault Proceedings

By month’s end, Princeton University could lower the evidence standard it uses for judging guilt in sexual-assault cases under direct orders from the government, among other changes intended to comply with current interpretations of Title IX.

The Faculty Advisory Committee on Policy “developed the recommendations in response to July conversations between administrators and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,” The Daily Princetonian reported.

The school said in a press release last week that faculty will vote on the recommendations at their September 15 meeting, and if approved, those recommendations will be considered by the Council of the Princeton University Community, composed of students, faculty, staff and alumni, at its September 29 meeting.

Both sides would be allowed to have advisers present from outside the Princeton community, including attorneys who could advise students but not speak for them, and both would have the right to appeal rulings. Currently, parties are only allowed to use university advisers and only accused students can appeal.

Accused students would take the biggest hit under a proposal to lower the burden of proof from “clear and persuasive” – about a 75 percent threshold for guilt, The Daily said – to “preponderance of evidence,” known casually as “more likely than not.”

Additionally, the people tasked with carrying out the new policies as well as developing future policies do not appear to have relevant backgrounds – and one has been criticized by The Daily’s editorial board for her chairmanship of a student disciplinary committee.

Rebuked By the Office for Civil Rights in July

Michele Minter, Title IX coordinator and vice provost for institutional equity and diversity, told The Daily the Office for Civil Rights forced the school to lower the evidence standard.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter to universities in 2011, the office laid out the requirements for schools dealing with sexual assault, saying they must “use a preponderance of the evidence standard” in order to be Title IX-compliant during “grievance procedures.” Minter told The Daily that administrators thought the higher evidence standard “was compliant in the context of student disciplinary hearings” until the office rebuked them in July.