Dive Brief:
- Dartmouth College, the target of a federal investigation of its prevention and response measures to sexual harassment, is proposing mandatory expulsion for sexual assault.
- The move is applauded by faculty and former and current students who have been calling for such measures at Dartmouth for years.
- Students who used force, threats, or incapacitation with drugs or alcohol to have penetrating sex with other students would be expelled, under the proposal.
Dive Insight:
According to Dartmouth, students would also be expelled when an assault involving penetration is motivated by bias or when the charged student has previously been guilty of sexual assault. The school would use a trained external investigator to investigate and determine responsibility for sexual assault. Dartmouth aims to have the policy implemented in time for its summer term. This issue came to a boil for Dartmouth in May 2013, when the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights started an investigation of Dartmouth’s prevention and response measures for sexual harassment. Students at Dartmouth had filed a Clery Act complaint with the department over the college’s handling of sexual assaults. In April 2013, the college had canceled classes in the wake of student protests over sexual assault and other issues. The protesters had faced violent threats and, after the Clery Act complaint was filed, charges of violating the college’s code of conduct.