Sexual Assault and Academic Freedom on College Campuses Symposium
Friday, October 14, 2016 | Hart Auditorium, McDonough Hall, Georgetown University Law Center
Sponsored by the Journal of Legal Education, Georgetown University Law Center, and Gender+ Justice Initiative.
Universities occupy a hallowed position in American culture. But numerous studies showing high rates of sexual assault on college campuses, as well as several well-publicized incidents, have spurred not only a wave of well-justified concern about our students’ safety, but also new and more rigorous policies for addressing these assaults, in universities and colleges across the country. While the importance of protecting students from violence is unquestioned, these new policies call for consideration of issues such as the appropriate role of administrative decision-making, the role of governmental regulations, the need for academic freedom, and the rule of law generally, as experienced on college campuses. How can we best ensure an educational environment free from sexual violence but, at the same time, provide for academic freedom and fair processes? How might we best maintain academic freedom without making it a defensive shield against enforcing equal opportunity requirements within academic life? These and related questions will inform the symposium.
The Conference will bring together both academic administrators and legal scholars in the fields of First Amendment and Fourteenth amendment law, sexual violence, civil rights, and education law. Scholars will examine and debate the role of the first amendment in protecting offensive speech on campus, the use of “trigger warnings” in the classroom, the impact of new policies regarding both the processing and reporting of complaints on faculty, staff and students, the nature of speech itself in the college context, and both the dangers of sexual assault and the risks to academic freedom and fair process now facing both men and women on college campuses.
Participants include:
- Professor Catherine Ross, George Washington Law School
- Dean Emeritus Joan Howarth, Michigan State Law School
- Alexandre Brodsky, student activist, Yale Law School
- Associate Dean and Distinguished University Professor Kathy Baker, Chicago Kent Law School
The conference is keynoted by Hiram Chodosh, current President and Professor of the College, Claremont McKenna College.