Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Blog and Media Roundup - Friday, January 19, 2018; News Roundup
Topic Started: Jan 19 2018, 05:29 AM (101 Views)
abb
Member Avatar

Why colleges won’t ban fraternities

By John Drescher

jdrescher@newsobserver.com

January 18, 2018 11:38 AM


Fraternities are under intense scrutiny across the country, and some members even have been charged in connection with hazing deaths. Yet fraternities are more popular than ever.

That dichotomy is at the core of the timely new book, “True Gentlemen: The Broken Pledge of America’s Fraternities,” by John Hechinger, a senior editor at Bloomberg News and former reporter for the Charlotte Observer.

Hechinger will speak about fraternities Tuesday at noon at Duke University’s Rubenstein Library 349 (email sea36@duke.edu to register) and at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Quail Ridge Books at Raleigh’s North Hills.
ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads

The book grew out of Hechinger’s reporting for Bloomberg about deaths at fraternities. “I kept asking: Why are they still around, if they have this dark side?” Hechinger told me. “They have a split personality. They have this dark side of drinking and hazing and misogyny and sexual assault but they have a really laudable side of philanthropy, leadership and scholarship.”
Never miss a local story.

Sign up today for a free 30 day free trial of unlimited digital access.
Criminal charges

The laudable side was overshadowed last year by deaths at Penn State, Louisiana State, Texas State and Florida State. At those universities, administrators suspended all Greek Life activity. Hechinger said suspensions often last three to six months, and then the fraternities return to operating as they did previously.

At LSU, the 18-year-old victim had a blood-alcohol level of .496 percent, more than six times the legal limit for driving. Ten current or former LSU students have been charged.

At Penn State, two dozen people face criminal charges in the death of pledge Timothy Piazza, who reportedly had 18 drinks in less than 90 minutes and fell down a flight of stairs. Prosecutors say fraternity members waited hours before seeking medical help. A grand jury report said hazing at Penn State was “rampant and pervasive” and that the university had ignored problems with fraternities.

A few weeks ago, two fraternities at East Carolina University were shut down by their national organizations following investigations into members’ conduct, including alcohol violations and hazing. One of those fraternities will be closed for four years; the other closure is indefinite.

Author John Hechinger says there’s an unholy trinity of problems at fraternities: racism, deadly drinking and misogyny.

Hechinger’s book recounts problems at various fraternities in North Carolina, including a hazing death at Lenoir-Rhyne University and an incident at an Elon University fraternity party that left a student a quadriplegic.

Last year’s deaths weren’t unusual in number; at least six young men died in connection with hazing in 2014 and seven in 2012.

Hechinger says there’s an unholy trinity of problems at fraternities: racism, deadly drinking and misogyny.

Citing those problems, some people, including New York Times columnist (and UNC-Chapel Hill grad) Frank Bruni, have called for fraternities to be shuttered. Only a few colleges and universities have banned fraternities; that happened mostly in the 1960s and ‘70s. “I just don’t see any of the big public universities eliminating fraternities,” Hechinger said.
Sexual Assault Expected

Hechinger focuses much of his book on Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which has 15,000 brothers in 230 chapters. It is sometimes known by the nickname “Sexual Assault Expected.”

Ten SAE deaths were reported from 2005 to 2013, mostly from drinking and hazing. More than 30 chapters have been shut down since 2013. A legal settlement requires SAE to disclose all campus infractions, giving Hechinger unusual access into misconduct among SAE members.

Overall, fraternities have more than 380,000 undergraduate members, a 50 percent increase in the last decade. Fraternity alums tend to be well-connected in business and politics.

“They are the most loyal alums,” said Hechinger, a Yale graduate who was not a member of a fraternity. “Colleges might complain about fraternities but they rely on them to attract a whole new group of donors to give to the football stadium, the hospital or the art museum. They really are stronger than ever, even as these headlines keep coming.”

John Drescher: 919-829-4515, @john_drescher

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/john-drescher/article195326814.html#storylink=cpy
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/19/feds-find-buffalo-state-failed-investigate-alleged-sexual-assault-created-hostile

Title IX Failures

Buffalo State failed to investigate an alleged sexual assault or respond to a female athlete’s requests, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights found. The findings of investigators reconfirm college's obligations to investigate off-campus incidents, the department's former civil rights chief says.
By Andrew Kreighbaum
January 19, 2018

In the spring of 2015, a female athlete withdrew from Buffalo State College, State University of New York, later saying the college failed to take her allegations of sexual assault by a male athlete seriously.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights last year confirmed the woman’s claim that she had suffered gender-based discrimination when Buffalo State created a hostile environment by not properly responding to her complaint.

A November letter outlining OCR’s findings, released via a public records request, shows that despite knowing about the alleged sexual assault, campus officials in 2015 were operating under the assumption that a proactive investigation wasn’t necessary because the incident took place off campus and they never received a formal complaint. Neither assumption accurately reflected federal Title IX law or regulations.

College officials also didn’t act on several requests by the woman, including for excused absences from the classroom, which led her to withdraw, the civil rights office found.

An agreement reached between OCR and Buffalo State in October called for the college to make several steps, including a reimbursement of the student’s non-tuition-related expenses for the semester she dropped out (she was already reimbursed for the cost of tuition) and retraining of key staff members on Title IX requirements.

Catherine Lhamon, the department's civil rights chief under the Obama administration from 2013 until January 2017, said she was glad to see the Office for Civil Rights aggressively enforcing the law. And she said after some confusion following the release of new federal guidance last year on sexual harassment and assault, the letter reconfirms institutions' obligation to investigate incidents that occur off campus.

Details of Complaint

The female student (referred to in the OCR letter as the complainant) in January 2015 reported to Buffalo State police that she was sexually assaulted by another student, a member of a men’s athletic team. Campus police originally took the complaint and, because the alleged incident took place off campus, referred the case to the Buffalo city police department.

The complainant, her mother and an advocate from an off-campus crisis services center requested several measures from the college before the student returned to campus, including her alleged assailant’s removal from a course section they both attended and the excusing of absences accrued while she was at home recovering.

Buffalo police eventually would conclude that there was not sufficient probable cause to make an arrest for the alleged assault. OCR’s findings describe campus officials’ own handling of the incident as inadequate and say they created a hostile environment for the woman.

Although college officials eventually arranged for the student’s alleged assailant to enroll in a different course, that information either wasn’t conveyed to the complainant or she didn’t believe assurances from college officials, leading her to avoid attending the course entirely, even after returning to campus. The college apparently failed to issue a no-contact order to the alleged assailant. And although college officials indicated they would address her absences from class, the woman later found out from professors that the absences and work she missed while recovering at home would not be excused.

OCR found that Buffalo State’s communication with the female student about Title IX grievance procedures was limited and confusing, leaving her without a clear understanding of the process and an impression that college officials were seeking to convince her not to file a complaint.

“The complainant asserted that she withdrew from the college because the college made [her] feel unsafe, like the assault was [her] fault, and that [she] should just get over the fact that [she] was sexually assaulted and move on,’” according to the OCR letter.

The woman also alleged that her coach notified the coach of her alleged assailant's athletic team about the assault. (OCR said it could not find evidence of the claim. And the complainant’s coach, as well as the men’s coach, disputed that the complainant was identified in conversations.)

The documented failings of college officials were numerous, though, OCR found.

After the alleged sexual assault was reported to Buffalo State police, the civil rights office said, college officials had an obligation to immediately investigate what happened, regardless of whether the female student directly reported the incident to administrators. But officials failed to do so, under the belief that they were not required to take action when an alleged incident occurred off campus or if an individual did not file a formal complaint.

Federal investigators also linked the failure to act on measures sought by the student -- such as the excusing of absences -- to her eventual withdrawal. And college officials couldn’t provide a reasonable explanation for not having taken action on the absences, OCR found.

“The documentation provided to OCR by the college indicates that it not only failed to investigate the complainant’s allegation of sexual assault, the college failed to conduct any assessment of whether the complainant was subjected to, or continued to be subjected to, a hostile environment,” the determination letter said.

Those failures occurred despite an agreement reached between OCR and the State University of New York system just two years before the alleged incident in January 2015. That resolution followed a Title IX compliance review of multiple SUNY campuses, including Buffalo State, and called for each campus in the system to provide Title IX training to appropriate staff and students. OCR received reports documenting that staff training in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

That training, as of 2015, should have tackled how to address allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment as well as the resources available to students who experience harassment or assault. Yet Buffalo State officials failed on all of those counts, according to OCR’s findings.

In a written statement, a Buffalo State spokesman said the university has a “steadfast commitment to conducting prompt, equitable and complete investigations of all reports of sexual violence.”

“College staff members regularly receive training regarding Title IX and related procedures, and the most recent training related to the OCR resolution agreement served as a worthwhile reinforcement of the policies and proactive practices that are in place to provide a safe learning environment for our students,” said Jerod Dahlgren, a college spokesman.

Clarifying the Role of Colleges

As part of the October resolution agreement with the Education Department, Buffalo State has provided documentation of reimbursement of the complainant’s expenses for the spring 2015 semester, the college and department officials said. It also has obtained outside consulting for the university’s Title IX coordinator and training on sexual harassment for university staff.

An outside investigation -- at the university’s expense -- of the complainant’s alleged assault required by the resolution agreement is still in progress. The Office for Civil Rights also will seek detailed reports from Buffalo State of its handling of sexual harassment complaints, including sexual assault, for the current academic year and the 2018-19 academic year.

Lhamon, the former civil rights chief, said she is a strong believer in OCR maintaining an active enforcement role for a number of years after reaching an agreement that identifies any compliance issues. And although she has been critical of other steps taken by the department, she said the agreement was a positive sign.

"I do think it's really encouraging to see OCR still taking appropriate steps, to see leadership still entering resolution agreements that are consistent with the law," she said. "This looks to me like good work from OCR and that's encouraging."

Lhamon said the letter detailing civil rights investigators' findings should also clarify for colleges their obligations to investigate incidents that occur off campus and involve allegations of sexual harassment and assault. The Education Department last year rescinded 2011 and 2014 guidance on colleges' responsibilities for handling sexual harassment and assault. Department officials said they would craft a new regulation addressing campus assault and issued new interim guidance to colleges in September.

That document, Lhamon said, created confusion among advocates and higher ed institutions about their obligations to investigate misconduct that occurs off campus. She said OCR's findings at Buffalo State confirm that colleges are required to investigate a report of sexual assault regardless of whether it occurred on or off campus.

Alexandra Brodsky, a fellow at the National Women’s Law Center, said when a survivor does not want to pursue a formal disciplinary complaint, a college should respect that decision. Buffalo State officials, however, appeared to discourage the student from making a complaint at all, she said.

Even if the student had been well informed about the discipline process and made a decision not to report, Brodsky said, details about college officials' handling of accommodations requested by the student were troubling.

“In our conversations about Title IX and sexual assault, including those conversations that this department has led, we are so focused on discipline,” Brodsky said. “But for many survivors, accommodations like classroom changes and excused absences will make the difference between them staying in school and dropping out or falling behind.”

Based on the OCR report, she said, it’s hard to believe that other students at the college -- including students who may never have come forward to OCR -- have not been similarly mistreated.

Lhamon said the broad remedies put in place by the agreement between the Office for Civil Rights and Buffalo State should address concerns about the failures in this case being repeated. And she said that, thanks to the 2013 agreement between the SUNY system and OCR, investigators should have the information they need to determine if individual remedies are necessary for other students.

"They must look into it and they do have the information available," she said.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10404

Report: ‘Believe the victim’ mentality undermines justice
Nikita Vladimirov
Investigative Reporter
@nikvofficial
on Jan 18, 2018 at 5:06 PM EDT

A criminal justice watchdog group has just come out with a new report detailing how the "believe the victim" mentality "compromises the integrity of our entire legal system."
In one recent instance, a UCLA student claims that the school "manufactured" sexual assault allegations against him in retaliation for his support of an embattled conservative professor.

A new report published by a criminal justice watchdog argues that the “believe the victim” mentality is compromising “the integrity of our entire legal system.”

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), a group that seeks to find “effective and fair solutions to sexual assault and domestic violence,” argues in a recent white paper that the “believe the victim” ideology turns the neutral role of an investigator “into that of an advocate” while also “systematically insert[ing] bias into the criminal justice system.”

"The ‘believe the victim’ movement not only threatens the reliability of sexual assault adjudications, it compromises the integrity of our entire legal system." Tweet This

[RELATED: Prof: Title IX harms both students and teachers]

The “believe the victim” ideology is generally popular among millennial feminists and progressives who believe that presumed victims of sexual violence need more power and protection against the so-called “rape culture” on college campuses.

In response to the pressure, institutions of higher education have adapted a system of internal trials that frequently adjudicates cases by relying on panels of professors and administrators who have little if any experience in criminal justice.

The handling of sexual assault on college campuses has been widely criticized by conservative groups and organizations, which argue that the system fails to protect the due process rights of the accused and presumes guilt before innocence.

“[The ideology] focuses on corroboration of allegations and collecting evidence to oppose anticipated defenses,” SAVE writes. “As such, the ‘believe the victim’ movement not only threatens the reliability of sexual assault adjudications, it compromises the integrity of our entire legal system.”

[RELATED: Columbia students storm classroom to harass Title IX admin]

While the watchdog acknowledges that “sexual assault is an under-reported offense,” and that the “believe the victim” movement “seeks to improve reporting,” it also raises a number of concerns about the movement’s claims.

“From the beginning, the ‘believe the victim’ movement has been hampered by a questionable scientific foundation,” SAVE argues. “Proponents make sweeping pronouncements about neuroscience and its application to victim behavior with little or no supporting research.”

“With Orwellian precision, ‘believe the victim’ materials omit key words such as ‘due process,’ ‘complainant,’ and ‘allegation,’” the report states. “With each iteration, the ‘believe the victim’” movement has become less grounded in reason, fact, and fairness.”

The widely-criticized system of investigating sexual assault allegations on college campuses has resulted in numerous accusations of misuse, including one recent case at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

[RELATED: WVU equity office calls improper pronoun use a Title IX violation]

On January 10, The Foundation for Advancing Institutional Accountability in Higher Education filed a Department of Education complaint against UCLA, accusing the school of “systematic misuse and abuse of Title IX.”

“UCLA and the University of California have refused to adopt or adhere to any procedures to ensure that due process and fundamental fairness is afforded to all parties (accuser and accused alike) in Title IX proceedings,” the document reads. “The University’s present handling of Title IX cases is effectively a mockery of due process.”

The group launched a complaint after the university allegedly attempted “to use the threat of a Title IX complaint to coerce a male student [Justin Gelzhiser] into resigning from his Teaching Assistant position in the Department of Communication Studies.”

[RELATED: POLL: Justice system should handle sexual assault on campuses]

According to the document, Gelzhiser was targeted by UCLA after sending a letter in defense of the now-ousted conservative professor Keith Fink and urging the school to keep the popular professor on campus.

“Shortly after he wrote the letter, UCLA devised a strategy to retaliate against Gelzhiser for fervently supporting Fink and urging the Academic Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom to investigate it,” the document alleges, arguing that the school later confronted Gelzhiser “with manufactured sexual assault allegations and demand[ed] that he either leave the Department or have a Title IX complaint filed against him.”

UCLA did not immediately return Campus Reform’s request for comment.

Follow this author on Facebook: Nikita Vladimirov
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/01/18/why-trumps-pick-to-head-the-education-departments-civil-rights-office-is-so-controversial/?utm_term=.1420455a0149


Why Trump’s pick to head the Education Department’s civil rights office is so controversial
By Valerie Strauss January 18 at 4:44 PM


Kenneth L. Marcus, President Trump’s pick to head the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, is coming under fire from critics who say they fear he will not protect the rights of racial and ethnic minority students. And his ardent support of Israel has sparked protests.

Marcus, president of a Jewish center for human rights who previously served in the George W. Bush administration, was approved Thursday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee along with two other key Education Department officials. They include Mitchell Zais, a former South Carolina state schools superintendent who will serve as deputy to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The full Senate still must vote on the nominations.

Marcus was tapped by Trump shortly after the president was criticized for blaming “both sides” for violence that erupted in Charlottesville in August between white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members and people who were protesting their presence.

If confirmed, as expected, Marcus will be assistant secretary of civil rights, a position with which he is familiar; during the Bush administration, he was staff director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and he carried out the duties of the assistant secretary at the department.

He would take over duties that have for months been carried out by Acting Assistant Secretary Candice Jackson. She also was a controversial department official, in part for saying that 90 percent of campus sexual assault complaints are the result of too much drinking. She later apologized.

Marcus is president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law in Washington, which says its mission is “to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and to promote justice for all.” His official biography says he founded the center in 2011 to “combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism in American higher education.”

Marcus has been vocal in criticizing supporters of what is known as the Palestinian-led BDS — or Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions — movement, which works to diminish international support for Israel economically, politically and academically. In a 2016 piece he wrote for Newsweek, Marcus called BDS’s academic boycott “arguably anti-Semitic” and criticized academic organizations that supported it.

He has urged universities not to support calls to divest from Israel in support of BDS, and he has filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights against several University of California campuses alleging anti-Semitic harassment of students. (The complaints were rejected.) In 2014, his center was one of a number of groups asking Congress to “end or mend” federal funding for Middle East studies centers with what it called “biased, politicized, anti-Israel and anti-American programming.

At his confirmation hearing last month before the Senate panel, Palestinian supporters sat in the audience with their mouths taped shut, an effort to underscore their accusation that Marcus does not support free speech and that he makes no distinction between being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.A nonprofit group called Muslim Advocates sent a letter to Congress expressing concerns about Marcus’s positions on a range of issues, including rights for LGBTQ students. It said in part:

While we take no position on the foreign policy merits of Mr. Marcus’s views regarding the Middle East, his hostility to the civil right of free speech is well documented. He is a vocal antagonist of the right for college students who criticize Israel to express themselves and has even openly advocated for the abuse of OCR’s civil rights complaint process to chill the speech of those with whom he disagrees.

Marcus is supported by Republican senators on the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, including Lamar Alexander, who is chairman. Alexander, of Tennessee, said at Marcus’s confirmation hearing that Marcus “has a deep understanding of civil rights issues.” And he said the committee had received letters from 13 individuals and organizations supporting Marcus’s nomination, including one from Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, which said:

Mr. Marcus has been a longtime champion for civil rights and for college students. We have worked personally with him on several campuses across the country in response to specific issues of bigotry and discrimination, and we have found him to be extremely skilled and knowledgeable in civil rights laws. Mr. Marcus has been a true leader in fighting discrimination.…”

But several civil rights organizations have come out against Marcus, including UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, and the National Urban League. The groups issued a joint statement saying that Marcus had a “troubling record with regard to enforcing the rights of immigrant students and English learners, and past attempts to undermine critical policies aimed at remedying racial discrimination, including affirmative action.”

Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said in the statement: “Mr. Marcus has a demonstrated history of hostility toward affirmative action and all race-based remedies to discrimination. He lacks a commitment to enforcing civil rights protections for students of color, and does not believe in disparate-impact or unintentional discrimination. All of which makes him unfit to lead ED’s civil rights division. America’s children both require and deserve an assistant secretary for civil rights who believes it is their birthright to receive a great, equitable public education.”

At his confirmation hearing in December, Marcus spoke about his experience in the Bush administration and said he worked hard to protect the educational rights of minorities and English-language learners. He said that all students, including transgender students, “deserve equal access to education and should not be harassed and bullied.”

But he would not commit to investigating all complaints, saying they would be handled on a case-by-case basis. And he said he wasn’t sure if the department had jurisdiction to protect the rights of undocumented students, as seen in this exchange with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.):

WARREN: Given the climate of fear and uncertainty that Donald Trump has created for Dreamers, if the school said happy to enroll all 5-year-olds in kindergarten, but kids who can’t prove that they are citizens will be barred at the door. Would your office step in to protect the civil rights of those students from discrimination?

MARCUS: Well, to my ear, senator, that sounds like a violation of law, but I don’t know whether it would be a violation of one of the laws of which OCR has jurisdiction. There are certain rules here that would fall under the Equal Protection Clause. We would step in, if I were confirmed, if there’s a violation of one of OCR’s statutes.

Here’s another exchange between Warren and Marcus:

WARREN: Mr. Marcus, if confirmed, you would be responsible for protecting the civil rights of American students at a time when Nazis and white supremacists are marching across college campuses with tiki torches, and many young people are literally afraid to go to school because of the hateful climate that has been fostered by Donald Trump. If confirmed, will you commit to fully enforcing civil rights laws and protecting all students from discrimination and harassment?

MARCUS: Yes.

WARREN: Good. So, I just want to find out a little more detail about what that commitment means to you, and I thought we might go through a few fact situations. So, let’s start with an easy one. Say there’s a school district that has some mostly white schools and some mostly black schools, and let’s say that the mostly black schools have less experienced teachers, teachers with fewer qualifications, those schools have fewer books, they have fewer computers in the library, fewer AP courses available. By any objective measure, those schools have clearly been shortchanged. If confirmed, would your office step in to protect the civil rights of that district’s black students?

MARCUS: If I were confirmed, I would ensure that any complaints alleging violation of Title VI would be — would be reviewed.

WARREN: Mr. Marcus, I don’t want to start a dance here. This is a set of facts that come to you in your position, if you are confirmed, and my question is are those facts adequate? Will you step in to protect the civil rights of the district’s black students?

MARCUS: Senator, I would certainly hope to be able to provide protection for the civil rights of those black students to the extent possible under law, but what . . .

WARREN: But, that’s the question I’m asking how you see this. You’re allowed to answer hypotheticals, here, so this one should be easy. A yes or a no, would you step in on those facts, or not?

MARCUS: I appreciate that, senator, but unfortunately in my experience the cases that OCR deals with are much more complicated than hypotheticals.

WARREN: So, you don’t think that’s enough evidence, what I’ve just said?

MARCUS: I think I would need to look at it very carefully.

After questioning him, Warren said: “I don’t think we need someone in this position whose view of civil rights enforcement is to do as little as possible to protect as few students as possible. I think that would be bad for students overall, and with Betsy DeVos as secretary of education, I think it would be even worse.”

The Senate committee also approved Zais as the department’s No. 2. He is a former president of a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Answer Sheet newsletter

Education questions and answers, in your inbox weekly.

And it approved Jim Blew, who was nominated to be assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development. He was director of the Walton Family Foundation’s K-12 reform efforts for nearly a decade, and also national president of StudentsFirst, the reform organization started by former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.

There are 15 positions in the Education Department that must be confirmed, and so far the committee has confirmed four. One nominee was withdrawn by Trump, and six positions have no nominee awaiting committee attention, according to a Washington Post tally. There are five positions with pending nominees, including Marcus, Zais and Blew.

The committee announced Thursday it would hold a hearing next week to consider Trump’s nomination of Frank Brogan, a former lieutenant governor of Florida and former chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/01/19/civil-rights-nominee-approved-committee


Civil Rights Nominee Approved by Committee
By Andrew Kreighbaum
January 19, 2018

The U.S. Senate's education committee voted along party lines Thursday to advance the nomination of Kenneth Marcus to head the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education.

Marcus is currently president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a civil rights group founded to fight anti-Semitism.

He previously served as acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the department under the George W. Bush administration. If confirmed by the full Senate, Marcus would take over the duties of Candice Jackson, who is currently acting assistant secretary.

“Mr. Marcus has a deep understanding of civil rights issues and has upheld these rights in his previous roles as president and founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, as staff director for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and as head of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education under President George W. Bush,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the education committee, in a statement. “The world’s largest Jewish campus organization recently called Marcus ‘a true leader in fighting discrimination.’ Given Mr. Marcus’s vast experience and credentials, I am glad to support his nomination and hope he will soon be confirmed by the full Senate.”

At the Brandeis Center, Marcus has played an active role in the debate involving speech attacking Israel on college campuses. His critics have said he is overly quick to conflate any criticism of the nation with anti-Semitism and say his leadership of the office would have a chilling effect on campuses. Palestine Legal, a U.S.-based group that supports Palestinian rights, was quick to criticize the vote Thursday.

Marcus has less of a public track record on other contentious issues handled by the Office for Civil Rights, such as campus-based sexual assault and gender discrimination. His responses to written questions from committee members this month didn't provide any further clarity on those issues, and committee Democrats indicate
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums. Reliable service with over 8 years of experience.
« Previous Topic · DUKE LACROSSE - Liestoppers · Next Topic »
Add Reply