
Colleges slammed with lawsuits from men accused of sex crimes - jseliger
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/colleges-slammed-with-lawsuits-from-men-accused-of-sex-crimes/
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erroneousfunk
The bigger problem here isn't specific to sexual assault. Private colleges can
choose to expel or suspend students for any reason, as long as they feel the
student is in violation of the student handbook, which can often have vague
phrasing, like "Respect for the college," "respect for other students,"
"Personal honor," etc

At my alma mater, I know of one student that had a two year suspension because
someone told a student RA their friend had told them that the to-be-suspended
student (sorry, it's a lot to follow in one sentence) had sold a small amount
of marijuana to the friend. Another student received a two year suspension
when someone accused her of prostitution. No proof, or real evidence to speak
of, in either of the cases.

Sometimes, students would mysteriously disappear amidst rumors of suspension
and reappear a year or two later, not being able to talk about it. A couple
students went away, and we assume they were expelled, or suspended and didn't
bother coming back.

Everything's behind closed doors, students may be told by RAs or advisors that
conversations are "just between the two of them," or anything they say is
private when it isn't. Campus police may get involved, local police officers
may decide to hand suspects over to the school rather than arresting them,
schools can explicitly prohibit lawyers, and make a student's silence a
condition of return to the school, or hold transcripts hostage. They can cut
students off from housing that the students paid for, lock up possessions, or
suddenly remove them from housing with power that a landlord would never be
able to have "in the real world." These are students that may be living on
their own for the first time, away from family, nowhere to go, no resources,
and trapped in a "legal" system that's completely without rules. The whole
college "court" system messed up.

