Top Five Things to Know About Princeton’s New Inclusive Policy for Title IX Sexual Harassment, version 2022
Top Five Things to Know About Princeton’s New Inclusive Policy for Title IX Sexual Harassment, version 2022
Since July, 2022 Princeton University has new rules for student on student complaints of all kinds of sexual harassment. These rules reflect Princeton’s position on the new Title IX Rules from the Department of Education that have not even gone into effect yet.
You can find the rules, called Title IX Sexual Harassment Policy, here:
ONE: Princeton’s New Inclusive Policy for Title IX Sexual Harassment will determine how your complainant’s information is handled. But for the rules to also determine what happened, the problems the complainant claims to have experienced need to have happened also since July, 2022. If the problems pre-date that, then the prior rules give you the definitions, the current rule gives you the procedure. Princeton will very likely tell you this straight up when you first respond to their notice of allegations.
TWO: Princeton’s New Inclusive Policy for Title IX Sexual Harassment makes this process extraordinarily controlled--more like a methodology heavy course, rather than say a poetry seminar. See for example “3. Hearing. C. Case Presentation: A typical hearing may include brief opening remarks by the Presiding Hearing Panelist; questions posed by the Hearing Panel to one or both of the parties; questions posed by the Hearing Panel to any relevant witnesses; and cross-examination by either party’s adviser of the other party and relevant witnesses.”
THREE: Princeton’s Title IX office, currently led by Regan Crotty, Esq., herself a Princeton Alumna, moves extremely fast. You cannot waste time thinking about lawyering up. You needed a lawyer within 24 hours of receiving your notice of allegations.
FOUR: Probably everyone who files a complaint of sexual anything under Princeton’s New Inclusive Policy is going to have a lawyer representing them, be it from the start, or soon thereafter. Realistically, complainants will get some form of free legal aid to deal with Princeton. A respondent should try to get some form of private legal help to balance that fairly. See, for example: https://www.studentmisconduct.com/news/how-do-you-pick-a-legal-team-for-your-education-misconduct-situation
FIVE: If you are a respondent in a sexual misconduct allegation at Princeton you are in for one of the toughest and most rigorous experiences in academic life in the United States. Be careful. Get help from friends and family. Then lawyer up. Oh, and if you are still wondering, yes, we have experience with this specific process. See, for example, https://g.co/kgs/PWR9th