Notre Dame Changing Assault Policy

[IrishLax]

Apparently today is is air-old-laundry day in South Bend. No idea what to make of this article... basically seems to be saying they decided to make sure that students know "what to expect" after filing a complaint... but the process for handling the complaint doesn't seem to have changed. Don't know if this concludes the DoE investigation or whatever.

Notre Dame to change sexual assault response - ESPN

 

[Whiskeyjack]

That article said a whole lot of nothing.

 

[Irish2015]

espn is supposed to report sporting news. this is totally unrelated to sports and should not be published by their website.

 

[k1ssme1m1r1sh]

Basically what is going on is, newsweek and other media outlets is calling South Bend a dying city, so to prove their not "dead" what better way to attract attention than to have good ol' WSBT run a story on two hot button issues involving Notre Dame this year. Just to prove to America that nothing says, "We's still here" like a bunch of pretentious hypocrites crying about their primary source of tourism, jobs, economy, and notoriety. The residents of South Bend and their just as uppity "suburbs" of Granger and Mishawaka loooove to bite the hand that feeds them, and often. They pretend like ND is the only college campus on Earth with rowdy kids, drinkers, fraternities, and the occassional scandal. It takes the focus off the fact that their school corporation sucks, they can't keep a superintendent to run it, their politicians and police force are crooked, and there's been 47 shootings since May 1.

Not all residents of South Bend are bad. I like South Bend. I just cannot stand to listen to people whine about ND. It's just a plain and simple fact that ND is the cog that keeps South Bend turning. It's a shame it's a catholic place and they believe in morality because they shouldve given South Bend the finger a long time ago. ND admins bend over backwards to prove they belong here, and the people just don't appreciate it. It could be worse. They could be Dowagiac!

 

[irishtrain]

espn is supposed to report sporting news. this is totally unrelated to sports and should not be published by their website.

What's new for espn.

 

[alaskandomer]

Basically what is going on is, newsweek and other media outlets is calling South Bend a dying city, so to prove their not "dead" what better way to attract attention than to have good ol' WSBT run a story on two hot button issues involving Notre Dame this year. Just to prove to America that nothing says, "We's still here" like a bunch of pretentious hypocrites crying about their primary source of tourism, jobs, economy, and notoriety. The residents of South Bend and their just as uppity "suburbs" of Granger and Mishawaka loooove to bite the hand that feeds them, and often. They pretend like ND is the only college campus on Earth with rowdy kids, drinkers, fraternities, and the occassional scandal. It takes the focus off the fact that their school corporation sucks, they can't keep a superintendent to run it, their politicians and police force are crooked, and there's been 47 shootings since May 1.

Not all residents of South Bend are bad. I like South Bend. I just cannot stand to listen to people whine about ND. It's just a plain and simple fact that ND is the cog that keeps South Bend turning. It's a shame it's a catholic place and they believe in morality because they shouldve given South Bend the finger a long time ago. ND admins bend over backwards to prove they belong here, and the people just don't appreciate it. It could be worse. They could be Dowagiac!

Actually, ND doesn't have frats.

 

[BGIF]

espn is supposed to report sporting news. this is totally unrelated to sports and should not be published by their website.

The ESPN piece is actually an AP Report probably generated by the news release that UND sent out:

Notre Dame and Office of Civil Rights sign resolution agreement // News // Notre Dame News // University of Notre Dame

or by the one that Department of Education sent out:

Civil Rights Office Announces Settlement Agreement on Discrimination Investigation at Notre Dame | U.S. Department of Education


I found that same AP report that ESPN ran without a byline over at Yahoo.com. It appears to be verbatim with the only difference being a byline for Tom Coyne. Tom Coyne covers Northern Indiana as an AP writer. He's been covering ND for about 11 years at least since Willingham was hired. He asked frequent questions at Weis and Kelly press conferences so this topic is "right up his beat".


Coyne did add one editoral comment which struck me as discordant. Both the UND and DE releases noted that ND uses a “preponderance of evidence” standard in evaluating complaints. The DE took no issue with the use of that standard but did comment, and UND agreed, that UND needs to make the use of that standard clear to complainants. In his article Coyne mentions that DE commentary than adds:

It's a lower standard of proof than "beyond a reasonable doubt," which is used in criminal cases.

With a jaundiced eye I could take that as a swipe that UND is doing the job correctly but I don't think it was a swipe. "beyond a reasonable doubt" does apply in criminal law but the incident which lead to the DE investigation (which was a review of ND handbook and procedures as well as "media" reports on the incident) was an administrative process. I think Coyne was trying to point out that criminal law and an administrative process are apples and oranges but he didn't spell that out. The way he left it may cause some readers to think UND is using the wrong or an inferior standard. Not true.

UND's procedure conducts an investigation and then turns the information over to St Joseph's County D.A. Office where they believe a criminal act MIGHT have taken place. The D.A/Local enforcement then decide whether there is evidence of a crime and whether to proceed or not. In this specific case the D.A's office did not find cause to proceed and closed it. The individual involved had the right at any time to file a complaint directly with the D.A./Local enforcement and chose not to.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

With a jaundiced eye I could take that as a swipe that UND is doing the job correctly but I don't think it was a swipe. "beyond a reasonable doubt" does apply in criminal law but the incident which lead to the DE investigation (which was a review of ND handbook and procedures as well as "media" reports on the incident) was an administrative process. I think Coyne was trying to point out that criminal law and an administrative process are apples and oranges but he didn't spell that out. The way he left it may cause some readers to think UND is using the wrong or an inferior standard. Not true.

I'd go even further than that, BGIF. It would in fact be embarrassing if the University used the "beyond a reasonable doubt" (95%+ certainty) standard for its investigations. A "preponderance of the evidence" (51%+ certainty) standard is more favorable to victims, while the other standard is more favorable to suspects.

When these types of stories take swipes at ND, they're invariably implying that ND's investigative process was dismissive of Seeburg's rights as an alleged victim. As far as this standard of proof issue goes, ND uses the most favorable for victims, which makes perfect sense in light of how the entire process works. ND does an initial investigation to determine if there's a credible claim (using a pro-victim standard) and, if necessary, passes it along to the St. Joe's prosecutor (who uses a pro-suspect standard) for further action.

 

[IrishLax]

What's interesting to me is that ND did follow up on her complaint (even with all of the factual inaccuracies that were contained in it). The biggest complaint people had was about NDSP "moving slowly"... but where was the accused going to go? He clearly wasn't a flight risk. And it's not like this was a robbery or some other sort of matter where moving with alacrity is of utmost importance. They tried to contact him and were going to continue to try contacting him until they were successful if things had been able to run their course.

 

[IrishLax]

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

Can someone copy and paste the article? It gives me an error whenever I try to save the edit. I don't want to give them any hits.

 

[NDFan4Life]

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

Notre Dame: University being forced to improve its response to sexual assault reports step in right direction - Chicago Tribune

What a f***ing hack. Time for a letter to the editor.

 

[IrishLax]

What a f***ing hack. Time for a letter to the editor.

Yeah I'm writing one right now and I am going to strongly push every ND fan I know in Chicago to cancel their subscription to the Tribune. I have a high tolerance for "stretching" (especially in op-ed style pieces) but this one totally crosses the line.