what should be the burden of proof for campus justice system sexual assaults?

[Bacon King]

Okay, organizations with independent executive authority like marching band can basically determine their own membership standards as much as they want, right? I see no problem for them to exclude a person based on the fact that other members of the organization don't feel comfortable around him due to allegations made against him. It's their own call.



In my fraternity days I was faced with a very troublesome dilemma that reminds me of this. Not to go into needless details but someone accused one of our brothers of rape. The guy was my "big brother" who was my mentor when I joined the frat who would always have my back through everything. The girl was my ex, who I dated for a semester before amicably breaking up while remaining close friends. There was no evidence of anything, just the completely contradictory stories of how everything went down. No evidence came to light except for a security camera footage showing that she held the door open for him to enter her dorm building. The police and the school both dropped their investigations.

In the fraternity, we were very uncertain about how to deal with it. Nobody knew who was lying so a lot of people turned to me since I knew both of them better than anyone else in the room. I still don't know which version of the story was true but ultimately I decided against my big brother because he had a far greater incentive to be lying, and because the frat house's female regulars were frightened at the possibility of him being there.

So everyone followed my lead, and we removed him from the chapter. Expelled him because of an accusation he fervently denied, while both the administrative hearing and the criminal investigation had been unable to pass any judgement against him.

For smaller groups dealing with these problems internally, fairness isn't really so relevant. It's about the reputation and integrity of the organization, and allowing the people who attend the group's functions to feel safe and secure. That's why we did what we did, and I completely understand the marching band's policy here because it is effectively doing the same thing

[Bacon King]

Okay, organizations with independent executive authority like marching band can basically determine their own membership standards as much as they want, right? I see no problem for them to exclude a person based on the fact that other members of the organization don't feel comfortable around him due to allegations made against him. It's their own call.

So if they (or some small set of them, or even just one of them) doesn't feel comfortable around the new AltoSax player because they're Muslim, they should have the ability to exclude them?  That seems like a dangerous road to go down.

It's called freedom of association.  You can't have freedom of association without having the freedom to not associate, and that also includes the freedom to disassociate with those a group had formerly welcomed.  So yeah, freedom can be dangerous and it can cause problems, yet it is generally better than the alternative.

^^^

Also religion is a protected status whereas "has been accused of committing rape" is not