Most of President Trump’s cabinet nominees make me go “yikes,” but Betsy DeVos, his nominee for Secretary of Education, may be the worst. She very clearly lacks experience in education. Also, her political and financial support of organizations that directly contradict the interests of American students were recently exposed.

For example, DeVos has donated $25,000 over the last four years to an organization called Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The group advocates for legally requiring colleges and universities to report all instances of sexual assault accusations directly to law enforcement, regardless of the victim’s wishes. As the law stands now, colleges must inform victims of their right to report the incident to law enforcement if they choose. FIRE believes that accused rapists should not be tried by an organized judiciary committee, whose primary job is swiftly removing dangerous individuals from campus, but instead tried publicly in a court of law.

If college judicial committees deem a hearing necessary, they prioritize victims’ safety and privacy when they do not feel ready to testify on the public record and work to have the attackers removed from the victims’ daily lives. Every college and university has these committees to evaluate and mitigate student misconduct.

The NYU Office of Student Conduct’s procedure includes gathering relevant information and either making an administrative resolution or holding a university student conduct hearing. At these hearings, any involved parties present information to a panel consisting of one student, one faculty member, one administrator and one dean. The goal of a student conduct hearing is not to enforce the law, but to maintain safety, fairness and order on campus.

FIRE’s mission statement says that college students accused of rape and sexual assault are often unfairly dismissed from schools that incorporate unfair procedures that are heavily influenced by the judge’s bias.

It said, “The accused are often charged with no specific offense, given no right to face their accusers, and sentenced with no regard for fairness or consistency.”

By saying “no specific offense,” FIRE neglects the reality that rape victims often struggle in giving a full, detailed account of their rape. It complains that rapists are “given no right to face their accusers,” as if it is not perfectly reasonable for a university to refrain from forcing a rape victim into a room with the rapist. FIRE criticizes universities’ lack of fairness, which implies that the rapists are the victims.

NYU understands that giving support to the victim is the only appropriate response to accusations of sexual assault or rape, but I fear that our new Secretary of Education does not. When given the resources and information needed to face this very sensitive issue, I hope that Betsy DeVos will prioritize the needs of the victim, not the perpetrator.

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Email Riley Lopez at [email protected].