I’m tackling serious stuff in my YouTube video this week – another young man tossed out of his college following a rape allegation.
This one happened a few years ago at the University of Western Australia. You will see from my interview with the male student in question – I’ve called him “Nathan” – that he readily admits didn’t handle his sexual relationship with his new girlfriend very well. The relationship was only a few weeks old, his girlfriend clearly had sexual issues. But the appallingly biased handling of the inquiry by his college gave him no opportunity for a fair hearing, he was given no legal advice before being expelled from college after his girlfriend, led on by her feminist friends, misrepresented what happened between them. Here is the classic believe-the-victim scenario which has led to so many American college students winning big legal payouts due to a university’s failure to protect their due process rights.
I have absolutely no doubt this is now happening at universities across Australia. Last year I made a video with a PhD student at Adelaide University who was pursued by a university committee following rape allegations. I will be making further videos regarding a number of similar cases I am following up at the moment – in some I need to wait for the completion of legal action before going public.
Listen up, people. This is happening on our watch. We are allowing our universities to be bullied into getting involved in adjudicating these criminal matters, using grossly unfair semi-judicial processes which have no place in institutes of higher learning.
I’m currently preparing a detailed letter to send to all members of the University of Sydney Senate, urging them to seek a proper explanation from the administration as to why the University is embarking on this course. I am providing them with detailed evidence of the huge costs and damage to the reputations of American colleges from becoming involved in such matters, explaining that the Trump administration is now acting to restore due process rights on campus.
As members of the governing body of the university, I will be urging these people to make it their business to thoroughly investigate how the administration proposes to avoid the expensive and damaging likely consequences of this move and suggesting they seek legal advice on the desirability and consequences of this new direction.
I’m hopeful that the large, varied group included in the Senate will include some independent folk prepared to start asking tough questions. I’m starting with Sydney Uni because I am still awaiting news of their investigation of my complaint about the violent protest against me last year.
It would be great if many of you could take similar action, sending letters to members of governing boards of other universities – preferably where you have some connection, either as an alumnus/alumna, or as a parent of children attending the university or even likely to attend in the future. The more people who write to the boards and senates, the greater chance we will find people concerned about this issue and willing to take some action.
If you write to me, I am happy to provide copies of my letter, which includes extensive footnotes providing evidence of the US experience. You can paraphrase this letter to send your own version to other universities. So, I’m hoping to hear from many of you soon – sometimes this feels like a very lone battle I am waging. It would be good to know there are plenty of others willing to make the time and effort to take on this important issue.