Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is urging college administrators around the country to expel students found guilty of committing rape on campus.
The former president made the call in a speech at Yale University in New Haven on Tuesday.
Two years ago, Yale University settled a U.S. Department of Education complaint by students who alleged the university had a sexually hostile environment. In a question and answer session following President Carter’s speech, Yale President Peter Salovey claimed since then, the school has moved to punish students found guilty of sexual assault.
“When we’ve worked with our students, I think we’ve come to the best solution,” said Salovey.
“That’s good,” responded Carter.
“I read one article on the way up here, on the plane as a matter of fact, from the Huffington Post, that Yale has in previous years had six boys that had been found guilty or admitted that they had committed sexual assault and they had not been expelled. You know, you can just warn a boy and chastise him, that doesn’t help. But expulsion is a very difficult thing for a university to accept as a policy,” said Carter, to applause from the audience.
“I think our policies and procedures have changed over the last year or two.” Salovey came back.
“I’m not surprised,” retorted Carter, to more applause.
The latest FBI statistics show less than 5 percent of campus rapes are reported compared to 33 percent of rapes in the general public, the former president said.
Several universities in Connecticut and New York have had problems with sexual assault on campus.
In July, the University of Connecticut settled a federal sexual assault lawsuit that had been brought by five women who claimed the university failed to protect them and responded with deliberate indifference or worse to their complaints.
