In light of the recent sexual assault cases at SMU, we at The Daily Campus are glad to see that President R. Gerald Turner is appointing a task force to deal with this pressing issue.

We hope that the task force helps reform policy in a significant enough way to affect change, but fear that there are some federal laws that will hinder any true attempts at reform. We notably refer the requirement in Title IX of the education amendments of 1972 that sexual assaults go through the process of a campus judicial system.

Title IX was written with noble intentions, but the current interpretation of its language on sexual assault does not allow for the justice system to work as it should. This understanding of the law allows the schools to prosecute based only on a preponderance of evidence, and without serious penalties beyond expulsion.

The entire process promotes injustice on all sides. The preponderance of evidence requirement, that the likelihood of guilt only has to outweigh the likelihood of innocence, is a much lower burden of proof than would have to be found in a true judicial system, the standard of beyond reasonable doubt. This allows for the accused to be found guilty and punished for a crime that he or she otherwise wouldn’t be in the judicial system. Lawyers are not allowed to be present either.

However, the much more pressing injustice is of course on the victim’s side. When the worst punishment that can be laid down is expulsion, for a crime that could come with significant jail time were it prosecuted in the justice system, this takes away much of the deterrent element of the judicial process.

We fully realize that the mandate for these systems is beyond the control of the university and President Turner’s task force. But they remain central to the current problem. Campus judicial systems do have their place, but certainly shouldn’t have jurisdiction over felonies. They are much better suited to dealing with plagiarism and alcohol code violations.

The goal of the task force is honorable, and we truly hope that they can make some changes that alter the current state of affairs at SMU. But with so much of the process mandated by federal law, the task force would do much better to lobby Congress for structural changes to the Title IX requirement instead of tinkering around the edges like they going to have to now.

One recommendation that we would make to the task force would be for them to be very transparent. There is apparently some question as to how the task force will actually work, but if they’ll be having regular meetings, the minutes from those meetings should be made available to students so they have an opportunity to provide feedback on the proceedings.

One final concern we have is that one of the stated objectives of the task force is to increase education on the issue of sexual assault. We at The Daily Campus are unsure of how this would truly help reduce instances of crime. By the time students reach college age, lack of education on what constitutes sexual assault is no longer a good excuse. No reasonable student would lack knowledge on this particular issue. Spending an extra week or two on sexual assault in Wellness I wouldn’t be helpful.

We do have high hopes for the task force, as we do believe the status quo on sexual assault needs to change drastically. But the status quo has to change at the federal level before it changes at the campus level, and the task force has to recognize the limitations that federal law places on them.