A lawsuit filed this week in Austin by a former University of Texas student has reignited the debate over sexual assaults on college campuses, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The complaint, obtained by 1200 WOAI news, claims that UT-Austin President Greg Fenves kicked the student off campus following a dispute over what happened after a sorority party in 2016. The student who is suing says had sex with a female student, but only after she consented. Days later, according to court papers, the women changed her story, and told investigators that she was drunk at the time.
The accused student, who is listed as John Doe, was subject to a university hearing, which found no wrongdoing. According to the court papers, UT President Fenves still suspended him for five semesters.
“The president of the University of Texas is kicking him out of school for having legal consensual sex,” defense attorney Brian Roark tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI.
The suit not only aims to get the student back in class, but also change the school’s sexual assault policies. Roark says President Fenves is making up his own rules as he goes, scared about blowback in the wake of the Baylor University sex scandal.
“Their default now is to go to the other extreme and do everything they can to appear that they are being hard on these types of issues,” Roark says.
A landslide of lawsuits has been filed against Baylor by sexual assault victims who claim their pleas for help from the university were ignored. The scandal led to the firing of football coach Art Briles and the removal of Ken Starr as president.