Title IX was supposed to protect equal civil rights, but it’s again having the opposite effect on college campuses.

As it is, federal regulations that were supposed to help prevent sexual assaults on campus are being politicized to such a degree college officials are too afraid to even mention alcohol because the government considers it “out of scope” for federally-funded sexual assault prevention programs.

Through Title IX the Obama administration is pushing college campuses to rely on rape tribunals to handle sexual assault allegations. Princeton University is apparently the latest campus to go along, as the Wall Street Journal explains:

Princeton University looks set to become the latest campus to curtail the due-process rights of students accused of sexual misconduct, including rape and other violent assaults.

On Monday the faculty voted to approve new disciplinary policies under which allegations of sexual offenses—but only sexual offenses—would no longer require "clear and persuasive evidence" to be considered proven. "Preponderance of the evidence," the standard used in civil lawsuits, would suffice. The new policy now goes to the Council of the Princeton University Community, which is expected to approve it Sept. 29.

The new policies would also deprive accused students of anything approximating a trial or a jury of their peers. … allegations would instead be handled by a three-person team acting as both investigators and jury. That trio would conduct separate interviews with the accuser, defendant and any other witnesses. Defendants would have no right to confront the accuser or other adverse witnesses. … The investigators would decide guilt or innocence, and a pair of deans would impose a sentence.

The pressure for university officials to play judge, jury, and executioner instead of relying on the real experts outside the ivory tower comes from intensifying pressure from Washington, as the Wall Street Journal continues:

… the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights has imposed onerous demands on educational institutions in the name of combating sex discrimination.

Schools that refuse to adopt the preponderance-of-evidence standard, among other requirements, are threatened with the denial of federal funds, including student financial aid. Princeton has been under OCR investigation since 2010 for alleged lenience toward sex-offense defendants.

No amount of federal funding is worth denying any student his or her basic civil rights. At more than $18 billion, Princeton has one of the largest and fastest growing endowments among postsecondary institutions in the country. It should be quite capable of sustaining itself, its students, and basic rights for all without “help” from the feds.