Pace University Law Student Faces Expulsion for “Aggressive Pointing” at Trans Student

​Can we admit now that building out large bureaucracies in college administrations to investigate and punish speech crimes was a mistake?
 
A few decades ago, purported ugly behavior by an undergraduate was a matter policed by the Dean of Students. Those who behaved in an uncivil manner were called in by the dean for a “little talk.” Guided by common sense and wisdom, and depending on the seriousness of the matter, the dean might talk through a student’s emotional problem, issue an admonishment, or with reluctance turn to the possibility of suspension or even expulsion.
 
But students accused of speech infractions today don’t face the Dean of Students. They face long, legalistic investigations, often with their future at stake. Consider Pace University in New York, where Houston Porter, 28, is facing a sex-based discrimination probe. He is accused of “aggressively pointing” at a transgender student and misgendering her during a recent panel about “Saving Women’s Sports.”
 
The panel grew progressively heated as discussants debated the impact of New York’s Proposition 1 ballot measure. This measure codifies gender identity in state law. The panel, which included a constitutional lawyer and two state senate candidates, discussed if such a new law would force women’s sports teams to accept biological men.
 
When the panel opened for questions, the event erupted into chaos.
 
“There were a bunch of people in my face,” Porter told The New York Post. “I felt like I was getting swarmed.” He strenuously denies that he addressed an individual by the wrong pronoun and did not make any gestures toward anyone. A dean of old might have left the matter at that. But Pace is conducting a lengthy investigation of Porter under Title IX, a law prohibiting sex-based discrimination at any educational institution that receives federal funding.
 
Porter, a third-year law student, could now face expulsion or be suspended from practicing law altogether. Even a disciplinary action against him could have lifelong consequences since the bar exam requires applicants to disclose disciplinary actions they have faced.
 
“Any type of punishment will be super-detrimental to my reputation and to my professional career,” Porter told The Post. “It feels like my whole world is crumbling down. I feel like everything that I’ve been working toward might be destroyed over a misunderstanding.”
 
Let’s be clear. Members of sexual minorities, on college campuses and elsewhere, are sometimes discriminated against and physically assaulted. College administrations have a moral as well as a legal obligation to protect all their students from harassment and assault.
 
No one, however, is alleging that Porter did anything except point at someone and use the wrong pronoun – which again, he strongly denies. What is there is for Pace to investigate? Yet university bureaucracies, fearful of Title IX and the U.S. Department of Education, turn even trivial incidents like these into lengthy inquisitions, often concluding with an auto-da-fé. Curiously, it is usually those on the right side of these issues – like Porter, a member of the conservative Federalist Society – who get keelhauled. Did anyone swarming or verbally attacking Porter use foul or “aggressive” language? Did anyone else point a finger? Or worse?
 
The overreaction of universities would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so gravely serious for victims and chilling for speech. The mix of official intimidation, sanctioned and protected harassment, and self-righteous ostracism brings to mind the worst abuses of the McCarthy era. It is time to slim down the resources and authorities of these overweening campus bureaucracies and make it clear that Title IX exists to address serious discrimination, not purported (and in this case, literal) finger-pointing.

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