Who is guilty of date rape on today's college campuses?

I recently had a chance to testify before a state committee looking into the number of crimes committed on college campuses and how colleges were covering them up. Nothing was more controversial than the number of rapes that take place.

The same day I testified a former U.S. attorney testified that while investigating a drug ring on a local campus he found by accident a number of rapes that were never officially reported to campus authorities. I testified about the ridiculously low numbers of officially reported rapes on campuses and how colleges deliberately underreported rapes to protect their images as "crime-free" zones. Colleges rarely report more than one or two rapes per year even though rape counseling centers see a dozen victims a month.

A national survey a few months ago found that 95 percent of campus rapes were never reported.

This week, a column written by an American University student for the student newspaper created a firestorm when he suggested that a woman who gets drunk at a fraternity party and walks home with a guy has actually agreed to have sex with him and is not a victim of date rape even if she is forced to have sex. You can read a Washington Post news story about the column  and the original column here.

The controversy here is over the concept of "consent" which is what separates hooking up from rape, but the real fly in the ointment here is alcohol, which tends to make the whole idea of "consent" somewhat nebulous. In New Hampshire, where I live, an intoxicated woman is incapable of giving consent and therefore anyone who has sex with her is guilty of date rape.

Anyone familiar with a party school campus, knows that nearly half of the women are legally intoxicated at any one moment and a lot of sex takes place on and off campus. So are there hundreds, possibly even thousands of rapes taking place every weekend? Legally, I think that is the case.

But these are crimes in which neither the perpetrator nor the victim may be aware that a crime was committed.

At SUNY Albany, where I used to be a reporter, there was an effort by feminists on campus to get women to sign a written consent form before they had sex. The feminists also collected a list of women who had sex "but wished afterwards that they had not," and sent out a news release that said that thousands of students were rape victims. This attracted national attention, but was such poor public relations for the college that the public relations people forced the feminists to retract their statement.

Coming up with a solution to this problem won't be easy, particularly when colleges like Keene State and Franklin Pierce insist before the state committee that no rapes take place on campus. None. Zero. Nada. Educating students about rape and consent and alcohol would help, perhaps, but I think it will take more than that to fix this problem. But covering it all up, which is what most colleges do, helps no one and merely perpetuates the rape culture on campus where female students are victims and perpetrators know there is little chance of being caught or punished.

Comments

[Keene state student CM]

As a current Keene State student, almost every post I've read on your blog spot-on. The college definitely covers up crimes. Two of my friends have had someone try to grab them while walking around on campus at night- and not every particularly late at night, just barely after sundown. The school urges people to drop their complaints, or will refuse to even take a statement, asking thousands of times if 'you're sure' about the events. Besides, the police are probably too busy rounding up the drunks to actually do anything about on campus crimes anyway...

Of course, there's one upside to being a motivated student attending a party school. Most people aren't interested in learning, and will bully the few who are into not asking questions in class. This usually leaves me as the only person asking questions in my classes- I never have to compete with anyone else to get my questions answered, and with the lack of participation from everyone else, it's like having a one-on-one class with a professor. Not to mention office hours- with the exception of the day before midterms/finals, no one goes to office hours, which means I can go regularly to chat with professors and not have to wait/let other students have a turn. If they could just get the crime problem cleared up(and do something about the rampant racism), I'd definitely recommend this school to anyone who wants to, essentially, have a 'class of one'.

[Craig Brandon]

Dear STUDENT CM,

The last years I was there I felt that the only time I was doing any real teaching was when students came to my office hours. It took a long time for me to realize that students were being intimidated for asking questions or commenting in class. What a sad excuse for education and a waste of everyone's time! During my last semester there I complained about the students who were acting up and was told by the dean to stop teaching grammar and show more movies! I quit a week later. Lots of professors understand what is going on but are afraid to speak out, even the ones who have tenure. Why is that? College administrators allocate money from slush funds called funding allocations. If the holders of the purse strings like you, you can go to conferences, bring in guest speakers, buy equipment etc. But get on their shit lists and the money dries up, so most professors decide to shut up rather than complain. A very sad state of affairs!

[Ed Hardy Outlet]

Some times in the past, I search articles which can be extremely interesting and humors, and the particular primary standpoint is extremely clearly that contentment in control of personal side. Only smile every day and simply think living, carry out a lot more, receive additional, all of us be strongly confident.