There are 86 colleges and universities in the United States currently being investigated by the US Department of Education regarding their handling of sexual assault cases. While this has been touched on previously, it’s important to discuss again. The schools being investigated are not small, no-name schools that no one actually goes to — these are big universities, even Ivy League. Princeton University and Harvard University are both currently being investigated.
Princeton University is having a real problem with the investigation. On November 5th, ABC News reported Princeton’s “deal” with the Department of Education. There were quite a few things the university agreed to do as part of the verdict of their investigation. They are actually reconsidering all sexual assault cases from the 2011-2012 academic year up until September 1, 2014 (when the investigation started) to be sure that all of those cases were handled correctly. That sounds like a big job to do but I guess that’s the price you have to pay when you’re investigated for mishandling sexual assault cases on a college campus.
Harvard University is also under investigation but is having other problems as well. As of November 17, Harvard’s sexual assault policies did not include any sexual-consent guidelines. Recently, many schools have included an “affirmative consent” clause in their policies, which states that both parties have to explicitly communicate their willingness for sexual activity. Harvard’s policy is absolutely shocking. It merely forbids “unwelcomed conduct,” which is defined as “unrequested or uninvited” behavior but never even broaches the idea of consent. Harvard argues that their policies are up-to-date with the United States laws but other schools have adopted affirmative consent policies without being required by law. It’s alarming to think that Harvard doesn’t seem to see a problem with the lack of consent policy in their sexual misconduct policies.
California state law says, “lack of protest or resistance does not mean consent, nor does silence mean consent. Affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout a sexual activity and can be revoked at any time.” The fact that this is even up for debate is appalling. This should be common knowledge. If someone does not say that they want to have sex with you, then assume they don’t want to have sex with you. Case closed.
address the assault 
it is not the guys responsibility to ask you for a definite yes or no. it is YOUR responsibility to speak up for yourself and say “no i don’t want that, stop”. if you refuse to speak, then it should be assumed that you aren’t refusing and you aren’t resisting, so its fair game. you don’t get to hoist the responsibility on the guy because you refuse to speak up.
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