by James A. Bacon
The bureaucratic machinery for prosecuting the Obama administration’s war on a supposed “epidemic of rape” — is building with frightening rapidity in Virginia. The University of Virginia spent about $1.5 million over the past year to comply with the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX requirements, while Virginia Commonwealth University spent about $1 million, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Now state universities are discussing creation of a network of shared resources and investigators to address campus assaults. At a meeting of university presidents at the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV), UVa President Teresa Sullivan said a regional collaboration would help schools with fewer resource meet requirements of federal Title IX investigations.
This summer, UVa hired a new Title IX coordinator, two investigators and a coordinator for the federal Clery Act, which requires the disclosure of crime statistics. “Would I have rather hired four faculty members with that money? Yes, I would,” she said. “But we needed to do this to be in compliance.”
The “epidemic of rape” movement has overshot the mark, going way beyond the commendable objectives of combating campus rape and supporting the victims of rape. The new regime criminalizes sexual encounters — typically involving excess consumption of alcohol — that women regret in retrospect. Under the new logic, women are absolved of any responsibility for their own actions, while men who fail to obtain a woman’s “consent” during their drunken couplings are declared guilty of rape or sexual assault. The apparatus being foisted into place is not merely solicitous to women but sometimes encourages them to file complaints when they were not initially disposed to do so, while administrative proceedings are stacked against men. As a consequence, an increasing number of men are heading to the courts to seek redress against university sanctions.
Meanwhile, a new puritanism is descending upon college campuses, as witnessed by the reaction to a sophomoric stunt by some Old Dominion University frat boys last week. Their offense: hanging a banner from their house saying, “Rowdy and fun—hope your baby girl is ready for a good time.” Suggestive jokes now are deemed worthy of administrative review and possible punishment.
To be totally clear, I find repugnant the kind of casual drunken sex on college campuses that leads to all too many regrettable and/or violent sexual encounters. I’m all in favor of throwing the book at rapists. I believe in chastising young men who treat young women boorishly. But I don’t favor criminalizing non-criminal acts, dismantling basic legal protections for men and squatting on free speech in order to accomplish that aim. There has to be a better way.
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