The Current Higher Ed "War on Women" or "How to protect your daughters"

If you follow the news at all lately, you must have heard about the epidemic of "campus sexual assaults" and that various groups [to include the White House] have been throwing around the figure / phrase that "one in 5 women will be sexually assaulted while in collage".

This number is based on some very shoddy statistical analysis of some very shoddy polling data that includes questions like "have you ever had a physical encounter that you later regretted". Answering yes to that question counts as a "sexual assault".

No one actually believes this figure because if people did believe it, it would be a crime to send your daughter to collage. If it became known that sending your daughter to dance class meant that over a 4 year period, she had a 20% change of being sexually assaulted, Does anyone doubt that DCF would be at the door of every parent that sent their daughter to dance class investigating them for neglect and for placing a child in a dangerous situation? No but that does not happen when you send your child to collage because NO ONE takes this figure seriously but it is a great talking point for ideological reasons.

This nonsense is wrong for at least three reasons.

First when you redefine something to be so broad that nearly anything qualifies, you have cheapened it for when it really matters. If anything is sexual assault and you have to take every incident seriously, many victims of actual sexual assault (i.e. rape) do not get the attention they deserve because you can't devote as much attention to each case. They get lost in the deluge.

The second major issue is that it allows groups to enact ever more ridiculous and restricting rules so that they can say that they take the problem seriously and "are doing something". For the most part, the rules don't actually address the core problem but since you have expanded the definition to include many more trivial incidents, you get to make your rules to address those, which is far easier.

Thirdly, when you do fail to solve the underlying problem and prevent sexual assaults, you get to claim that the problem is just too big to solve. You get "How can we be expected to solve a problem that affects 1 in 5? We reduced it by 15%! It is a start but we can and will need to do more!" Which will result in ever more ridiculous rules that will actually solve nothing.

I think that the way to put a stop to this nonsense is to go "full Alinsky" on collages and make them act like this problem is as prevalent and they claim.

I propose that the following actions be taken:

• If you enrolled your daughter in collage and you were not informed that she has a 1 in 5 chance of being sexually assaulted, sue them for failure to disclose a dangerous situation before accepting your money.

• If you have been sexually assaulted (male or female), sue them for failure to protect you from a dangerous situation that they were aware of.

• If you have been sexually assaulted, are of age and you have a CCW (concealed carry), and are not permitted to carry on campus, sue them for failure to protect you from a dangerous situation that they were aware of AND denying you the right to protect yourself.

• If you have not been sexually assaulted (male or female), sue them for emotional distress due to the fear you feel whenever you are on campus.

• Sue them to force them to create:
• Women only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid men entry.
• Men only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid female entry.
• Lesbian only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid non-lesbians entry.
• Homosexual only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid non-homosexual entry.
• Transgender only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid entry to non-transgenders.

This is because everyone has the right to feel safe and secure in their quarters and this would be the only way to ensure that.

• Require that all faculty and staff are barred from having any non-professional contact with students. Inappropriate contact (non-professional) is grounds for immediate dismissal. Same burden of proof as that used in student to student abdication.

• Require the installation and monitoring of all common areas by 24 / 7 surveillance cameras, campus wide with a 4 year retention policy.

• Require a level of security staffing commensurate with the problem. A 4 to 5 times increase in security staffing should do for a start.

• Require that any and all underage drinking result in immediate expulsion for all parties involved (as alcohol is a major contributing factor to sexual assault on campus). If they don't have these rules in place and/or don't uniformly apply them, sue them.

• Why not also sue to require all faculty and staff be required to wear body cameras whenever they are on campus?

• Sue them, sue them and finally, sue them. Hit them in the endowment. Imagine the impact on the economy if a large number of collage age women were to come into a few million each. That would be a stimulus!

It appears that something like this, to actually hit them hard in the wallet (hard enough to make them squeal) is the only way to stop this insanity. If this is done to a few of the larger collages (with their big, sweet endowments) others will take notice. Others will start to denounce those figures and their silly kangaroo courts and ridiculous rules OR they will go out of business.

This "joke" ad is actually more on target then they think. If I were an online collage, I would seriously think about making a serious and more subtle version of this ad.

There have to be a few lawyers out there that can see what a solid business opportunity this is! Collages, by their own admission, see a problem, have not informed their clients of this problem, have failed to take reasonable and appropriate measures to address this problem AND have boat loads of cash!

Go get them!