Yale University Releases Sexual Assault Scenarios Following Criticism for Response to 'Nonconsensual Sex'
ByAs it promised it would, Yale University has released a list of scenarios depicting "nonconsensual sex," the Huffington Post reported.
Since the conclusion of the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigation, Yale has come under harsh scrutiny for it handling of sexual misconduct. In hopes of appeasing the many student and alumni groups outraged, the school released the scenarios as a sort-of resolution, complete with punishments for each one.
The document was released to be a supplement to the school's already existing sexual misconduct policy. With this reinforcement of how the school responds to such allegations, Yale said it is "committed to creating and maintaining a campus that is safe and respectful - where sexual misconduct of any kind has no place."
"The scenarios are not drawn from actual cases heard by the UWC; the details of those cases are held in the strictest confidence," Yale's document said. "Rather, the scenarios draw upon the extensive research literature on both consensual and nonconsensual sex on college campuses."
Despite the scenarios resulting in punishment of expulsion, or at least a multi-year suspension, the school's latest semi-annual report did not quite support that. According to the report, students found guilty of "nonconsensual sex" by the school were only punished with a written reprimand and one student received a suspension - for one semester.
Most recently, a group of 229 Yale alumni sent the school an open letter to criticize the school's use of the term "nonconsensual sex" instead of using words like "rape" or "assault." The alumni letter was also critical of how the school chose to punish those they found guilty.
Before that, a student group known as "Students Against Sexual Violence at Yale" with similar criticisms.
"Do we have to press Yale to make a glossary of terms of what actually defines sexual assault and sexual misconduct?" Yale junior Winnie Wang said at the time. "The Yale administration just sort of tiptoes around that term [sexual assault] because they feel like it carries too much negative stigma and bad PR."
The fictional scenarios depicted by the school deal with the ambiguity of crossing the line sexually while in a relationship, which was still defined after all as date rape, outright sexual assault and even scenarios of consensual sex.
The scenarios contained mostly gender-neutral names, presumably to apply to same sex couples.