"Yes Means Yes"... the Musical

A report in the online daily, Inside Higher Ed, tells us that many schools are using songs, skits and other such clever ways of informing students of their "yes means yes" policies.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/19/freshman-orientations-add-material-affirmative-consent?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=f60184a814-DNU20150819&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-f60184a814-198501157

I commend them for the effort.  Almost anything they do will help, I think.

At the same time, I maintain my position that there are several fundamentally unfair aspects of this crusade against sexual assault on campus that ensure continuing violations of rights and increasing litigation:

1.  Sexual assault is a crime and should be handled by the criminal justice system, not higher education institutions.

2.  Referring to the complainant as "the victim" puts the first rabbit in the hat.  It creates a presumption of guilt which throws out the window the presumption of innocence.

3.  The standard of "more likely than not" is far more relaxed than "beyond a reasonable doubt."

4.  When the accused, presumed guilty by the very word "victim" in the charges, is found "more likely than not" guilty, the tendency is to invoke academic capital punishment, i.e., expulsion, or at the least a long suspension.  Why?  Because heaven forbid we cut him some slack, leave him in the campus community and he acts again.  Just think of the liability the institution has now.

I personally do not believe that any amount of training--- of students, investigators, or adjudicators --- will make the typical campus approach to sexual assault allegations a fair system, so long as my objections 2 through 4 persist.  Furthermore, even if these three concerns were answered, I expect to maintain my position that sexual assault --- as contrasted to sexual harassment --- should be handled by the criminal justice system and not by academic institutions.  This is my number one objection and it will take a lot of reform of our industry's current approach to this issue to persuade me to reverse my view.