C'mon, gotta read both sides of the issue, this catty-corners quite nicely with yours.

An old high school friend whom I admire, look up to, and occasionally day-dream I'll marry (after he marries, whelps with, and divorces his fiance, who I'm sure is a very lovely girl, but things don't always work out in the long run SLASH JUST IN MY MILD DREAMS GUYS NOT SERIOUS) (also my brother's best friend, siblings are in favor of our nuptials, which I expect will occur in our 40s) put up a post on Facebook that also reminds me of this. "The mother of a UVA student who reported her rape summarized this position thusly: "In what world do you get kicked out for cheating, but if you rape someone, you can stay?" That sentiment makes for a great outrage quote, but it's entirely wrong. Cheating and raping are not related things. The former is an academic infraction deserving an academic punishment, like expulsion; the latter is a violent crime deserving a rigorous police investigation. Students who are confessed rapists shouldn't be expelled, they should be put in jail."

In my book club I'm infamous, perhaps, for expressing no sympathy towards a character who committed a crime and then was punished for it. Supposedly, the crime was justified (book club didn't agree) and admittedly, the punishment was harsh.

In my anger at the author's attempt to manipulate my sympathies into wretched pity for the poor criminal who had been caught committing her crime and therefore punished, I scrawled out "THEIFS [sic] GO TO JAIL" in the pages of the book.

Commit a crime? Reap what you sow. Cops who look the other way for someone who breaks the law aren't doing many favors.

Crimes should be punished. Is the legal system perhaps much more accustomed to determining guilt and meting out consequences/punishment than universities are? Well, the courts certainly provide a formalized system and process that is (generally, kind of) available to all, mostly clear (if you are or have a lawyer) and provides recourse if anyone feels justice has gone awry. Do universities have such systems? Does Mock Trial count? Admittedly, there are sorts-of justice processes you can follow at universities but to me, it seems a University sees itself as a parent: just, all-knowing, concerned with what's best for you, and ultimately, determined on what your punishment will be without too much concern how you feel about it. Didactic. Authoritarian. If you don't like the University's ruling, you don't appeal: you leave. After all, they're private schools, private property. Your rights aren't quite the same living on someone else's turf. Like living at home: you have to follow your parents' rules, or - there's the door.

Is it possible that colleges are out of their league in terms of "prosecuting" rape and harassment crimes? YUP.

Is it possible that law enforcement isn't an ideal solution either considering that many women report being dissuaded from filing charges or formal reports after an assault or rape? Also yes.

However, if I were accused of a crime, I'd angle for the established legal/court system to process me any day over a university that feels like its reputation, and therefore its income, will be threatened and/or diminish if it does not properly, and aggressively, act not only to preserve or buoy its current reputation, but to try to drag its shoddy past reputation out of the mud. Universities have something to prove: that they are safe places and you can send your daughters there and they take rape seriously and so on. Universities with histories to the contrary doubly so.

It's a show. It's a justice show for your money. They are scrambling to cover their asses and of course going overboard in the wrong direction because of it, because they are going to sell you on their campus safety by showcasing these ridiculous, low-burden-of-proof, hard-to-dispute-if-accused, unequal, aggressive policies.

By the way? Despite all this see-sawing either way, I still first-hand know people who have been raped on college campuses in the past year and aren't reporting it. So yeah, guys are getting falsely accused. There are also guys out there who aren't. I'm not trying to say "it evens out" or "that's fair" - false accusations, not just of rape but rape is a hot-button, ruin lives. With or without aggressive harassment/rape policies, some rapes will go unreported. With or without, probably, there will be some false reports.

Rape is bad. Being falsely accused of rape is also bad. In both instances it behooves all parties to have approximately equal access to an established system which require a reasonable burden of proof, investigate potential crimes by doing more than just taking statements (and especially only statements of purported victims - c'mon, Rolling Stone just got slammed for that), and allow for recourse if either party does not feel justice was served.

Problems all over the place.

Sorry this is so huge I keep trying to edit for clarity/length and then instead I add more.