Yale University President Peter Salovey issued an email to the university community earlier this week that reiterated his commitment to deal with the issue of sexual misconduct on campus. The email was in response to the university’s semi-annual report on sexual misconduct which showed that alleged perpetrators of sexual misconduct had been disciplined with reprimands or suspension instead of harsher penalties. Critics of the report also denounced the university’s use of the term “nonconsensual sex” instead of the word “rape.”
University officials state that the term “nonconsensual sex” refers to a wide range of behaviors, including instances that would not constitute rape. President Salovey announced that the university would develop and publish a list of scenarios that constitute nonconsensual sex.
“Yale’s standard of consent is extremely rigorous,” Dr. Salovey wrote, “but even with the involvement of an independent fact-finder, it is often difficult to ascertain the circumstances of a complaint beyond what the complainant and the respondent report. In some cases all parties may agree on what words were spoken but disagree on whether those words constituted clear consent.”
This past June, Yale signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education which ended a yearlong investigation into the university’s policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment and misconduct.