LOS ANGELES — In early October, Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed a new law that directs all universities and colleges that receive state funds to use “affirmative consent” as a new standard for sexual contact between students.
Catholic colleges in California that receive state funds, possibly through student grants, also are required to comply with the state law, though administrators at Church-affiliated institutions say their institutions already do much more to create a safe, respectful campus environment.

“While it is important for us to look at this new legislation, Loyola Marymount University has had a long-standing program for engaging students in conversation about sexuality, sexual choices and issues around affirmative consent,” Jeanne Ortiz, dean of students at the Los Angeles-based campus, told the Register.

Ortiz said the university’s multilevel efforts to address issues related to sexual misconduct reflect an institutional “commitment to seeing each person as deserving of respect as a person created in God’s image.”
The California law highlights one of many strategies for dealing with sexual offenses on U.S. campuses. The law states that sexual consent can be verbal or nonverbal, but a lack of consent cannot be interpreted as permission for an additional level of sexual intimacy.

The new law may seem puzzling to some Americans, who view sexual assault as a crime committed by strangers or a remote acquaintance. However, binge drinking and the hookup culture have combined to create new opportunities for sexual predators on U.S. campuses.

“Research on this suggests that it isn’t typically someone jumping from behind the bushes with a knife,” noted Christopher Kaczor, an LMU philosophy professor who teaches a class on “Happiness, Love and Marriage” and is co-author of The Seven Big Myths About Marriage.

“What’s more common is that both [students] are drinking, and then something unfortunate happens,” said Kaczor, who noted that one unit of his class deals with the campus hookup culture, and student papers highlight the toxic mix of alcohol and murky sexual boundaries that can make it easy to target and manipulate students. Yet, even when the circumstances are ambiguous, schools are expected to treat the complaint seriously. Title IX, a federal law that bars educational practices that discriminate against women, requires school administrators to act on allegations of sexual misconduct.

President Barack Obama has also stepped in to put additional pressure on schools to penalize such behavior, as federal data show a sharp rise in forcible sexual offenses on U.S. campuses. The surge, say experts, is due to better reporting, as well as an expanded definition of what constitutes a forcible sexual offense. The White House has investigated complaints that specific schools failed to comply with Title IX requirements and has vowed to pull federal dollars if such institutions did not improve their records. The administration has also established a public database that lists every university and college with an unresolved Title IX complaint — though a school’s presence on the list does not confirm an actual violation.
 
Catholic Campuses
Thus far, there has been little focus on how this problem plays out on Catholic campuses, including those that closely supervise students and bar all sexual contact.

“I am not familiar with any published work that has distinguished secular and religious colleges and universities, or even just examined Catholic ones,” Bonnie Fisher, a specialist on the issue at the University of Cincinnati’s School of Criminal Justice, told the Register.

Still, the majority of Catholic institutions confront many of the same problems as their secular counterparts and must comply with Title IX rules.

Title IX directs schools to prohibit nonconsensual sexual contact, and it requires a prompt response to allegations and penalties — which can range from probation to expulsion — if the accusations are found to be credible.

“Catholic University [of America] is committed to creating and maintaining a community in which students, faculty and staff can work and study in an atmosphere free from all forms of harassment, exploitation or intimidation,” Mike Allen, vice president of student affairs at The Catholic University of America, told the Register, as he outlined the school’s compliance with Title IX requirements.

Like most U.S. schools, CUA reviews the code of student conduct and provides mandated training sessions for every freshman or transfer student. They learn that “bystanders” can and should intervene if they witness coercive behavior or just an incapacitated female student leaving a party without a trustworthy friend to take her home.

Many of these programs were already in place when CUA was named in a Title IX complaint filed by a student, Erin Cavalier. Cavalier alleged that the university failed to properly handle her 2012 allegation of rape against a fellow student. Cavalier said the alleged assault took place in her room, after she asked the accused to help her home, following a night of heavy drinking.

A June 29 Washington Post story on the student’s claim noted that “an initial D.C. police report” pointed to “mutual consent.” Cavalier opted not to press criminal charges with local law enforcement and requested an internal review by the university, which found there was insufficient evidence to pursue her allegations. At present, the federal investigation into Cavalier’s Title IX complaint is still pending. Meanwhile, administrators say they are working hard to offer a range of additional programs that reflect the school’s Catholic identity and are designed to promote virtue and civility in student interactions, including dorm life.

“CUA’s residential-educational model revolves around the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity,” said Allen, who noted that a number of priests and women religious also reside in the dorms. CUA’s goal is to foster “a balanced, responsible and respectful residential atmosphere that is safe, friendly and supportive.”
 
Lives of Holiness
At Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, administrators have integrated the mandated training required by Title IX within a more authentically Catholic framework of human formation.

“Title IX regulations impose additional compliance duties and responsibilities that require us to communicate differently and adjust procedures when dealing with allegations of sexual harassment or violence,” David Schmiesing, vice president of student life at Franciscan, told the Register.

“But when we address the problem of abusing a person, we don’t just focus on the legalistic [language] or the punitive consequences for doing something wrong. This is about not living out your faith.”

He said the university’s household system, which is centered on groups of men and women who support each other in living lives of holiness, offers another way to challenge social practices that encourage the young to treat others as “objects of gratification.”

But Schmiesing also cautioned that no school administrators should be complacent about the problem of sexual assault. “Even at a school like Franciscan, our students are coming from the culture. No Catholic school is immune to all of these challenges.”

That same concern has led LMU, a mid-sized urban university with a diverse mix of students, to elevate student interactions well beyond the Title IX regulations. Administrators have launched a campaign that uses the school mascot, the lion, and the “Lion’s Code” to explain why students must respect personal boundaries and take a proactive role in aiding others. The campaign encourages students to intervene if they see a potential problem.

“Our students participate in a pledge, which commits them to live the Lion’s Code,” said LMU’s Ortiz, who said that the pledge reflects the school’s Jesuit tradition, though it does not explicitly reference Catholic teachings. “The lion embodies specific traits. Lions are honorable, courageous, proud, wise and bold, in caring for their peers and committing to their own personal growth,” she added.

“While alcohol is not the reason why people rape,” Ortiz said, “the focus is on looking at everything that increases students’ vulnerability.” The Lion’s Code helps students address “the choices they are making relative to the way they respect one another,” said Ortiz. “Given the climate we are in, that is a powerful conversation.”
 
True Freedom
Yet some authorities suggest such programs, while important, should find a way to tackle the broader problem of a conformist campus culture that discourages students from opting out of heavy drinking and casual sex. LMU’s Kaczor has considered this problem, as he reads student papers dealing with the aftereffects of both consensual and coercive sexual encounters.

Even when students realize that heavy drinking can make them easy targets for manipulation, he suggested that many see no other option if they want an active social life. “Research points to the idea that if women had more control over this, there would be more dating,” he said. “The hookup culture doesn’t put women in the driver’s seat.”

In the classroom, Kaczor strives to redirect his students’ thoughts to a question that is often overlooked in the blur of campus life: “What leads to real happiness?”

“The answer, which doesn’t differ radically for men and women, is love,” he answered. “No one can find deep happiness through bodily pleasure, but only by loving other people and theologically loving God. Otherwise, the quest to find fulfillment is doomed to end in unhappiness and frustration.”