Commentary: Shifting sexual mores present new challenges

In January, a White House report entitled “Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action” found that one in five women have been sexually assaulted in college. President Obama launched a new effort in September called “It’s On Us” to combat such offenses on college campuses. Old grads wonder whether the current openness of college dormitories is partially to blame.

In the days of strict parietal rules great skill was required to arrange even a consensual assignation. Attentive sentries prevented those of the opposite gender from straying into forbidden areas. Fewer locales were available that offered privacy for erotic encounters.

Then all that changed with the introduction of co-ed dorms. There was security to intercept non-students, but there was little concern about the gender of approved visitors. Even the requirement to leave the dorm room door open when entertaining was seen as old fashioned.

While the change in the parietals did not authorize male students to be more sexually aggressive, there was indeed a social message. Intimate contact between students in the privacy of their dormitory rooms was now sanctioned. The only reservation is that both parties would have to consent.

With the expansion of co-ed dormitory policies in colleges across the country, some trustees were concerned about college administrators having to decide issues of consent. But the co-ed genie is now out of the bottle. Many colleges feel compelled to provide co-ed dorms as an option for students who desire that lifestyle.

The only choice now is to establish a severe prohibition against sexual assault, but provide for due process in a thorough quasi-judicial hearing before judgment and remedial action is taken against the accused offender. Such problems could have been anticipated when nubile young ladies and robust young men are brought together in an accommodating environment.