Students aren’t the only people on campus who are struggling with how to determine when a sexual act crosses the line into assault. As hundreds of universities and a few states adopt "affirmative consent" policies requiring permission for each escalating act of intimacy, the often-blurry boundaries crossed behind closed doors are raising questions for campus administrators and lawyers. How widespread are incidents of campus sexual assault, and how can colleges reduce confusion over what constitutes consent? Is a "preponderance of the evidence" standard, which the Education Department wants colleges to use, necessary to ensure that perpetrators will be punished, or is that standard, lower than the one used in criminal cases, unfair to accused students?

May 18, 2016 ・ From Chronicle of Higher Education