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College is a very exciting time in a young adult’s life, often offering them their first taste of freedom and liberty from their parents. However, between the ages of 18 and 24, most young adults don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing or how to behave responsibly. Many of them do not yet understand basic concepts about respectful communication and boundaries.

One of the most common offenses suffered by young adults is sexual harassment and assault, which occurs every 98 seconds in the U.S. While these offenses are often malicious, sometimes students simply don’t understand how strict the guidelines around consent are, and they imagine a gray area where it doesn’t exist. To help them avoid this mistake, school administrators should develop teaching protocols that will help professors teach their students what constitutes consent and how important it is.

Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Over the last 15 years, there has been a 205% increase of sexual assaults reported on campuses. Although it’s unclear whether more sexual assaults are happening or whether more people are just reporting them now, the significant increase is concerning. It shows that not enough is being done to prevent these assaults from happening.

While the need for stricter legislation surrounding sexual assault is greater than ever, it seems the opposite is happening. Last November, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that the Department of Education would be retracting Obama-era guidance on sexual assault claims. The new rules reduce liability for universities, give more rights to those accused of sexual assault, and narrow down what can be defined as sexual assault.

At a time when advocacy for justice in sexual assault cases is strong and loud, the move seems to be making a statement. However, this decision has the potential to silence victims, and to further increase the number of sexual assault cases that occur each year. It can also make it easier for dangerous situations like small-scale human trafficking to fly under the radar of universities, where students are often young, susceptible to power, and in need of money.

Not only are high rates of sexual assault dangerous for students, these types of situations are also extremely disruptive to a student’s ability to attain a good education. For friends of victims, knowing there are perpetrators of sexual assault on campus, can make it difficult to focus on their classes and homework as they may feel unsafe and uncomfortable, which is why teachers and universities must do what they can to keep campuses safe.

Teaching What Consent Means

One way of doing this is by teaching students what assault looks like and how important consent is in any type of intimate situation. By raising awareness about consent, students are more likely look for signs of assault in concerning scenarios and will feel more confident in speaking up and helping prevent assaults from happening.

However, the most important outcome of teaching students about what assault is, how common it is, and the importance of consent, is getting through to students who might potentially commit sexual assault in the future. By teaching them what assault looks like and explicitly condemning any behavior that leads to this, you can help prevent students who might have thought this type of behavior was acceptable from thinking that going forward.

Any way to get this information through to potential perpetrators should be considered acceptable and enforceable. Professors should provide all students with information about what to do when sexual assault occurs, such as forensic examinations that have the ability to produce evidence to discover and prove exactly who their perpetrator was. This can both encourage survivors of sexual assault to report it and scare people out of committing sexual assault.

Another valuable lesson to teach students is about their rights when a sexual assault occurs. When found guilty for sexual assault, perpetrators can be charged millions of dollars for causing emotional trauma and taking away a person’s financial stability as a result. Even for lower-scale harassment infractions, such as stalking or groping, a perpetrator can have serious legal action taken against them.

Currently, colleges are doing a terrible job at teaching consent and raising awareness about sexual assault at their schools. If touched on at all, the subject is approached tentatively, reinforcing the idea that it is a taboo subject that should not be delved into or discussed. With so many students becoming victims of sexual assault, this subject should be talked about loudly and spoken of as the huge problem that it is.

With sexual assault running rampant in colleges and universities, consent should be a priority among professors, if not a strict part of a school’s induction process. To reduce the rates of sexual assault in universities and allow people to feel comfortable and safe as they attain their education, professors need to teach students about consent as well as their options if sexual assault does occur. This will help keep students safe and promote a better environment for education.