Dartmouth College has announced that it will require a four-year sexual-assault education program for every undergraduate student next fall because apparently students might not know how to not rape each other without it.
“I feel like a one-time education program freshman year just wasn’t enough because it didn’t follow students through their time at Dartmouth,” Sexual Assault Awareness Program outreach and communications chair/sophomore Shanet Hinds told The Dartmouth, the school’s official student newspaper.
College president Phil Hanlon announced the new policy during a speech on Thursday.
The school’s Title IX coordinator, Heather Lindkvist, said she doesn’t know exactly what the program will entail but that it will definitely remind students that even when they’re off campus they still can’t sexually assault or harass each other.
Lindkvist said she also knows that it will involve bystander training. “Oh, and that it will be really inclusive,” she added.
But some are concerned that requiring a program for every single student for every single year of college just simply doesn’t go far enough.
Laura Dunn, founder of the anti-sexual-assault organization SurvJustice, said bystander training should also be given to all of the bar owners in the area. She did not say how this would be possible considering the university actually does not control every bar in the area.
She also advised that the school schedule the training as part of an orientation before students begin classes because apparently these adult Ivy Leaguers cannot be trusted to behave like human beings for even one single day on campus without the college teaching them how.
In the comments section of the article, some have already expressed opposition to and even offense at the program.
“Thank you Dartmouth for including all of us in this pervert prevention plan. Can we get a course in ‘Not Flashing in a Raincoat at 1953 Commons’?” one stated.
— Katherine Timpf is a reporter for National Review Online.