Sorry, but let me add my voice to the skepticism here. Sexual assault is a serious crime that should be investigated by the authorities in the criminal justice system. If the authorities are dropping the ball on their investigations and prosecutions of this crime within the criminal justice system, such that they'd be better served by changing the consent rules to this new standard, then the state government should just go ahead and make that change.
Yes, one of the problematic aspects here is that colleges, campus police and campus tribunals etc are involved in this
at all. Sexual assault is not something that should be judged by a code of conduct or anyone associated with the university, its much too grave for that. It should always be investigated and prosecuted by normal law enforcement officers with the proper training and knowledge to handle this (and if they don't have enough of those California should do something about that). This whole internal system vs. state responsibility aspect looks like a blind spot in the debate.
Regarding consent, its necessary to change those rules. It shouldn't be legal to have sex with a person that is clearly unable to give consent, whether intoxicated, mentally handicapped, unconscious or for
any other reason.
I understand that colleges and universities have codes of conduct for their students, and that it may be appropriate for a university to take action against a student even when a criminal conviction is not made.
It probably is given the epidemic nature of the problem, but its unfortunate. Legally you are either guilty or innocent.
