A productive role for universities in combating campus sexual assault

Campus sexual assault — specifically, how colleges and universities handle such claims — is back in the news again with the explosive story of “Jackie,” a woman who told Rolling Stone Magazine that she was gang-raped as part of a fraternity initiation.

Jackie says she told the University of Virginia about the gang rape but that Dean Nicole Eramo, head of the school’s Sexual Misconduct Board, showed almost no emotion after hearing her tale and calmly offered choices to go to the police, hold a campus hearing, or simply face the accused men and tell them how the gang rape made her feel.