Throughout the past, sentencing and dictating the punishment of rape in the United States has always been inconsistent and difficult. However, sexual assault on college campuses creates extremely sensitive situations in which there are so many factors and aspects of the cases that make it almost impossible to correctly punish or free the accused. Mainly, in campus cases, alcohol and drugs are the main issue within the incident, thus causing there to be a lack of credibility from the accuser. The situations typically become are a "she-said, he-said" scenario, which is either dropped or taken extremely harshly. Another factor that has caused issues with administered punishments is the "rape culture" surrounding colleges and universities. Rape culture has caused what some say a mass hysteria, and that the accused have been given harder punishments or been treated more poorly because of the rape culture that is circulating among college administrations and students. The difficulties that surround rape on college campuses calls for a change in how the current disciplinary actions and rape culture. The dictation of punishing rape should result from the utilization of a sliding scale, where depending on the situation and factors of the case, the punishment comes forth thus standardizing the punishment but also giving it fluidity for each situation.

Sexual assault and rape have been a rising issue on college and universities campuses for a long time. The issue had reached an all time peak when the statistics read that about "one in four women are attacked" on college and university campuses and that "female university students are at a higher risk of getting sexually assault than other females" (Anderson). The alarming statistics and information about young women in college caused an demand for this issue to go outside the college and university structures. People began to inform the public, and society became more educated and understanding of sexual assault in the college atmosphere. It has developed into a national concern in which, the presidential administration has called for a change that will protect students and punish the perpetrators. President Obama announced, "sexual violence is more than just a crime against individual. It threatens our families; it threatens our communities ...  It tears apart the fabric of our communities" (Burleigh). His declaration illustrated to people that sexual assault goes further than the person attacked; it endangers the entire college community and takes away from their experience at school. This ideology is illustrated through multiple college and university cases, Duke and Virginia, where student bodies were divided and ruined because of the disagreements and hate surrounding the sexual assault cases. However, even though many people have become more educated on the issues of rape, "the vast majority of campus assault are never reported to the police, let alone the perpetrators arrested or tried in criminal courts" (Burleigh). The issue continues with that even if the rapes are reported, the cases are taken to campus tribunals, where students and faculty are in control of the hearings (Burleigh). These committees are ineffective and unqualified, and typically side with the accused to protect the college's name and brand or give the accused community service, while in a real court hearing the accused would be sent to prison (Burleigh). The White House declared, "It's time. It's absolutely time because the moral disapprobation of society is the most powerful tool for effecting change", and that people rallying for change of college and university judiciaries will allow for victims to receive better justice. The futile system that schools have has created a call for change and innovation with the universities to protects it student from rape and help those who have been affected by the terrible problem.

There are so many scenarios in which women or men are attacked that make sexual assault so inconsistent that there cannot be one set law. However, the state of California is attempting to change the previous perception that nothing can be done if the situation has too many gray areas. The state already has the "'yes means yes' law requiring college disciplinary boards to use an 'affirmative consent standard'  --  defined as "affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement' to engage in every level of sexual activity" (Gray). However, this new bill "would impose a mandatory minimum punishment of two years suspension for students found responsible for by colleges" (Gray). This new bill brings about many new aspects that would protect students who have been sexually assault, hold schools accountable for rape, and possibly deter sexual assault from occurring. The bill would protect the students that have been sexually assault by giving them some form of justice. If there was a case present and not enough evidence or information for the student to be expelled or arrested by the police the accused would still be held accountable in some form by being suspended for a two year period of time. This new punishment would also make colleges more liable for when rape occurs on their campuses. Since the dictation of punishing perpetrators would be a law, schools would have to follow without objection. Thus, protection theirs students more effectively and stop colleges and universities from putting their names before the well being of their students. Before "trusting schools to quietly and voluntarily prevent sexual violence on campus has been tried for decades, and [it failed]. It [failed] because schools that succeed at suppressing victim reporting benefit from the impression that they don't have a 'rape problem' while the more transparent schools' reputations (and donations) take a hit" (Gillibrand). The dictation of required minimum punishment would cause schools to come forward who have been hiding their sexual assault and allowing the victims to receive the justice that they have been denied.  People have also argued "there will be more thought by perpetrators about whether they are going to endanger their education by engaging in this brutal behavior" (Gray). The benefits of this new bill being proposed help provide justice for the victims of rape and help provide within the walls of colleges and universities. 

The call for the modification of rape culture within colleges and universities is another solution for punishing sexual assault. As the public becomes more aware sexual assault and rape throughout campuses, there has been a demand for a change of the definition of sexual assault. Many colleges have redefined rape "as any nonconsensual sexual contact, where consent must be a prior unambiguous agreement to each specific touching, whether or not consented to in the past" (Gillibrand). However, in these definitions there is so much room for interpretation that it just becomes a useless sentence that people can manipulate if an assault occurs, these "unenforceable definitions of sexual assault are counterproductive" (Gillibrand). These placeholders that universities and colleges create so that they do not actually have to deal with confronting sexual assault lead to a lack of understanding and leave students more vulnerable to being attacked. The idea of rape culture has become some a norm at schools, many men and women expect sexual assault, that it has become an excuse for people to sexually assault someone (Anderson). Rape has transformed into such a meaningless term that people have used it in songs, chants, and jokes, taking away from the real victims who suffer in silence (Anderson). For schools to effectively change rape culture and have a better handle at punishing sexual assault they need to clearly define what rape is, what situations rape is occurs in, and why this is rape. Along with defining rape they need to have set punishments and disciplinary actions for those found having sex with an unwilling participant (Gillibrand) and report those to the police, so that the law can deal with the situations. Colleges and universities have "to go from a culture of rape to a culture of consent" (Anderson). By changing to a "culture of consent", it would take away the blurred lines that alcohol and drugs create, by educating people that it can put one at risk of sexual assault. It can alter the ideology of "yes means yes" and changed it to "enthusiastic consent", taking away the negative aspects the area surrounding sexual encounters in college to a positive scenario (Anderson). These ideas allow for the negativity to be taken from the universities and colleges, and modify it into a positive environment. The alteration of rape culture in academic world would allow for people to fully understand what rape is and allows those who understand to help bring forth the perpetrators. 

As colleges, universities, and the public gain knowledge of sexual assault, there are still underlying issues that cause doubt for a call of change in the dictation of punishments. One major issue that has come about as people become more receptive of rape is that one is "guilty until proven innocent" (Young). Many people are passionate about stopping rape have become blind to the facts and information. Mainly the fact that not all persons accused of rape are actually guilty and there was miscommunication between both parties involved or that the story was fabricated by the accuser for personal reasons. Along with everyone person who accused is guilty, is the fact that many people consider a wide range of things sexual assault that there could be an innocent hand holding and people would consider it assault (Young). However, this issue that is being presented, is that rape culture has gained momentum and created a mass hysteria of rape. The momentum was partially fueled by the government, where there began to take away public funding for schools who did not fully punish those accused or found guilty of rape. This caused schools to take charge of their sexual assault problems, but with even more issues now involved. Colleges and universities were expelling students, using them as "sacrificial lambs, to appease the U.S Department of Education" (Young). This mass hysteria has led to discrepancies between cases where the dictation of punishment is overdone or underplayed (Young). The perpetrators are either punished to fullest extent without any chance of re entrance to the school or they are found completely and guilty and the accuser is played out as a liar. This idea was extremely present throughout the University Of Virginia sexual assault case in 2014, the accuser "was believed, no questions asked", even though her claims were outlandish and lacked evidence (Wilhelm). One feminist argued, "we should believe, as a matter of default, what an accuser says" (Wilhelm). The blind support coming through rape culture destroys the real victims credibility and stories while causing gender divisions. 

The other issue that is present within the college system is that the people dictating the punishment are school tribunals. The college and university tribunals are composed of students and faculty who are not qualified and denote ineffective punishments that rarely end the issue. The "immediate consequence of being found guilty by a campus tribunal are limited to academic or disciplinary sanctions", which do not actually truly punish the crime that has occurred as the police would (Young). The schools refuse to get the police involved in case the rape allegations tarnish the school's name or deter future students from wanting to attend. However if a school is willing to fully prosecute their students there are issues that schools face with regard to prosecuting students, "federal law compounds the rape problem by inviting secrecy. Schools can't make convictions public. When a rapist applies to another school, admissions officers have no database to check" (USA Today). Since the tribunals are the only form of justice the accuser and accused see and the cases are typically "skewed, misguided, and detrimental to justice [with] the crusade against rape culture" or in support of a wronged young man (Young). These issues presented throughout illustrate why there seems like there is no possible way to probably punish sexual assault with the college and university campuses. 

Nonetheless, there is a solution to make the dictation of punishment more effective within colleges and universities environment that would create equality and fairness between the accuser and accused. As the notion of sexual assault has changed the years and now it occurs in multiple situations, the punishment should be able to deal with multiple situations (Kaiser). This fluidity calls for a sliding scale, in which different punishments are given based on the situation in which they occurred. The punishments would be chosen by the criminal-judicial system, so that the scale is a good representation of an actual court case. If the situation involved alcohol in which both parties were impaired yet one said they did not want to be involved in sexual matters, there would be a set punishment or ruling already set up for that situation. The scale allows for fluidity and an unbiased approach, so that it is not favoring the accuser or accused, it gives equality to the parties involved unlike before. There would be multiple ways to punish someone found guilty of sexual assault without basing it off an emotional conclusion like other rape cases brought up through college tribunals. People "recognize that all sexual assaults are bad but, at the same time, acknowledge that some are worse than others. Some are more morally blameworthy, some are more violent, and some cause greater lasting harm", the sexual assault cases that involved more severe factors would have the more serious punishments (Kaiser). This method would allow for there to be clearer rules and definitions of rape because it has already been written down. The scale creates quality between both parties; it "respects the rights of the accused, as well as the rights of the accuser, just as [it] would have to do in the criminal-justice system (Gillibrand). The college tribunals would become similar to an actual judiciary system and allow for the victim to receive the best possible outcome for their present situation. This method would cut back on the mass hysteria caused by rape culture because colleges would not be listening to the public about how the should punish the student, but they would have rules already in place that take away the stress of composing a correct punishment for the current situation. Rape culture would be suppressed and would become more contained with the utilization of a sliding scale, alleviating some pressure that rape culture puts on college campuses. The sliding scale creates a fair and equal environment and stops rape culture from taking over and generating an unfair advantage for one person. 

The administration of disciplinary actions within sexual assault cases should come from a sliding scale where different punishments are given based on the scenario in which the assault occurred. The utilization of the sliding scale allows for a complete change in the college and university systems. This would make college tribunals more useful and efficient when dictating rape because they would not be interpreting the punishment but the situation, which would have a set punishment, decided by the criminal justice system. The scale gives a standardization for colleges while also having fluidity because each case is different. As whole the scale is equal and allows for the accuser and accused to not have to rely on emotion based or bias rulings, each is given equal and fair parts in the case. The sliding scale is important because if implemented it would help end the difficulty surrounding punishments so that the colleges and universities could spend more time on modifying rape culture. By changing rape culture, colleges and universities would be makings steps towards stopping sexual assault on campuses altogether because they would be able to focus on creating and promoting positive and enthusiastic consensual sex. 

