College Men Expelled for Sexual Assault Are Fighting Against School Investigations

Colleges have been cracking down on sexual assault after criticism that they do nothing to enforce their policies. But now college men accused of sexual assault (falsely, they argue) are also fighting against the harsh punishments [via The Washington Post].

The men think their colleges are making examples of them in a mad scramble to show they're being more proactive about sexual assault on campus. "The way that universities are handling the entire situation is terrible," Joshua Strange, who was expelled from Auburn after accusations of assault, told the Washington Post. "It's kind of a broken system." Even though a grand jury found insufficient evidence to indite him, an internal university investigation felt there was enough there to expel Strange.

Those campus investigations, according to the men involved, are no more than witch hunts. "I wasn't given a fair trial or anything. It's sad that this process can be abused and that the university can totally change somebody's life, with very little evidence," said a student expelled from Brandeis. "In the real world, rape and sexual assault are crimes punishable by going to jail — and rightfully so. Why is this left up to schools?"

Some of these men have found their reputations ruined by their expulsions, despite the outcomes of their legal trials. In June, former Brown University student Daniel Kopin spoke exclusively to The Daily Beast about the problems he has faced from his assault accusation, and Lewis McLeod sued for his diploma after being expelled from Duke when the office of student conduct found him guilty of sexual assault, despite being found innocent by a police investigation.

These seemingly disparate results happen because police have much more stringent standards for their investigations, and for good reason: their end results involve jail time and possibly sex offender status. As much as expulsion can affect a person's life, it's comparatively tame, so schools aren't held to the same standard. But it puts schools in a difficult position: How do they appropriately react to the extremely prevalent problem of sexual assault on campus, without risking a high incidence of false expulsions? There's a rock, there's a hard place, and there are colleges wedged firmly in the middle.

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Do Women Who See Their Ultrasounds Decide Against Abortion?

In the movie Juno, Ellen Page's pregnant teen character is about to walk into the abortion clinic when a protestor outside yells "Your baby has fingernails!" Ultimately, the remark makes her decide to keep it. Although this (hopefully) wasn't Diablo Cody and co.'s intention, pro-life legislature has followed that example. Currently, seven states require women seeking abortions to get ultrasounds before going through with it, and three states mandate that the doctor must show and describe the ultrasound to the woman.

The psychological motivation behind this is the theory that looking at the ultrasound will cause unconscious "fetal bonding" for the mother and make her less likely to abort — however, the original study that discovered this only looked at women who wanted the baby in the first place. So when it comes to abortion-seeking women, how well does this work?

Slate reports that a new study, which examined 15,000 patient records at an L.A. abortion care provider has the answer, and it's honestly not surprising. Women were asked how confident they were in choosing abortion and were placed into two categories: High decision certainty and low-to-medium decision certainty (the latter category only 7.4 percent women fell into). Forty-two point five percent of the whole group opted to see their ultrasounds beforehand, and it's true that their ultimate rate of abortion, at 98.4 percent, was lower than the women who opted not to, at 99 percent.

However, the women who looked at the ultrasounds and opted not to go through with it were women who already had the low-to-medium decision certainty — they were less confident that this was the option for them, right from the jump. In other words, the only women changing their minds after seeing the ultrasounds weren't sure anyway. So the pro-life movement should take note: Women who are positive that abortion is right for them won't be fazed by their manipulative tactics.

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Photo Credit: Getty

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President Obama Signs Violence Against Women Act

Thank you, Mr. President!

After drama, stalling, and, finally, passage in the House and Senate, President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act into law today.

"This is a country where everyone should be able to pursue their own measure of happiness and live their lives free from fear—no matter who you are, no matter who you love," said the President, who pushed for VAWA's passage in his State of the Union address." Today is about the millions of women who are out there right now looking for a lifeline."

The act, hatched by then-senator Joe Biden in 1994, gives federal funding to law enforcement and other programs aiming to crack down on domestic and sexual violence against women. Protective features under VAWA include a national hotline for women facing abuse, protection from abusers across state lines, and housing assistance that would enable women to remove themselves from abusive homes.

VAWA expired in January, after conservative lawmakers refused to approve add-ons to the bill that would also protect same-sex couples, undocumented immigrants, and Native Americans. But the squabbles didn't cloud today's signing.

"I love you, Mr. President," shouted a supporter before the president officially renewed VAWA.

"I love you, back!" he said.

Protest photo credit: Getty Images

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President Obama Signs Violence Against Women Act

Thank you, Mr. President!

After drama, stalling, and, finally, passage in the House and Senate, President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act into law today.

"This is a country where everyone should be able to pursue their own measure of happiness and live their lives free from fear—no matter who you are, no matter who you love," said the President, who pushed for VAWA's passage in his State of the Union address." Today is about the millions of women who are out there right now looking for a lifeline."

The act, hatched by then-senator Joe Biden in 1994, gives federal funding to law enforcement and other programs aiming to crack down on domestic and sexual violence against women. Protective features under VAWA include a national hotline for women facing abuse, protection from abusers across state lines, and housing assistance that would enable women to remove themselves from abusive homes.

VAWA expired in January, after conservative lawmakers refused to approve add-ons to the bill that would also protect same-sex couples, undocumented immigrants, and Native Americans. But the squabbles didn't cloud today's signing.

"I love you, Mr. President," shouted a supporter before the president officially renewed VAWA.

"I love you, back!" he said.

Protest photo credit: Getty Images

Want more from Michelle? Follow her on Twitter @MichelleRuiz.

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Penn State Scandal: A Turning Point in the Fight Against Rape

All year, the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State has dominated headlines. The report blowing the lid off how school officials tried to cover up football coach Jerry Sandusky’s on-campus assaults on boys left pretty much everyone disgusted.

But if there’s one good thing to emerge, it’s this: the media spotlight on sexual assault appears to have given all victims, male and female, in every age group the courage to speak out and seek help. The anti-sexual assault organization RAINN reported an astounding 54 percent surge in traffic to their online hotline, and calls to their phone hotline shot up (and have stayed up) too. “Because the Penn State victims received so much public sympathy, other rape survivors seem to have been encouraged to reach out,” says Katherine Hull, spokesperson for RAINN.

Another silver lining: Thanks to the report that condemned the way Penn State officials handled the scandal, college administrators nationwide took note and are making sure campus safety is a high priority, says Hull.

Get connected to the online hotline here, or call the phone hotline: 800-656-HOPE. Both are free and totally confidential.

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Can Strawberries Help Protect Against Harsh UV Rays?

While strawberries may be the sexiest fruit to eat with your man, new research shows they may also play a part in fighting off skin-damaging UV rays.

Spanish and Italian researchers found that putting strawberry extract on skin cells helped to protect the cells from UVA damage. The researchers speculated that the protective powers may lie in strawberries' anthocyanins, which are what make strawberries red.

However, we spoke to cosmetic dermatologist Doris Day, M.D., who told us to shy away from attempting to smear strawberries all over your skin. Why? The fruit will not only turn it a pinkish-red hue, but it may also introduce more issues because of the pesticides on the fruit that you can't wash off.

She also added that eating the fruit will help you gain the same benefits, since strawberries are rich in antioxidants and are anti-inflammatory. The fruit's make-up, including the anthocyanins, helps to neutralize free radicals (from outside elements, including the sun), which are toxic to the skin, causing the breakdown of collagen (aka premature aging).

Even though the jury is still out on what ingesting the fruit can do for you, Day suggests eating as many colors in your diet because it can only help your overall health. This includes strawberries, since the anthocyanins in them are going straight into your system, giving you the same UV-fighting benefits of the antioxidants.

Want more tips on how to protect your skin? Click here for info on Cosmo's Practice Safe Sun campaign.

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Women Fire Back in The Fight Against Reproductive Rights

With the controversial debate over free birth control and crazy new proposed laws that target women’s reproductive health, it’s easy to feel like women are coming under attack lately. Now, some female politicians are firing back—by targeting men’s rights.

Fed up with women’s rights repeatedly being targeted, some female lawmakers in six states are working to crack down on men’s sexual and reproductive rights.

Some of our favorites:

* An amendment in Oklahoma proposes that it be stipulated that semen can only be ejaculated in a woman’s vagina. That means, if the law passed, it would be illegal in Oklahoma for men to masturbate. The law states that the act of ejaculating outside a woman’s vagina “shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.”

* A bill in Georgia would prohibit men from getting vasectomies because, as the bill says, “Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies.”

* A bill in Virginia (which has already been shot down) proposed that men be required to get a rectal exam and cardiac stress test before they could get a prescription for an erectile-dysfunction drug like Viagra. They would also need to get a certificate from one of their recent sexual partners that states that they’re experiencing problems with erectile dysfunction, as well as be required to see a sex therapist before they can get a prescription.

The chance of any of these laws getting passed is pretty much zero, but the female lawmakers behind them created these propositions to make a point: If you target our sexual and reproductive health, we’ll go after yours.

All we can say is, Karma, she is a bitch.

Would you vote for any of these laws?

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