HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University of Maine latest college to adopt ‘yes means yes’ consent policy. Trouble is, it’s really more like a “yes means maybe” policy.

The policy allows consent to be withdrawn at any time and makes clear that silence is not consent (which kind of negates the consent-through-actions part) and a history of past sexual activity does not equal consent. The policy also states that consent for one sexual activity does not equal consent for another activity, meaning consent must be ongoing throughout the encounter.

And of course, consent from someone who has had alcohol cannot be taken at face value, either. (An accused student, however, cannot plead drunkenness in arguing that he believed he had obtained consent.)

How does an accused person prove they obtained consent? That’s unclear. The only obvious way to prove one’s innocence in these situations (filming the encounter) is prohibited by the policy.

A representative from UMaine did not respond to a Washington Examiner request for clarification prior to press time.

The tuition goes up, the college experience goes down. How long can that go on?

UPDATE: From the comments:

My son just went through a mandatory meeting at his school and he came away with this:

“Everything is sexual harassment and there is nothing you can say or do to keep out of trouble.”

Sounds like a hostile environment based on sex to me. And again, it seems to me that colleges are overestimating their attractiveness to applicants in light of this kind of stuff.