IF THE CATCHPHRASE IS TO “BELIEVE THE VICTIMS” TO RESPECT THEIR AUTONOMY, SHOULDN’T WE BELIEVE THE NON-VICTIMS, TOO? Surveyors baffled when students don’t see themselves as sex assault victims.

Several months ago, the University of Michigan released a flawed survey claiming 22.5 percent of undergrad women at the university had been sexually assaulted. That’s not actually the case — the study, like others, offered a broad definition of sexual assault guaranteed to elicit a high response.

Now, the researcher behind that survey is saying he was surprised that the number one write-in response from students as to why they didn’t report the alleged sexual assault to an official was because “it was no big deal.”

Note how “no big deal” wasn’t an official survey response, students actually had to write that into the survey. This is common in campus sexual assault surveys. Researchers determine whether a response means someone was sexually assaulted, even if the respondent does not believe they were.

In most other studies, the number one official response given by students who didn’t report was that the incident was “not serious enough” to warrant a campus investigation.

So here we have students being labeled as victims who don’t believe they are victims.

Flawed surveys like the one at Michigan lead to policies that eviscerate due process rights for accused students as part of a witch hunt to rid campuses of allegedly high levels of sexual assault. The hysteria has led to lawsuits from accused students, including one from Michigan. That student reached a settlement with the school which included the school throwing out a “responsible” finding against him, in exchange for him not returning to the school.

That student’s case was representative of many of the sexual assault claims on college campuses. The student was accused after his accuser got into his bed with him and the two began kissing. This led to sex so loud the accused’s roommate sent a text telling them they were being “abnoxtiously [sic] loud.” The accuser’s roommate filed an affidavit saying the accuser only made her allegation after her mother found a diary detailing the sexual encounter.

Not a victim.