George Will: Sexual assault victims enjoy ‘coveted status’ on college campuses

In a column published in both the Washington Post and New York Post, Fox News contributor George Will dismissed claims of college sexual assault --using 'scare quotes' around the term-- while stating students see victimhood as a "coveted status."

Writing that college administrators are being "educated by Washington," Will writes, "they are learning that when they say campus victimizations are ubiquitous" they are promoting the idea that victimhood is "a coveted status that confers privileges, victims proliferate."

Relating the story of a Swarthmore coed who was coerced into sex after saying "no," Will dismissed her claim of "sexual assault" claiming it was part of the "hookup culture, this cocktail of hormones, alcohol and the faux sophistication of today’s prolonged adolescence of especially privileged young adults."

Will asserts that making the leap from "forcible sexual penetration" to "nonconsensual touching" is too broad of a definition for sexual assault, and denigrates the "doctrine that the consent of a female who has been drinking might not protect a male from being found guilty of rape," worrying about the costs of litigation for the universities and the reputations of college men accused of assault.

The administration recently released a report on college sexual assault stating that one in five women is sexually assaulted while in college, and only 12% of assaults are reported.

Will disputed the numbers without stating at which level he would consider college sexual assaults to no longer be acceptable.