Philip Weiss

About the author: Philip Weiss is a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine.

When a female student at Dartmouth College who was allegedly assaulted by a male student later learned of another, similar accusation against the same student, she pressed charges, but the male student was found not guilty. Then a third female student, learning of the charges against the accused, decided to press charges for an alleged assault on her by the same male two and a half years earlier. This time the male student was found guilty of abuse; he was suspended for one term, a decision the state courts subsequently refused to overturn. The handling of these successive cases against the male student illustrates a changing attitude on college campuses, one that exhibits a new sensitivity to female charges of...