University of Minnesota to adopt 'affirmative consent' rule for sex partners

University of Minnesota to adopt 'affirmative consent' rule for sex partners | Star Tribune:
"Debate flares over effect of “yes means yes” standards on students.
The University of Minnesota is joining a national movement requiring students to obtain “affirmative consent” from their sex partners or risk being ­disciplined for sexual assault.
The policy change, sometimes known as the “yes means yes” rule, has been sweeping college campuses across the country since California passed the first such law last year.
The U’s new rule, which is poised to take effect this month after a 30-day comment period, says that sex is OK only if both parties express consent through “clear and unambiguous words or actions.”
Absent that, it would fit the U’s ­definition of sexual assault.
So far, the plan has prompted little dissent at the U.
But nationally, critics have derided such policies as absurd and dangerous, particularly when it comes to protecting the rights of the accused.
“Once that accusation has been made, it’s somehow up to the accused person to prove they did have consent,” said Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a civil liberties group in Philadelphia.
“What that means is that they’re guilty until proven innocent.”"