Under this new regime of sexual policing, college students are being stigmatized as rapists and expelled from college even in cases where there is compelling exculpatory evidence. Vassar College student Xialou “Peter” Yu, a Chinese national with a 3.8 GPA, was expelled from Vassar in February 2013 for having sex with Mary Claire Walker, a female student who is one year Peter’s senior and whose father is a professor at Vassar. On February 18, 2012, Yu and Walker, who were on the crew team together, had some drinks at a party, started making out at a campus dance venue, and then went to Yu’s dorm room.

According to Yu’s legal complaint, upon entering the dorm room, Yu informed Walker that he was a virgin, and she responded, “It’s okay, I know what to do.” Walker then began to undress herself and started undressing Yu. The next day, Walker sent Yu an email assuring him that she had had a “wonderful time” and that he had done “nothing wrong.” She wrote that she was sorry that she had “led him on” when she wasn’t ready for a relationship. A month later, Walker contacted Yu again to apologize for the incident and express hope that it would not affect their friendship. There were several more friendly exchanges over the next seven months. At one point, Walker invited Yu to dinner at her place. Vassar College has acknowledged that these email exchanges took place.

In February 2013, on the last day that she could press charges against Yu, Walker filed a complaint of non- consensual sex against Yu. By filing on the deadline, Walker ensured that Yu could not file a counter-claim. Sixteen days later, a panel of three Vassar faculty members (Walker’s father’s colleagues) found Yu culpable and immediately expelled him from Vassar. Vassar denied Yu’s request to call his roommate and Walker’s roommates as witnesses. Walker’s friendly messages to Yu were barred from the hearing as irrelevant. Yu was not allowed an attorney. After his expulsion, Yu was rejected by ten colleges.

Peter Yu’s ordeal at the hands of Vassar’s “Interpersonal Violence Panel” has become routine on college campuses. In 2010, Caleb Warner was expelled from the University of North Dakota on the basis of a rape charge even though the police had issued a warrant for his accuser’s arrest for filing a false report about Caleb. In 2012, Ohio’s Xavier University expelled basketball player Dez Wells from college based on a rape charge that the county prosecutor Joseph Deters publicly denounced as false. “There were students on that conduct board, looking at rape kits,” Deter said. “They’d say, ‘I don’t know what I am doing.’”