I was absolutely blind-sided by something about a really well known university in Bloomington, Indiana. Sexual assaults there are above the national average and the national average is 1 in 6 women attending college will be assaulted before they graduate. At IU, it's 1 in 5. Stats on this are very, very, very difficult to come by because universities hide these assaults. Most don't even keep a record of how many are reported, let alone how many go unreported. At IU, for instance, the local police department is comprised of *IU employees* and like the university itself, it has a tremendous incentive to under-report sexual assaults. And you'll love the euphemisms for rape. At IU, rape is called "sexual contact without consent." The penalty for rape at IU is almost never expulsion. Most often it's "take a semester off - maybe attend a junior college, and then come back." In most cases, the rape victims are then supposed to attend classes with their assailants. If you're like me, that's incomprehensible, but I assure you it's the case.

I had a conversation with Dean of Student Ethics at IU (and I have it recorded lest there be any doubts about the accuracy of my claim) about how even when the university determines that a student is guilty of rape (and that's never done in a courtroom, it's always done by a faculty board so as not to be reported in the papers) why the student isn't immediately expelled. Here's a telling part of that conversation:

Me: It's a simple policy idea, really. If you commit an act of sexual violence, you are not welcome here.
Dean: Oh, I'd never go along with a blanket policy like that. And I don't think you'd find a university in this country that would.

My advice would be to ask the university how many students had been found guilty of rape (or "sexual contact without consent" or whatever euphemism they use) and of those, how many were expelled. I'd ask them what their policy was on sexually violent acts and I'd see any crime statistics that were available.

If you're like me, the thought of something like this has never occurred to you. But the fact is there is a non-trivial probability that your daughter will be sexually assaulted before she graduates and the university will do everything in its power to cover it up.