The bigger problem here isn't specific to sexual assault. Private colleges can choose to expel or suspend students for any reason, as long as they feel the stud

The bigger problem here isn't specific to sexual assault. Private colleges can choose to expel or suspend students for any reason, as long as they feel the student is in violation of the student handbook, which can often have vague phrasing, like "Respect for the college," "respect for other students," "Personal honor," etc At my alma mater, I know of one student that had a two year suspension because someone told a student RA their friend had told them that the to-be-suspended student (sorry, it's a lot to follow in one sentence) had sold a small amount of marijuana to the friend. Another student received a two year suspension when someone accused her of prostitution. No proof, or real evidence to speak of, in either of the cases. Sometimes, students would mysteriously disappear amidst rumors of suspension and reappear a year or two later, not being able to talk about it. A couple students went away, and we assume they were expelled, or suspended and didn't bother coming back. Everything's behind closed doors, students may be told by RAs or advisors that conversations are "just between the two of them," or anything they say is private when it isn't. Campus police may get involved, local police officers may decide to hand suspects over to the school rather than arresting them, schools can explicitly prohibit lawyers, and make a student's silence a condition of return to the school, or hold transcripts hostage. They can cut students off from housing that the students paid for, lock up possessions, or suddenly remove them from housing with power that a landlord would never be able to have "in the real world." These are students that may be living on their own for the first time, away from family, nowhere to go, no resources, and trapped in a "legal" system that's completely without rules. The whole college "court" system messed up.