Further compromising college student’s right to due process isn’t exactly progress. And that’s why FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) is opposing the bill.

Susan Kruth writes for FIRE:

Proposed ‘Victim and Survivor Bill of Rights’ Further Jeopardizes New York Students’ Due Process Rights

New York’s proposed budget for 2015–16 reportedly contains provisions that should concern due process advocates—namely, the codification of an “affirmative consent” standard for college students engaged in sexual activity and a “Victim and Survivor Bill of Rights” that appears to preclude accused students from being presumed innocent until proven guilty. Brooklyn College professor KC Johnson details several problems with the “Bill of Rights” in a column for Minding the Campus posted yesterday.

I reported on the State University of New York (SUNY) system’s adoption of the “affirmative consent” standard last October, and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the adoption of a “Sexual Violence Victim/Survivor Bill of Rights” for SUNY schools in December. If similar mandates are passed within the state budget, colleges and universities across the state will be governed by the same standards that already jeopardize the due process rights of students in the SUNY system.

As with California’s affirmative consent law, SUNY’s standard fails to clearly articulate what is required of students about to engage in sexual activity. Johnson notes, for example, that under New York’s standard, consent must be “informed,” and asks:

What’s the difference between an “informed” and “uninformed” agreement? The vagueness of this language makes it almost impossible for an accused student to defend himself.

Common sense hardly guides the question of what students must be “informed” about before consenting to sex. Ohio State University, for example, requires both parties to “agree regarding the who, what, where, when, why, and how this sexual activity will take place.” The why?