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The University of Virginia detailed in a Rolling Stone investigation into sexual assault. Steve Helber

"Everyone considers them as rape fraternities" - US colleges have a rape problem

California has just brought in a ‘Yes means Yes’ consent law.

Last spring, emails written by members of American University’s Epsilon Iota fraternity were leaked, revealing to a horrified public the strategies — from manipulation to outright drugging — the brothers used to have sex.

The messages from the members of the unofficial group at the Washington DC campus gave tips on targeting first-year female students — perceived to be more naive — and the best places to have sex without being seen.

One email suggested inviting girls over for drinks before a party, so they “would feel more relaxed and safe.”

That “would be such a good idea to get the bitches in the right state of intoxication,” it said.

The problem at American University is one that colleges across the nation are confronting — how to stem the rising tide of campus sexual assaults.

The issue again made headlines earlier this month when Rolling Stone magazine detailed graphic allegations of assault and gang rape at fraternity parties — and the administration’s troubling lack of action — at the prestigious University of Virginia.

After the article was published, the school announced it was suspending fraternity and sorority activity — so-called “Greek life” — until January, when the new semester begins, and would hold meetings with students, faculty, alumni and others concerned to discuss steps to prevent sexual violence on campus.

At American University, students are taking action.

Amanda Gould, who is in her second year of studies, created a group — “No more silence” — and gathered 1,700 signatures to urge the university to expel the authors of the emails.

“Everyone considers them as ‘rape fraternities,’” said Gould.

“But the university consistently said we can’t do anything, because they are not affiliated with us,” she noted, referring to Epsilon Iota’s unofficial status.

Gould nevertheless organised a demonstration on campus that she called a “turning point”, explaining: “The university can’t just sweep it under the rug anymore.”

She never managed to get a meeting with the university president, but she indirectly got support at a much higher level.

‘It’s on us’

As outrage over the prevalence of sexual assaults on college campuses — and what many critics blast as an inadequate response from authorities — spread, the White House launched a national campaign.

“It’s on us” — promoted by President Barack Obama — calls on each student to “be part of the solution.”

“Don’t be a bystander. Stopping sexual assault is about being the guy who stops it,” the campaign urges in videos using footage shot at parties, showing drunk women targeted by unscrupulous students.

Across the United States, an estimated one college student in five is raped, and only 12 percent of these attacks are reported, Obama said when he launched the campaign in September.

At American University, sophomore Faith Ferber is part of a student group that runs workshops on sexual violence prevention, which have grown in popularity on campus since the email scandal.

The group has gotten the university administration to require all members of the dozen officially recognised fraternities to attend a workshop.

For other students, workshop attendance is voluntary — despite troubling statistics from a 2013 poll showing that 18 percent of American University students had been subjected to undesired sexual relations within the previous six months.

Illinois Governor Obama Barack Obama says every student must be part of the solution. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

‘Yes means yes’ 

The hour-long presentation — with free pizza as an extra enticement — focuses on what constitutes true consent in a sexual encounter.

In a slightly stilted atmosphere and using a prepared script, two presenters explain that both parties need to be sober and must consciously agree to any sexual act.

“Consent is sexy. It is awesome to desire and to be desired,” emphasises one of the presenters.

Very little is said, however, on ways to stay out of danger — for instance, about drinking, or accepting either a drink in an open cup or a ride from a stranger.

“Risk reduction is one very small, even not essential piece to sexual prevention,” said Daniel Rappaport, the university official tasked with preventing sexual violence.

The program takes inspiration from “Yes Means Yes,” a law just passed in California. Under the new law, any sexual encounter without clear agreement could be considered rape if a complaint is filed with the university.

In other words, at issue in investigations would not be whether there was a rape, but whether there was consent — with public funding for institutions tied to compliance.

But AU’s Rappaport says the problem goes deeper than laws.

“The core problem is the way we train boys to become men who are taught to be aggressive and dominate and to see women as objects of conquest,” Rappaport said.

Perpetrators don’t stand out as easily identifiable monsters, he said.

“They have the same social skills, same class schedules, same whatever as everyone else,” Rappaport explained.

“But they have been taught and reinforced by our culture over and over again that doing what they do is acceptable.”

© – AFP 2014

First published 30 November, 6.31pm

Read: T-shirt that called rape “a snuggle with a struggle” pulled from department stores >

Read: Line drawn at Queen’s Belfast as Blurred Lines is banned >

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    Mute Caeliv Donnelly
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:18 AM

    A good password should contain at least 8 characters.

    I’ve gone for : SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs

    620
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    Mute Peadar Ó Gréacháin
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    Jan 19th 2016, 3:01 PM

    Thank god mine is not there, it took me ages to come up with joanTHE moan…

    23
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    Mute Ann Clusker
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    Jan 20th 2016, 10:47 AM

    Are you serious putting your password up….

    1
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    Mute Juan Venegas
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:36 AM

    Most used passwords from people from Cork are the same as in this list but adding the word “boy” like “123456boy”

    114
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    Mute Stephen Devlin
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:41 AM

    123456bai you mean ..

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    Mute Dave barrett
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:43 AM

    And for the ladies it’s 123456 girl

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    Mute Val Rossi
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:49 AM

    Most common FB password – youokayhun

    102
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    Mute Patrick Hurley
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:06 AM

    Pm me hun.

    52
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    Mute Itsthe Law
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:35 AM

    No dellcomputer is not there, so I’m safe

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    Mute Itsthe Law
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:07 AM
    8
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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:53 AM

    It’s best to avoid any family or pet names/dates. open a dictionary & find an obscure 7 or 8 letter word, learn everything about it so you don’t forget it, then add one or two numbers at the end, eg zamindar47

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    Mute stuohy
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:17 AM

    Generally using a dictionary is a bad idea, as lots of hacking software uses a dictionary to find passwords. So fire_Android+The42 is a lot worse then for instance hshjseuuebd even though it only has one character type. One thing that is actually safer. Is to have a really long password say 30 characters long with mixed character types, and write it down and keep in your wallet. Your Wallet is going to be far less likely to be stolen by hackers than your password cracked

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    Mute Ron Koeman
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:26 AM

    My password is so clever no one will ever guess it

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:35 AM

    stuohy
    I can see your disdain for using a dictionary, by your comment.

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    Mute Rónán O'Suilleabháin
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:12 AM

    your password is still vulnerable to advanced dictionary attack (yes, that’s a thing).

    Take a phrase that’s memorable to you, and not obvious to outsiders (something you say every day).

    Lets say it’s “I love the journal, except for the comments”. Use this to form the base for your password, taking the first letter of each word:
    Iltjeftc

    Now use a sequence of 4-6 numbers which is easy to memorize, but not obvious like your date of birth. Perhaps it’s an old pin code for a card you no longer have.

    Iltjeftc12345

    Your sequence of characters, while not truly random, is far less vulnerable to a dictionary attack, and you have a good length of password and a randomized digit sequence to help protect it.

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    Mute Patrick Hurley
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:23 AM

    I saw this a while back.

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    Mute Patrick Hurley
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:23 AM
    3
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    Mute bomberb52
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    Jan 23rd 2016, 1:00 AM

    Now I’m wondering how many of us are using
    Zamidar47

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    Mute Tricia Golden
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:06 AM

    A sentence that includes a percentage.

    Covers all bases (according to Edward Snowdon).

    Like “Mary says celibacy is 99% effective”

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    Mute Meehawwl O'Buachailla
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:11 AM

    Mary is a slut.

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    Mute Rory McGuirk
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    Jan 19th 2016, 12:16 PM

    Mary is 99% a slut

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    Mute Lily
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:01 AM

    Something like

    s5Td9#Hy4k$

    But I would never remember it….

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    Mute neuromancer
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:30 AM

    Superman is also a popular choice.

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    Mute THETRUTH
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    Jan 19th 2016, 12:13 PM

    I used to have Superpandaman, my nickname was panda in case you were wondering

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    Mute andrew haire
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    Jan 19th 2016, 2:49 PM

    Mine is 10987654321 so I’m alright.

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    Mute John Joe Collins
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:32 AM

    date of birth backwards!

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    Mute Dave barrett
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:34 AM

    mine is abcdefg.

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    Mute Dave barrett
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:34 AM

    oh shite now everyone knows

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    Mute Aaron Kavanagh
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:08 AM

    trustno1 is an old reliable.

    And I really hope people get that reference.

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    Mute David Emmanuel
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:03 AM

    Use a different password on every site. Avoid sites that limit the length of your password, three mobile for example max ten characters. That should NEVER be one of the rules when entering passwords.

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    Mute Rónán O'Suilleabháin
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:16 AM

    that’s a lot of passwords.

    I have a common password, at least, for garbage sites I don’t trust but wouldn’t give much away. At that level I’m more concerned about their storage of passwords than I am the strength.

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    Mute Frank's Cat
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:22 AM

    Truekey password manager. 2 factor authentication and unique passwords for every site without having to rember them all. http://www.truekey.com

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    Mute Rory McGuirk
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    Jan 19th 2016, 12:18 PM

    Never liked the idea of password managers… too many eggs in the one basket.

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    Mute Frank's Cat
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    Jan 19th 2016, 3:28 PM

    If you have a briliant memory then fair play. But typically people end up using the same password on all sites which is another eggs-in-one-basket situation except that one of thse sites is probablybstoring the password with weak hashing or worse – in plain text.

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    Mute Patrick Hurley
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:06 AM

    Pick a changeable password. One method is to pick a random word like epiphany and change the third letter to the first letter of the site you’re using. So for Facebook it would be epfphany. Add numbers and capitals as required.

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    Mute Patrick Hurley
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    Jan 19th 2016, 11:14 AM

    Or two random words like epiphanyhorse

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    Mute Erich King 
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:39 PM

    I have my password as ‘incorrect’ so I’m always reminded if i forget it.

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    Mute Michael Lynch
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:03 AM

    Still remember password for mainframe in college. L3FTBJ.

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    Mute ferbo@371356
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:04 AM

    Cannot spot difference between number 2 & 24! Am Imisaong somwthing?

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    Mute david dickson
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:53 AM

    The ‘o’ is a zero ’0′.

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    Mute Rory McGuirk
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    Jan 19th 2016, 12:19 PM

    No guest on the list??? People are learning!

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    Mute Aidan Finn
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    Jan 19th 2016, 1:26 PM

    Use a password manager like lastpass to create and remember your passwords. It uses TNO security to encrypt your database. Then you only need to remember a handful of -pass phrases-. Use 12+ character sentences with no spacing. Caps, numbers, and special characters are less important cryptographically than length but some services require it so put one number, cap and special in.

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    Mute b
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    Jan 19th 2016, 10:45 PM

    When they interviewed serious hackers they used social engineering to make the hosting company send a new password or they compromise your PC via free wifi hacks or exploits in script so it doesn’t matter what you type

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    Mute WHB Services
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    Jan 19th 2016, 9:17 PM

    Use special characters like @ or # or ^ as well as upper and lower case letters and numbers in passwords. Most modern systems allow blank spaces in passwords as well…. “1394 T!ckEt$ t0 Go” – Don’t use this example!!

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Jan 19th 2016, 4:24 PM

    Take a line from a favourite song then use the first letter from each word to create a password.
    You’ll always remember the song.

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Jan 20th 2016, 12:10 AM

    My favourite password is….. The pen is in Joan’s mouth, can get that wrong with The penis in Joan’s mouth lol

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Jan 20th 2016, 12:11 AM

    That damn spacebar lol.

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