Campus reacts to Pa. rape verdict

"No" does not always mean "no," the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in a controversial rape case last week, to the outrage of government officials, campus activists and feminists nationwide. An all-male jury ruled unanimously last Thursday that although a female college student said "no" and attempted to stop her classmate, Robert Berkowitz, from forcing her to have sex with him, it was not rape because Berkowitz's hands "were not restraining [the woman] in any manner during the actual penetration." Women's Studies Program Co-Director Demie Kurz said the high court's ruling goes against "advice women have been given not to resist." Pennsylvania state senator Allyson Schwartz (D-Philadelphia) agreed. A victim "should not have to put [her or his] life in jeopardy" by physically resisting a rapist, she said. Women's Alliance Leadership Team member Debra Pickett, a College senior, said that a rape victim's task to prove forcible compulsion "impose[s] an even more difficult test on them." College senior Beth Hirschfelder said she thinks the ruling is a "step backwards -- it makes it more difficult to prove rape when rape exists." The high court's decision would be "justifiable if it advances justice, but it doesn't," Hirschfelder added. But Victim Support director Maureen Rush said Pennsylvania courts will "look at the totality of the situation" in each individual case. "Saying 'no' or not saying 'no' is not going to impact wholly on the situation," she said. Rush said the controversial ruling "shows we need to educate the campus community?about the parameters of dating." National Organization for Women members reacted to the the ruling by protesting in City Hall Monday with chants of "What part of 'no' would you like me to explain?" But Pennsylvania State Senator Bob Mellow (D-Lackawanna) said in a statement Friday that the court was only responding to an ambiguous state crime code and "interpreted the law as they saw it." According to the statement, the Pennsylvania Crime Code only labels certain sexual acts as rape. These include acts of sexual intercourse "by forcible compulsion; by threat of forcible compulsion that would prevent resistance by a person of reasonable resolution; with a person who is unconscious; [or] with a person who is mentally deranged or deficient that such a person is incapable of consent." In response to what he sees as an unclear criminal code, Mellow is proposing state legislation which will make it a first degree felony for a person to engage in sexual intercourse "without the consent of the other person," the statement continues. "I introduced the bill because I was quite taken aback by the ruling," Mellow said Monday. "The important thing is to close up the loophole [in the crime code.]" Although Berkowitz was not convicted of rape, he was found guilty of indecent assault, for which he faces six to 12 months in jail.