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WEF 2015 in Davos: Yale President Peter Salovey Says Schools Need to Take No Excuse Approach to Sexual Assault

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Peter Salovey, the president of Yale University, believes things need to change in how authorities view sexual assault cases.

Speaking with the Huffington Post at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Salovey said alcohol simply is not an acceptable excuse to blame victims of sexual assault. He also said schools should not accept a failure in communication in such cases either.

In multiple Title IX complaints, victims accuse investigators and administrators of trying to determine how they could have prevented the attack from happening in the first place. In other cases, authority figures are accused of conducting incomplete investigations and not communicating with the complainant.

"Sometimes it's hard to talk about these issues because they're very personal," Salovey told the HP.

He said the issue needs to be addressed regardless because it is "very real" and can happen on any college campus. Recent statistics have estimated about one in every five women in college experience sexual assault.

"People have a right to expect that they are not going to be subject to unwelcome sexual advances, let alone rape," Salovey said. "That is a fair and appropriate thing to say, 'I should be able to come to a campus and it doesn't happen.'"

Salovey is in the Swiss town of Davos for the WEF, the Yale Daily News reported, which is essentially a meeting of the minds in the fields of economics, education and politics. Salovey told the Daily News educators do not come to the conference to network with one another, a popular misconception.

"Many gifts to the University have been closed at Davos meetings," Salovey said. "It's such a convenient way of meeting with a large number of people who have a relationship with the University."

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