PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Humanist Sociology and Date Rape on the College Campus Martin D. Schwartz Ohio University A popular motto in conservation circles recommends that we think globally but act locally. It makes no sense to spend all your time worrying about Brazilian rain forests but to refuse to recycle or agitate locally for conservation measures. To some degree that concern is one which applies to everyone, in all of the far-flung areas which interest us as humanist sociologists. What separates humanist sociologists from others is a concern to develop a praxis which has the potential to change the world in a positive manner. For many of us, the place where we live and work is the college campus. To think about making this a better world in which to live, we might devote some attention to thinking about how we could take our worldwide concerns and apply them locally. Of course, this can involve a great many areas. Environmentalists can discuss the extent to which their campuses recycle and avoid pollution; those concerned with labor and stratification issues can discuss whether their campuses are part of the problem of creating an poorly-paid underclass. As my own particular interest is in the area of violence against women, I would like to discuss this problem as it relates to the college campus. Rape On The College Campus As a broad and general statement, college and university campuses have long been a breeding ground for virtually an epidemic level of felony crime. This is not something new: over 150 years ago Harvard University was complaining that students frequently committed "crimes worthy of the penitentiary" (Shenkman, 1989: 135). Over all these years, perhaps mainly because universities are for the most part reserved for middle and upper class white America, campus crime has rarely been the subject of "wars on crime" or Humanity & Society, Volume 15, Number 3 (1991) 304