California was the first state to implement a "yes means yes" — or affirmative consent — policy, which regulates how students engage in sexual activity. Now the state wants to allow community colleges to expel students for sexual misconduct even if the accuser isn't a student and the alleged incident occurred off-campus.

This would bring community colleges — which generally have fewer resources — in line with traditional four-year universities in California, which already abide by this law. Currently, community colleges must expel or suspend a student only if the behavior was directly related to college activities.

The California legislature on Monday sent the bill to Gov. Jerry Brown, a leading proponent of putting more responsibility on universities for handling sexual assault accusations.

Yes-means-yes policies already define sexual consent in a way that will lead to more students being accused of sexual misconduct for non-criminal activities. Community colleges had so far been spared some of the more onerous responsibilities, like policing student activity off-campus, but this new bill puts an end to that.

Two more bills currently in the California state legislature would aim to address the issue. One would require all of the state's universities – public and private – to disclose what disciplinary actions were taken against students accused of sexual assault. Another bill would require universities to indicate on transcripts when a student cannot re-enroll due to a suspension or expulsion.

Some proponents of the new policies have described campus adjudication of sexual assault as an educational process, rather than a criminal proceeding. That might be true if the consequences of a finding of responsibility weren't as damaging to one's future as a criminal trial.

A student found responsible for campus sexual assault is often branded a rapist in local (and often national) media, his transcript is forever marked and his reputation is forever tarnished. And let's not forget that a finding of responsibility can be achieved on nothing more than an accusation, with exculpatory evidence and witnesses ignored and a complete lack of due process.

An expulsion with a mark on the transcript could keep him from continuing his education. When accused students have been suspended and allowed to return to campus, outrage has sometimes ensued. Colleges are now being pressured simply to expel. Expelled students — again, expelled based on nothing more than an accusation — find it nearly impossible to transfer to another school. Their education is halted, and if they can't afford an attorney to sue the university for wrongful expulsion, their lives are put on hold.

As one male student told Buzzfeed: "At first I thought they didn't want me to participate in campus activities. Then I thought they didn't want me to graduate. Now they don't want me to have a job or be part of society. Do they want me to commit suicide? Is that what they want me to do? What is the endgame?"

If colleges and universities were truly engaged in a learning opportunity during the disciplinary process, then the consequences wouldn't be so grave. And since the schools aren't actually providing a learning process, then the accused students deserve the due process rights that align with the consequences they face.