Activists contend that colleges fall short in educating students about sexual assault, encouraging victims to seek help, counseling survivors, reporting the frequency of such crimes, and training the people who investigate and adjudicate cases. Advocates for people brought up on charges tend to agree that campus disciplinary systems are amateurish, but they contend that the result is inadequate protection for the rights of the accused.

When confronted, the colleges often agree, to some extent, with the critiques, and several have overhauled their systems, but they rarely go as far as the critics would like. At Occidental, the college president, Jonathan Veitch, has accused some activists of using damaging tactics to make their case.

The victims’ advocates have talked of creating a formal national organization, but much of their success so far stems from their use of modern media, allowing them to connect, collect information and draw attention in a way that would have been impossible a few years ago.

Andrea Pino, a North Carolina junior and the other main author of that complaint, said she was moved by what she saw online last year from Amherst, including a series of photos of sexual assault survivors. Through Twitter, she contacted Dana Bolger, one of the leading activists at Amherst, and she and Ms. Clark had their first conversation with her through Skype.

Some activists are conscious of speaking to the broadest of audiences, as when Ms. Clark, Ms. Pino or Alexandra Brodsky, one of the women behind a complaint filed against Yale, write for Web sites like The Huffington Post or Slate. But more often, they are addressing just their campuses, and then are stunned to find that people far away are watching.