ASHE SCHOW: 2015: A year of campus hysteria.

The ridiculousness started in February when Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis penned an article about “sexual paranoia” at colleges and universities. She bemoaned the campus climate of disregarding due process in favor of political correctness and the need to believe all accusers, regardless of the facts and evidence.

Kipnis was then accused by at least two students for alleged “retaliation.” The students claimed her article created a “chilling effect” on campus and discouraged accusers from coming forward. Kipnis was accused of violating Title IX — the federal statute that bans sex discrimination and is being used to force colleges to adjudicate felonies. She was not accused of sexual assault, but for somehow violating the law because a few students didn’t like her article.

Kipnis was eventually — and thankfully — cleared of the violation, but the message was clear: Dare to speak against the prevailing narrative and suffer painful consequences.

Kipnis was tied up in the same administrative hearing process that many young men (and a few young women) find themselves in when accused of sexual assault. Due process is seen as a hindrance to “justice” and discarded.

But just as Kipnis was vindicated by her employer, many of the male students accused of sexual assault saw their lawsuits dismissed by judges deferring to college procedures.

College has become a hostile educational environment for male students. And that hasn’t happened by accident.