When I think of common college experiences, I imagine movie nights with friends, hiking in the woods and, at worst, stressing over midterms. So to hear that Kate Carey, a behavioral and social sciences professor at Brown University, wrote in an editorial accompanying a Center for Disease Control report last year that “rape is a common experience among college-aged women,” I was surprised and appalled. According to the report, roughly 20 percent of women are sexually assaulted during college — a number much too high for a situation much too grim.
In addition to the high number of alleged sexual assaults, many students assert that their school administration’s sexual assault policy is too weak. In a survey administered by Sen. Claire McCaskill of more than 300 four-year colleges and university, more than 40 percent of the colleges did not conduct a single sexual assault investigation from 2010 to 2014. This apparent lack of interest or urgency is surprising and disturbing, considering the high rate at which sexual assault occurs.
The number of complaints that were filed and ignored does not even scratch the surface of women who have been sexually assaulted, since fewer than 5 percent of victims speak out. Even when sexual assault investigations do occur, they have been criticized for being too shallow or too forgiving of the victims’ assaulters. Enough students have complained about the shallow nature of these investigations that the issue can no longer be ignored.
In April 2014, 23 Columbia University and Barnard College students filed complaints to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights asserting that their sexual assault cases had been mishandled. Other students that spoke out against Title IX violations around that time came from a variety of schools including the University of North Carolina, the University of California at Berkeley, Dartmouth and Swarthmore College.
College students are speaking out against the apparent lackluster response to sexual assault on part of administrations across the country. Unfortunately, this backlash seems to have only been met with even more lackluster responses. Many students feel like their administration isn’t doing enough, and student activates seems to be the biggest voices for creating change. Students are pushing for major initiatives to combat sexual assault.
In a collective move, students from colleges across the nation, including Yale University, Tufts University and Harvard University, rallied in front of the Department of Education in 2013 to call for colleges to better address sexual assault. In a similar case in which Columbia students called for closer coordination with decision-makers within the administration, the Title IX coordinator responded with disdain.
Despite students calling for change, those with the power to change administrative and judicial policy within the school do not always respond positively (or at all). Despite the salience and obvious urgency of this issue, it’s one that requires time and money to address.
Even with those resources, it’s not an easily solvable issue, which partly explains why schools continue to deal with assaulters in easy ways without changing the system.
Fortunately, with the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative, the College has made some strides towards addressing sexual assault and letting victims be heard. The initiative includes launching a website for sexual assault prevention, creating an online consent manual and mandating all students participate in a four-year sexual violence prevention program.
However, this is not enough. The most important piece of the puzzle is increasing student involvement. According to a sexual assault survey that covers 300 schools in the United States, 90 percent of schools have a sexual assault awareness program, but no primary intervention programs that teach skills such as how to be an active bystander. Students are clearly willing to get involved. Organizations like Mentors Against Violence and programming like V-February have raised issues relating to sexual violence. In addition, many students are required to undergo Dartmouth Bystander Initiative Training.
The College seems to be moving in the right direction. Rather than ignore student voices, whether by failing to investigate cases, making acquittals easy and making communication difficult between students and those who can change the procedures, the College is better served listening to its students — a step that is most likely to help prevent sexual assault.
