Last week self-identified Asian and Asian-American undergraduate women received a letter from the chairs of the new Pan Asian Council Sexual Assault Committee with information about the organization and disturbing statistics about sexual assault on campus.
Last year, Asian and Asian American women reported 30 percent of cases to the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program coordinator Susan Marine, despite the fact that this group composes only 12.3 percent of undergraduate women at the College.
According to the letter, the PAC committee was founded to deal with the fact that demographic statistics "reflect that a disproportionately large percentage of alleged sexual abuse cases at Dartmouth have been reported by Asian or Asian-American women."
Marine said she started tracking statistics three years ago after she had noticed that there were a disproportionate number of Asian and Asian-American women who reported incidents of alleged sexual abuse.
The statistics reflect that there is something about the dynamics, how Asian women are viewed or not viewed on campus, Marine said.
"With other major ethnic groups -- Euro-American, African-American and Native Americans -- the reporting was roughly proportionate," Marine said, adding that Hispanic students tended to have a proportionately low reporting rate.
Marine and others contacted for this article said that they were unsure as to what this dynamic is, and hope that the discussion facilitated by the committee will explore the meaning and interpretation of the statistics.
In 1996-1997 students reported 20 cases of sexual assault or rape, six cases of attempted sexual assault or rape, 14 cases of unwanted of sexual contact and six cases of relationship domestic abuse to Marine.
Asian and Asian-American women reported 40 percent of those cases, Marine said.
In 1997-1998 Asian and Asian-American women reported 37 percent of 27 cases of sexual assault or rape, one case of attempted assault or rape, 17 cases unwanted sexual contact and five cases of relationship domestic abuse.
In the earlier years, Marine only defined Asian students as those who were East Asian -- members of the Korean, Japanese and Chinese communities. After 1998, the Asian statistics include other Asian groups -- including members of the South Asian community. Marine also started gathered demographic data in all cases starting that year.
Marine said she did not keep track of the ethnicity of the alleged assailant, and knows the ethnicity of the perpetrators in less than 50 percent of the cases reported to her.
However in the cases that women did report the ethnicity of their assailant, the majority of Asian-American women reported non-Asian-American perpetrators, Marine said.
The PAC Sexual Assault Committee invited Asian and Asian-American women to small group discussions last week facilitated by a Sexual Abuse Peer Advisor and a Dick's House counselor.
"We see the committee as a means to get more people involved and more proactive," Nora Yasumura, the Asian Pacific American Programming Liaison, said. "This is a complex issue and we must continue dialogue -- there is no one simple answer."
According to Bernette Tsai '01, approximately 10 students attended the discussion she co-facilitated Tuesday night.
"Students were mostly confused about the statistics," Tsai said. "We reached no general conclusions -- nobody can think about an explanation for them."
The facilitators declined to comment more on the discussions due to the sensitivity of the issue.
