Campus Sexual Assault: How Should Administrations Act?
One unread message.
Heart racing, blood pumping through your veins, anxiety consumes your entire body.
Title of the email: University of Colorado Boulder admissions application status update. Mom and dad are watching carefully over your shoulder from a distance trying to be discrete.
Click.
Within a split second a single email could define the course of your future.
Congratulations-tears come to your eyes, you have just been accepted to your dream school. Everything you spent the last four years working for has payed off. In a matter of nine months, you will be attending the academic institution of your dreams, where you can receive a higher education in a field of study that you want to pursue for life.
This university is meant to provide an academic safe haven where you can learn in an encouraging and accepting environment. You believe that this university will protect you throughout your academic journey and inspire you to find your true passions. You believe that this university is going to be your new home.
First semester Freshman year of college, the most exciting, scary, and experimental time of a new student’s life. Sadly, by the end of a student’s college career, there is a 27% chance they will be sexually assaulted. According to the University of Colorado Boulder’s Sexual Misconduct Survey, a student is most vulnerable to an assault during their fall semester of freshman year (Siminson, 2018).
In the documentary The Hunting Ground, the topic of rape and college sexual assault is explored. The idea of college branding and image is explored within the subject of campus sexual assault-what are universities doing to defend their students?
Annie E. Clark, attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Political Science. First semester of freshman year, she was raped.
When Clark went to go report the rape to her administration, this is what she was told: “Well... Rape is like football, if you look back on the game, and you’re the quarterback, Annie... is there anything you would have done differently?” (The Hunting Ground, 2015).
Within America’s society, it is an unfortunate cultural standard and assumption that the victim is to blame for the sexual assault or rape that occurred.
Common questions that are asked towards victims include: “What were you wearing? Did you walk home alone? Did you drink a lot?” These questions are ones that administrators ask their students when they come to report an assault.
When applying to colleges, students are presented with a website full of fun activities to participate in and a list of prestigious awards the academic institution has been awarded. Stanford University in 2014 had 259 reported sexual assaults, only one of them resulted in expulsion.
A main critique that is presented to colleges and universities is the question: why are these statistics not posted to a college’s website? Shouldn’t future students be advertised the integrity, morals, and ethics of their desired university?
In a New York times article regarding the rape culture and response of college’s administration, the idea of college branding was conveyed: “Admissions departments get to pitch a fun, even bacchanalian lifestyle while faculty-lounge liberals get to feel as if they’re part of a worthy ideological project” (Douthat, 2014).
Less than 4 percent of college men are student athletes, however, they are responsible for 19 percent or more of reported college sexual assaults (The Hunting Ground, 2015).
Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the University of Michigan, 2002-2014, allowed a football player who was accused of rape to play for two full seasons. After his final football game of the two seasons, he was finally expelled (The Hunting Ground, 2015).
Because of the University of Michigan’s status within the football world and the attraction their sports have towards potential students, the administration chose to not take proper action towards the situation at hand with their star football player.
In 2009, student Wanjuki Wagatwe, reported her multiple assaults by fellow student to her school’s administration. Wagatwe attended Tufts university who upholds a prestigious name and reputation. The university’s legal counsel said they didn’t have to take action regarding her report (Kingkade, 2014).
Eventually, as her academic journey progressed, Wagatwe became overwhelmed with anxiety and was no longer to sleep and focus on her studies. As her insomnia, anxiety, and constant fear began to consume her, the grades and high achieving student she used to be slowly began to deteriorate. In the summer of 2009, Wagatwe was asked to withdraw from Tufts due to academic concerns, Wagatwe was less than a year away from graduating (Kingkade, 2014).
How are students supposed to feel safe and protected within their universities when they are constantly being questioned about their integrity revolving around serious topics such as sexual assault and rape?
When situations start to go south or become dark, the communal aspect of universities slowly start to decline, the portrayed kindness from the admissions board is no longer present. The corporate side of universities is failing their students.
In 1972, Title IX was passed which prohibits discrimination against all women in federally-funded education which includes athletics programs (Majority Feminist, 2014).
Even with Title IX, discrimination against students still occurs within Universities regarding the topic of campus sexual assault and rape.
Colleges and Universities should protect their students by providing appropriate counseling resources for survivors, providing appropriate resources for legal action when accusations are made, and as well conducting respectful investigations that give the reported situations justice on both sides.
As portrayed through these multiple sources, many university’s primary loyalty does not revolve around political correctness, justice, or liberalism, it revolves around the idea of branding and maintaining a prestigious status.
References
Douthat, R. (2014, May 10). Rape and the College Brand. Retrieved from
Merriman, S. (2015, July 31). College leaders should help protect rape survivors, not
their school's public image. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/07/31/college-administrators-should-help-rape-survivors-not-their-schools-public-image/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9fe3d3e25864
Kingkade, T. (2014, June 13). The Woman Behind #SurvivorPrivilege Was Kicked Out
Of School After Being Raped. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/survivor-privilege-wagatwe-wanjuki_n_5489170.html
Dick, K. (2015). The Story. Retrieved from http://thehuntinggroundfilm.com/story/
Mantel, B. (2014, October 31). Campus sexual assault. CQ Researcher, 24, 913-936.
Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/
Ladika, S. (2017, April 28). Sports and sexual assault. CQ researcher, 27, 361-384.
Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/
Majority, F. (2014). Gender Equality. Retrieved from
http://www.feminist.org/sports/titleIX.html
Friedman, J. (2015, November 20). Greek life on campus. CQ Researcher, 25, 985-1008.
Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/
Greenblatt, A. (2018, October 26). Issues in higher education. CQ researcher, 28,
897-920. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/
Siminson, P. (2018, December 6). CMCI 1010 lecture
Wanjuki, W. (2016, April 21). Dear Tufts Administrators Who Expelled Me After My
Sexual Assaults. Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-establishment/dear-tufts-administrators-who-expelled-me-after-my-sexual-assaults-25d109c464f6