Addressing the College Sexual Assault Epidemic

The Problem at Hand

The violent act of rape has been part of the evolution of the human race as far as human
understanding goes. In the constant struggle for power between human beings, rapists use sexual
assault as a means to gain or reassert power. A mighty tool, rape continually disenfranchises a
large percentage of the world population. Historically, and presently, rape affects women at a
disproportionate rate. The 1 and 4 women statistic often finds itself in conversation, a generally
accepted fact of todays life. Not only does rape affect a large amount of the population, it is also
a widely underreported crime, cited by some as the most underreported crime of all. Rape and
sexual assault have become an ever-growing issue on college campuses today. Newspapers and
cable outlets increasingly refer to the occurrence of rape on campuses as an epidemic. With the
sexual freedoms, exposure to alcohol and other substances, reduced supervision, and lack of
education, rape culture has become an indomitable monster. Universities seem to place a
stronger emphasis on self-defense and avoidance techniques rather than education on consent
and the role of mind-altering substances on sexual encounters. Furthermore, sexual assault
survivors at many universities have experienced a general lack of support from their educational
institutions, leading to a number of Title IX investigations across the country. Rape reporting
possesses a remarkably low percentage of 28 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2012-13). The few
victims that know and understand the reporting procedure are being failed by their universities,
and the greater percentage are entirely uneducated on how to proceed after a sexual assault, not
to mention discouraged to by the previous experiences of other victims on campus.



Established Policy
Title IX affords all students the right to be free from
discrimination on the basis of sex. In order to receive any
amount of federal funding, universities, as well as public
primary and secondary schools, must comply with the
standards and procedures set forth by Title IX. Although the
actual text of Title IX is somewhat limited, the Office of Civil
Rights branch of the Department of Education continually
addresses and reviews the standards. In 2011, the Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights wrote the Dear Colleague letter,
addressing some of the disparities of the implementation of
Title IX, clarifying how schools must comply and setting forth
guidelines on how to accurate implement Title IX procedures.
Title IX requires universities to also adhere to the Jeanne Clery
Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime
Statistics Act, which provides students with timely warnings of
any dangerous activity on campus and also requires
universities to public keep crime logs. The Clery Act requires
a mandatory annual crime report from all federally funded
institutions (Karjane et al.) The Dear Colleague letter
outlines many facets in which universities have been found lacking. First of all, all federally
funded universities must have a Title IX coordinator. All schools need to clearly state in their
notices of non-discrimination that sexual assault falls under the blanket term of discrimination.
Schools must have clearly outlined grievances procedures, and must make these visible and
available to the student body. Schools must also provide equitable and timely solution to the
reported assault (Dear Colleague, 2011).

The stipulations in the Dear Colleague letter clearly define how to handle sexual assault
and how to address the needs of the victim and still maintain due process for the accused.
However, as well-documented and explained as Title IX might be, schools apply the policies
unevenly and in detrimental ways to both the victims and the alleged perpetrators. Fewer than
half of four-year universities accurately instruct students on how to file criminal charges
(Karjane). Sometimes, schools use differing terminologies that might confuse students about
what exactly falls under the umbrella of discrimination. Finding the Title IX website for Penn
State requires quite a bit of searching unless a direct search of title IX Penn State is done on a
search engine. Most victims might not necessarily know that sexual assault falls under the
protection of Title IX because the university provides a generally poor level of education. The
accused must also be informed of their rights; allowing them due process is a crucial part of
arriving at an equitable and timely solution. The Dear Colleague letter addresses the burden
of proof. Although many universities hold to a beyond reasonable doubt standard, the letter
actually establishes a preponderance of doubt standard, meaning that if the rape is more likely to
have happened than not, then the complainant has provided enough evidence (Dear Colleague).
Often, universities see Title IX compliance as a grey area. The Columbia Deputy Title IX
coordinator, Michael Dunn, was quoted in the school paper The Columbia Spectator, saying:
If you look nationwide, I don't think anybody is sure they're Title IX compliant (Bogler).



Necessity
Sexual assault victims most commonly experience acquaintance rape. Rarely do rapes by
strangers occur on college campuses, usually making the self-defense tactics endorsed by
universities inadequate. Most rapes in college occur with people the victims previously trusted,
and many situations include alcohol and have circumstantially difficult aspects to allow a victim
to escape. College students, specifically male college students, generally lack education on the
language of consent and see their male dominance over their female peers as just a part of the
college experience. Acquaintance rape further complicates sexual assault in that rape by
strangers usually involves violence, intimidation and fear. While acquaintance rape might
include all three of these aspects, the misconception prevails that a person who is intoxicated can
consent. With stranger rape, strong refusal is often present, but with acquaintance rape, the
victim is often incapacitated. Alcohol factors into 50% of college sexual assaults (Cowley).
Based on gender roles and differences, men typically initiate sexual contact which women are
initially supposed to resist, even in consensual situations. Consensual sex scripts therefore, hold
many similarities to the initial stages of sexual assault, clearly highlight the harm of these rigidly
established roles (Cowley). The culture on college campuses allows for men to be dominant and
aggressive; in fact, this behavior has become the norm. All of these factors, in addition to the
preconceived notions about the effect of alcohol, combine to encourage and normalize
aggression in men and require submissiveness and promiscuity in women (Cowley). Not only do
these gendered views affect men and womens perceptions of one another, they inform self-
image, with girls perceiving unwanted sexual contact as a norm, and men seeing sexual attention
from women as always welcome. Women often internalize these views and victim blame
themselves and each other, directly affecting the rate of reporting.

Policy and Solvency
The Office for Civil Rights, with its Dear Colleague letter, has created an effective
mechanism to process complaints of sexual discrimination. However, the policies must be
implemented correctly and evenly in order to begin to lessen the occurrence of sexual assaults on
college campus and to change the surrounding culture. Although Title IX stipulates that every
school must have a visible and active Title IX coordinator, that position continues to be
insufficient. The Title IX coordinator job strives to help adherence to a federal standard, but in
the end, the university employs the coordinator. A stronger level of oversight from the Office for
Civil Rights would make Title IX compliance far more uniform and effective. Rather than
waiting for cases to be reported to the OCR by students who feel mistreated, an employee of the
OCR should be assigned to each region of schools (post-secondary). With a federal employee
overseeing every Title IX coordinator, schools will be much more likely to remain Title IX
compliant. In terms of methodology, schools regions would have to be outlined first. Because
one single overseeing coordinator could not handle the bulk of cases, more than one overseeing
OCR member might be an advisable step. In addition to that, cases should be selected at random
in order to ensure colleges are not treating cases that they know will be examined differently.
With an overseeing coordinator, the necessity for investigations would take much less time
procedurally and would be more likely to be qualified as valid since the complaint would be
internal.

A double-headed approach to the epidemic will resolve the issues in a more lasting way.
In addition to lessening the disparities in Title IX implementation, education on the reporting,
grievance, and disciplinary procedures must be made more visible. Students should see the name
of their Title IX coordinator much more often and
should be able to identify where to find them and
how to contact them without digging through
endless webpages. At least for Penn State, more
information about Title IX should be included in
SAFE and AWARE. Any students having to attend
BASICS should be reminded of the relationship
between sexual assault and alcohol. On the Center
for Women Students (CWS) website, there should a
direct link to the report form for sexual misconduct.
Instead of the SHARE (Sexual Harassment and
Assault Reporting and Education) acronym, the link
that leads off the CWS website to the SHARE
website should be more obviously labeled as the
place to find information and reporting rape and the
grievance procedure. The grievance procedure
needs to also be a part of SAFE and AWARE and a module should be required every year before
classes begin to refresh students memories about the resources available to them. The Clery
notices are very visible on the Penn State campus, a step in the right direction. Alongside them,
instructions on who to contact to report a rape, both to the university and the police, and where to
find information on grievance procedures should be provided. In order to ensure no vandalism
occurs to these instructions, they should be placed permanently (ie not on paper) on any place
where Clery notices are posted (doors leading to most university buildings). Besides these
instructions, information on consent needs to be widely distributed around campus, in a way that
becomes impossible to ignore. Schools should create media campaigns based around ideas of
consent that will attract the attention of students. Specifics of the language of consent must also
be a large part of alcohol education.

Conclusion
Sexual assault on college campuses must be addressed. Many victims face detrimental
effects to their mental, social and physical health, and a decline in their academic progress.
Victims often suffer for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Too large of a percentage of
young women are affected by rape, and the culture needs to change in order to progress as a
society. Conditions must be safe for education in order to optimize learning and create a strong
worker base. With a double-headed approach like the one proposed, policy and culture can
change hand in hand. If women are more informed about their rights, they will be more assertive
in every aspect of life, including both consensual and nonconsensual sexual situations. With
assertiveness, knowledge and responsibility, culture will see change.




























Bibliography

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2. Cowley, Amanda D. Lets Get Drunk and Have Sex The Complex Relationship of
Alcohol, Gender and Sexual Victimization. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. May
2014 vol. 29 no. 7 1258-1278. Print and online.

3. "Dear Colleague Letter: Sexual Violence Background, Summary, and Fast Facts." U.S.
Department of Education. N.p., 4 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

4. Karjane , Heather M et al. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges and Universities
are Doing About It Washington, D.C.: GPO, December 2005. Web.

5. Langton, Lynn. Planty, Michael. Truman, Jennifer. Criminal Victimization, 2012. Bureau
of Justice Statistics. Department of Justice. Washington, D.C.: GPO, October 2013. Web.


6. The Pennsylvania State University Student Code of Conduct. University Park, Park: The
Pennsylvania State University, 2013-2014. Print.