Excuse me for the caps. BUT I’M EXCITED. Today we launch a project that has been a long-time in the making: The Campus Accountability Project: A Demand for College Sexual Assault Policy Reform. For the past few months V-Day and SAFER have been working together on a project that we hope will vastly increase the number of college and university students actively working to reform the way their campus deals with sexual violence. And in case anyone needed a reminder of why this was important, today the Center for Public Integrity released the first part of their nine-month investigation into the topic. Check it out, and check back over the next two days as they release more information about loopholes to the Clery Act and the barriers to reporting faced by student survivors.

So you know the facts, you’ve read about these secretive, traumatizing campus procedures: what can you DO? Well, everything that your campus does about sexual violence, whether it be mandating prevention programs or a certain disciplinary procedure, should be described in the school’s sexual assault policy. SAFER has been working for the past ten years to help students take an active role in reforming those policies. Now, we’ve partnered with V-Day to change our Campus Sexual Assault Policies Database to make it a user-created, user-friendly new tool for students to complete a thorough analysis of their campus’ sexual assault policy. The process will show you how your school is doing when it comes to doing what they can to keep you safe, and at the end you will add your school’s analysis to our growing database in order to create a record of successes and failings of schools across the country. As a student resource, the Database will allow folks to compare schools and, we hope, inspire students to take action where they see things coule be better.

If you don’t believe me, there’s even a PRESS RELEASE about it! Go below the cut for the serious business.

So folks, we leave it to you. Read about the project. Register to look through the database and add your school (only registered students can submit a school). Make change.

V-Day and Students Active for Ending Rape Launch Campus Accountability Project: A Demand for Sexual Assault Policy Reform

New York, NY, December 1, 2009—V-Day and Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) are proud to announce the launch of their joint “Campus Accountability Project: A Demand for Sexual Assault Policy Reform.” For the past ten years, both V-Day and SAFER have been helping college and university students organize to fight sexual violence and challenge rape culture on their campuses. By combining forces on the multi-phase Campus Accountability Project (CAP), both organizations hope to empower more students to take an active role in changing the ways in which their campuses prevent and respond to sexual assault, and spark a nationwide dialogue on what schools should be doing to properly educate and protect their students.

Sexual assault on college campuses is a pressing issue. One in four women will survive rape or attempted rape during their college career and rape is the most common violent crime committed on college campuses. Colleges and universities have the power to change these statistics and foster healthy sexual attitudes on campus by implementing comprehensive and easily accessible sexual assault policies and prevention programs. V-Day and SAFER believe that students have the power to hold their schools accountable for these key provisions and to fight for and win reforms when necessary.

The CAP kicks off this winter as V-Day and SAFER invite college students across the country to become part of the movement by researching their school’s current sexual assault policy and providing feedback. Students can register for the V-Day/Safer Campus Accountability Project Database where they will be guided through a thorough policy analysis process, answering questions meant to assess the policy’s thoroughness, inclusivity, and adherence to federal law. Once completed, these analyses will be reviewed by staff and submitted to the Database, creating a powerful tool for student activists and administrators to see how their schools match up to peer institutions and what improvements can be made.

After the first batch of policies have been submitted, SAFER trainers will be available for students who want to make changes on their campus. During the 2010–2011 school year, V-Day and SAFER will review the compiled information to assess the state of the nation’s campus sexual assault policy’s and establish a thorough list of key criteria to effectively prevent, track and respond to sexual assaults on college campuses. We hope to eventually integrate our database into existing college ranking systems, so students and parents have easy access to the information.

Please visit http://safercampus.org/campus-accountability-project or http://www.vday.org/cap for more information.