Category Archives: Campus news

UNC Daily Tarheel Demands Changes to UNC Chapel Hill’s Sexual Assault Policy

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Front Page of UNC Daily Tarheel on April 1, 2013

In honor of Sexual Assault Activism Month, on April 1, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s student newspaper, The Daily Tarheel, ran a cover story entitled, “RAPE IS A VIOLENT CRIME.” The article called for UNC Chapel Hill and universities across the nation to begin treating rape and sexual assault as the crimes that they are rather than as infractions of some amorphous campus honor code, and to start protecting and provide support to survivors rather than the perpetrators of sexual violence.

The article notes that until last year, the UNC Honor Court, a “quasi-judicial board made up entirely of students,”—which does not include the expertise of security officers, deans, faculty, legal professionals, or health professionals—heard and adjudicated cases of rape and sexual assault. The Honor Court stopped hearing these cases last year when the U.S. Department of Education issued the “Dear Colleague” letter, which included a set of guidelines regarding how institutions handle sexual assault cases to ensure policies and procedures are in alignment with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

UNC enacted the minimum requirements of the “Dear Colleague” letter, which included lowering the standard of proof required to determine guilt in sexual assault causes and the hiring of an individual to oversee the processes for determining guilt. But, according to The Daily Tarheel, the institution didn’t do enough in revising the university’s procedures and policies. For example, accusations of rape and sexual assault are still handled by an on campus organization—the Student Grievance Committee—that includes students and staff who are not required to be versed in how to address issues pertaining to rape and sexual assault. Primarily, the committee handles issues pertaining to harassment or discrimination.

The article outlines numerous ways UNC Chapel Hill could do better by its student body by enacting clearer and more comprehensive policies on how crimes of sexual violence are handled. For example, it calls on the institution to actively involve the Title IX coordinator in considering complaints of sexual assault, to involve local law enforcement in the investigation of rape and sexual assault accusations, to provide better primary and secondary prevention programs for students, educate on the consequences of rape, and to improve support services to survivors.

The article is also a call to action for institutions across the nation to evaluate and change the ways they handle accusations of sexual violence and support survivors. Rather than view the “Dear Colleague” letter and similar documents issued by federal or state governments as hurdles to overcome quickly, colleges and universities should view them as opportunities to bring together students, faculty, and staff to revisit their institution’s sexual assault policy and revise it in a manner that will provide comprehensive support and a clear path to justice for survivors.

SAFER stands in solidarity with the students of UNC Chapel Hill who are working to prevent sexual violence and to make their campus a more supportive environment for survivors. As shown in the results of the 2009 study “Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice,” conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and National Public Radio, campus judicial proceedings regarding allegations of sexual assault are often confusing, secretive, and plagued by lengthy delays, which only serves to exacerbate a survivor’s feeling of victimization. Sexual assault policies that outline clear paths to justice and provide comprehensive information on survivor services on or near campus empower the survivor to report their assault, provide survivors with a clear understanding of their rights, and shed light on the institution’s responsibilities when an allegation of sexual assault is made.

For more information on your institution’s sexual assault policy and ways you can make it more supportive of survivors, please visit  SAFER’s Activist Resource Center.

BU, you’re going to have to dig a little deeper

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Following two alleged sexual assaults at Boston University, the administration has formed a task force to analyze the “culture and climate” of the hockey team. BU president was quoted on Boston.com in saying that the allegations “understandably lead to questions about whether the hockey team’s culture and climate have contributed in some way to the actions of the two individuals.”

Both alleged perpetrators have pled not-guilty and have been suspended from the team pending investigation. But I don’t want to talk about these two alleged perpetrators. It is neither my job nor yours in reading this post or news articles to determine their guilt or innocence. But what I want to say to Boston University, and all college administrations seeking to figure out why their students are perpetrating sexual violence, is that they are going to have to look a lot deeper than the climate of a sports team.

Of course, we read about sexual assault perpetrated by athletes all the time — at the high school, college, and professional levels. I don’t think I have to list them. Yes, research concedes that masculinity and gender roles facilitate this perpetration and, yes, I think we can also argue sports teams, especially at the college level, are bursting with masculinity. But being on the BU hockey team did not lead these men to perpetrate violence, if, in fact, they did.

These men have been raised in a society that disrespects women, sexualizes women, fails to protect women’s rights. They have been inundated by the media since they could comprehend what television, radio, and internet was in their very basic essence. Advertisements portraying women as sexual objects, commodities, inhuman displays for the purpose of capitalization. Movies, TV shows, and ideo games displaying horrible acts of violence and zero acts of accountability. Chris Brown dominating two performances at the Grammy’s despite his brutal beating of Rhianna, his long-time girlfriend. The public’s response to Chris Brown  and Rhianna: Tweets saying “I’d let him beat me any day” and “She should be punched in the face for being with him again” demonstrate the outright ignorance of the cycle of violence.

So no, BU, you cannot just look at the culture of your hockey team. You need to look at the culture in which your students have been raised and if you really want to do something about it, you need to stand up against the way women are portrayed, treated, and displayed to the public eye. Then you have to ensure that you hold perpetrators on your campus accountable. We have read news story after news story where sexual assaults occurred and no justice was sought by the university. This sends a message loud and clear that only supplements what the media is telling these students: You can violate a woman’s rights and disrespect her with no consequences.

I do have to say that I applaud BU for attempting to address the perpetrator side. Too often we hear that women need to dress more conservatively, not drink as much, take self-defense classes. But it’s about time we start raising our men so they never perpetrate sexual violence against anyone.

UM Mobilizes Students in Spreading No-Tolerance Message

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Following investigations of sexual assault reports at the University of Montana, President Royce Engstrom turned to the University community for help in spreading awareness that sexual assault is a serious crime that has serious consequences. In response, a health and human performance professor, Charles Palmer, tasked his students in his upper-level ethics class with a homework assignment that consisted of proposing a plan for spreading UM’s no-tolerance message. I would like to take up these recommendations, as I read them in Chelsi Moy’s article in the Billings Gazette.

Do not have freshman orientation be the only venue for discussing sexual assault

Not only are freshman inundated with information regarding class schedules, campus policies, dining hall protocol, but they are constantly reminded in the first week of their college career that they are embarking on a critical journey. No pressure, right? On top of that, they’re being informed about drinking, the legal, academic, and health consequences that could stem from drinking underage, and the ways to keep themselves safe on Friday and Saturday nights. Throw in the word rape or sexual assault and their overwhelmed scale skyrockets but they are not retaining any information at this point. Anxiety has officially taken over or they have maintained their “it won’t happen to me, I’m ready for college!” attitude.

With that being said, research shows that there are high rates of sexual assault against freshman women in the first month of college. So it makes sense that this would be the target population on campus to educate about sexual assault. But one meeting where the word rape is voiced and then never talked about again until allegations are brought against a student is not a productive or effective way of preventing sexual assaults on campus.

Students must be aware of and reminded of the sexual assault services on campus or locally available.

Furthermore, giving students a brochure with a hotline phone number to campus or local sexual assault services will only increase the amount of paper in the recycle bin after orientation. Students must be reminded that these services are available, how to access the services, and what it means for a student to access these services. Walking into a rape crisis center on campus, located across from a building with classrooms or next to the health services center is extremely daunting for any victim. Confidentiality must be discussed with the student body. The services that they will be offered, not obligated to have, must be discussed with the student body so they know what will happen when they walk through those doors or call that hotline. If these things are not consistently discussed with the student body, then victims are less likely to come forward to seek the help that they need and deserve.

Two quotes from students stood out to me: “People don’t understand the consequences. They don’t realize this is a serious crime. They just think they can get away with this.” – Ryan Johnson and “We have to hold each other accountable. We have to tell each other that it’s not OK. We cannot be in the silent majority.” – Brian Buckreus

I found these quotes both interesting and worth noting because though they are 100% right, a lot has to happen in order to see consequences and hold perpetrators accountable. All too often we read in the news that allegations have been brought forward on campus and the alleged perpetrator faced no consequences while the victim received humiliation, threats on campus, and no justice. All too often we read about allegations being silenced on a campus community and no actions being taken. All you have to do is skim the blog posts on this very blog. So although Buckreus and Johnson are onto something, the entire campus community, including law enforcement and administration, must also be on board.

The fact that UM is rallying students to enter into a very important dialogue about this pervasive problem occurring not only on their campus but on every campus in the country and beyond is extremely commendable. Students listen to students. If I have learned anything about prevention education in my very short career in anti-sexual violence work, it is that an educator challenging a student on a belief, attitude, or norm is not as effective as his or her own peer challenging him or her on that very belief, attitude, or norm. Furthermore, although campus security/law enforcement, the administration, and other faculty and staff are prominent members of the University community, they do not see everything that occurs nor can they understand the experience of students. Therefore, engaging students in the conversation is both necessary and sufficient. Without their voice, a valuable perspective is lost.

UConn Students Urge Administration to Fight Rape Culture

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Over at Change.org, students from the University of Connecticut are trying to collect 5,000 signatures in response to the airing of a rape-supportive program on UCTV, the university’s television station. Although UCTV removed the episode, the school’s administration has yet to respond to the incident. Organizers want their school’s administrators to speak out against rape culture by issuing a statement condemning the TV program’s blatant trivialization of rape.

Kudos to the amazing student activists heading up this campaign! Show your support by heading over to Change.org and signing their petition! 

Boston University Takes It Seriously

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Coach Jack Parker of Boston University’s hockey team takes sexual assault very seriously. The team’s star center was kicked off the team yesterday and had his scholarship revoked after he was arrested for drunkenly breaking into a woman’s dorm room and forcibly kissing and groping her. According to the Boston Globe, Parker had previously tried to convince the student to get help for his alcohol problem, and warned him that another drinking incident would lead to his dismissal (this was apparently the first time that sexual assault allegations were involved).

I can’t say enough about how impressed I am with Coach Parker and BU. Everything the coach and the university had to say is right on point – their concern is how to best help the survivor and they are clearly committed to conveying a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault. They also make clear that the player’s drinking is a problem because it lowered his internal barriers that might otherwise have kept him from assaulting someone – there was no attempt to blame the victim or move the focus off his unacceptable behavior in any way.

Maybe what I appreciated most was Coach Parker’s ability to put winning on the ice in its relative context:

“My team is very upset,’’ said Parker. “He’s a real good teammate, he’s friends with an awful lot of these guys. He’s well liked. He’s so important to the team from a winning and losing point of view. He’s been our leading goal scorer, he’s been our first-line center, our best penalty killer, a power-play guy, he gets all kinds of ice time.

“All that pales in comparison to the other stuff that’s going on. The way he is gone makes it even worse because now it’s a big hole in the soul of the team, so to speak. We might not recover from that. That type of stuff is all trivial compared to the stuff he’s going to have to recover from and the girl’s going to have to recover from.’’

In an month when we’ve learned more than we could imagine about just how far some colleges will go to protect their sports programs, major kudos to Coach Parker and BU.

UVM Update

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The fraternity whose member circulated a survey asking who each respondent would rape has been suspended, and investigations by both the university and the national body of the fraternity are underway. Kudos to the UVM students who drew attention to this outrage, and to the university and the national fraternity for starting prompt investigations. The Burlington Free Press has more, and you can check out what FED UP Vermont is doing to challenge rape culture at UVM (including their already partially successful petition to have the fraternity involved held responsible) on their Facebook page.

Disgusting UVM Fraternity Questionnaire Sparks Outrage

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Today finds me crawling out of blog hibernation to point ya’ll to the latest installment of “College Boys Just Want to Have Fun…By Demeaning Women and Making Jokes About Rape.” Today’s episode takes place at the University of Vermont, where a puzzling and revolting survey was recently distributed to the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon. We were sent a copy of the questionnaire, which mostly consists of benign questions like name, birthday, major, amount of time with SigEp and favorite SigEp memories, hobbies, future goals, etc. It’s actually kind of nerdy and cute, until you get to the final three “personal questions.”

1. Where in public would I want to have sex?

2. Who’s my favorite artist?

3. If I could rape someone, who would it be?

We come across a lot of gross stuff at SAFER, but the contrast here makes this particularly jarring and offensive. It’s not the usual litany of purposefully offensive garbage; it’s a seemingly legit, “normal” survey with this one horrifying nuggets thrown in at the end. The normalization of the question—the nonchalance—is so…disturbing.

As often happens with these kind of “frat shenanigans,” the survey made it into the hands of other folks on campus, who were understandably upset and are taking action. This petition was started last night by “Feminists from UVM” and is already up to 375 signatures. This is what they have to say:

This egregious expression of rape culture is only the most recent example of systemic sexism at UVM. The past year alone has witnessed rape, multiple sexual assaults, and anti-abortion chalking in public spaces. While the university administration has laid off long-time Women’s and Gender Studies faculty and supported sexist institutions like Sigma Phi Epsilon, it has refused to take concerted action to combat sexism and rape culture. We demand that instead of diverting resources into vast salaries for its administrators, UVM should launch an aggressive campaign against sexism and rape culture, and it should expand institutions such as Women’s and Gender Studies and the Women’s Center at UVM. Furthermore, UVM must immediately disband Sigma Phi Epsilon. An institution that discusses who it wants to rape has no place at UVM or in the Burlington community.

Sign the UVM petition and look for updates over at FedUp Vermont, a local grassroots feminist organization. The story hasn’t hit the news yet (campus or otherwise) so there is no word on whether the school will take any action or if the men of Sigma Phi Epsilon have anything to say for themselves, but we’ll let you know if they do. Something tells me this was supposed to “funny.” Ha. Ha. Ha.

Student Suing College Over Lax Security

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Sometimes, even committed sexual assault prevention advocates like myself need to be reminded of just why blue light boxes that link directly to the police exist on most college campuses. We know that most assaults are by an acquaintance, and they happen in dorm rooms or off-campus housing far more than they do outside, so the boxes sometimes seem misplaced. Sometimes though, a woman manages to escape from the drunken fellow student who has kidnapped her from her bed, and there is NO STAFF ON DUTY when she yells for help and NO CALL BOX at her dormitory, or his dormitory, or the dormitory where she ran for help, and no one helps her. And then, as she should, she sues her college, Southwestern Oregon Community College, for not having any means to call security in an emergency and not having any staff on duty that night.

Student Kicks Ass, Police and Newspaper Not So Much

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Last week, a freshman at the University of Florida rescued another woman from a man trying to rape her. The freshman saw the crying woman walking down the street, trying to get away from a man following her. The student pulled the other woman into her car, locked the doors, rolled up the windows and sped away. The other woman had managed to escape from the car of the man after he attacked her, but no one else had intervened to help her as she tried to get away.

Impressive and quick thinking action on the part of the freshman, the sort of bystander behavior that should be celebrated as heroic and a model to emulate, right? And I’m pretty sure that’s how it would have gotten talked about if she had been a man.

Now turn to the actual article. It does pretty well for most of the first two pages, recounting what happens and giving voice to the heroic freshman. Then you hit this quote from the university police:

“Her actions contributed greatly to minimize the threat that was posed by this individual,” Barber said. “Individuals who provide assistance of this nature certainly need to bear in mind the potential dangers that they face when engaging in that activity.”

Well, yes, helping somebody out always has risks, but the freshman was in her car and had her wits about her, so I’m not sure how high the risks really were. More importantly, is that what you would have said if the freshman was a man, Mr. Barber?

Then you hit page three of the article, which is all about how women should know better than to drink or talk to strange men, and blaming a culture that encourages women to drink too much. Really, if you had to take the article to a blaming place, how about blaming the four other people who were on the street when the freshman noticed the woman needed help, and did nothing? How about asking what the patrons of the bar could have done differently to intervene when the woman appeared too drunk to make it home safely by herself? How about blaming the attacker and the culture that says it is ok for him to take advantage of someone’s drunkenness to rape them, a culture this article encourages by putting all the blame on her?

Or how about staying in a place that focuses on women’s strength. Acknowledge the power and strength of the woman who was initially attacked, but who, despite her trauma and her inebriation, succeeded in fending the attacker off, getting out of his car, and making it to a place public enough that people were around who could help her. Acknowledge how awesome the freshman rescuer is – her willingness to risk her own safety to help another, her knowledge of the importance of getting the woman to a hospital, her thoughtful and well-phrased attempts to control the narrative of the event against our cultural narratives of victim-blaming, her commitment to doing the right thing as a bystander. Talk about how other women (and men) could step up to help when they see sexual violence or potential sexual violence happening in front of them. Remember that women are often the knight in shining armor who comes to someone else’s rescue, and celebrate their heroics the same way you would a man’s.

Pastor Who Humilated Raped Girl Removed from University Board

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Thanks to an outpouring of outrage led by former students, The Rev. Charles Phelps has stepped down as a member of the Board of Bob Jones University. Phelps was the pastor of a church in New Hampshire when a church member in his late 30s confessed to raping a 15 year old girl, also a member of the church, who was impregnated by the rapist. Phelps forced the girl, Tina Anderson (who has asked that her name and story be shared to help others) to apologize for HER behavior in front of the whole church, and then sent her out of state, away from family and friends, to have the child and give it up for adoption. Now an adult, Anderson has bravely pushed for accountability for the crimes committed against her, and this year, her rapist was finally convicted – but until now Phelps remained on the board of Bob Jones, a major Baptist university.

“Growing up in the church, you respect the people that teach you, and to see them so grossly mishandle a 15-year-old is just angering,” said Christine Corneau, of Bristol.

Corneau is a former member of the church and a former student at BJU in South Carolina, where until Thursday, Phelps had served as a member of the school’s Board of Trustees.

Corneau and many others had taken to social networking sites, calling on BJU to remove Phelps.

Check out I Support Tina Anderson for more on the story and to see one of the petitions that helped push Phelps out. This is a great reminder that alumni can be an important source of change for their colleges and universities – your former school relies on your support, so make your voice heard!