Yet another account of rape being used as a weapon of war, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Medecins sans Frontieres estimates that between January and October this year it treated as many as 5,700 rape survivors in the provincial capital region of Nord-Kivu.
Monthly Archives: November 2008
Sexual Assault Faced by Iraqi Women
This recent piece sheds much-needed light on the experiences of rape survivors in Iraq as well as refugees from Iraq living in Jordan. In addition to facing the already existing stigma surrounding rape, Iraqi refugees are particularly vulnerable as many are undocumented and thus hesitant to contact authorities for fear of deportation. The article also notes the struggle of organizations such as MADRE and the Organization of Women’s Freedom in providing services to survivors in Iraq.
Student newspaper demands, and gets, more accurate crime stats
New York University’s Washington Square News noticed that something seemed funny about NYU’s official annual crime report. The way NYU had drawn its “campus map,” only 3 of 21 dorms were on campus – making on-campus crime look low and off-campus crime look high. This is partially a legitimate practical problem experienced by many urban campuses, but in the past NYU had pulled out a separate category for off-campus residence halls. After the student newspaper called them on it, NYU has agreed to reissue the report with a residence hall breakdown, making the results more meaningful and more honest. It’s a smallish thing, but still an important thing, and kudos to the Washington Square News for keeping on the administration.
A SAFER Black Friday
So I just did my Black Friday shopping – I logged on to GoodShop and bought a few things I needed from drugstore.com (which gives a generous 5.5% of your total, very nice!). That’s as close as I plan on getting to any kind of retail space today, although I think my partner and I may be braving IKEA tomorrow morning. (A desperation run – our cheap, Craigslist acquired clothing rack finally collapsed and now we have clothes everywhere. I love our apartment, but I do not love the lack of closets.)
So if you’re like me and dread crowded shopping places (I actually dread shopping in general, but I imagine I’m likely to find fewer takers in that category), really do check out GoodShop. Like yogurt that benefits breast cancer research and t-shirts where a portion of the proceeds goes to the cause of the week, it’s not worth it if you’re buying something for the sake of helping SAFER. In that case, just give us the money. But if you need some basic toiletries, what could be more convenient than having them show up at your door in a few days, with a portion of your money going to a good cause?
Hope everyone also had a Thanksgiving full of sleeping in on the day off and yummy food and good company!
Happy Thanksgiving from SAFER! News and upcoming events
Happy Thanksgiving from SAFER!
We have much to be thankful for this year, including successes at Ithaca College, changes in the making at the University of Iowa, progress at the City University of New York, the launch of our sexual assault policies database, the end of gag rules for campus survivors, and our new Campus Activist Mentoring Program.
Here’s how we’re celebrating this holiday season. We hope you’ll join us!
Pre-Thanksgiving Stretch & Flow Class in Boston to Benefit SAFER. Main Course: Abs!
Host: YogaThree & Yoga in the Square
Date:Thursday, November 27, 2008
Time: 10:00am – 11:00am
Location:Yoga in The Square (between Diesel Cafe & The Burren).
249 Elm Street
Somerville, MA
Phone: 800-964-2360
Email:info@yogathree.com
Suggested Donation $11.00-$22.00
Come and get your yoga groove on and your belly ready for Thanksgiving Dinner. For the first time ever on the east coast—Chanel teaches a Thanksgiving Benefit music-inspired class designed for all levels. It is the perfect time to introduce a friend or relative to their first yoga class. This event is usually held in Los Angeles each Thanksgiving, so please come out make the first Boston tradition a success. All you need is yourself and a monetary donation to our Community Soul Cause for this event: SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape) and Casa De Milagros in Peru, a sacred home for over 30 Peruvian orphans. Chanel is a member of SAFER’s Board of Directors. See the Facebook event.
SAFER Holiday Get Together (NYC)
Please join us to celebrate this momentous year, meet other SAFER supporters, and, as always, raise a little much-needed money for SAFER.
Thursday, December 18th
7-9pm
Mad River Bar and Grille
1442 Third Avenue at 82nd Street
New York, NY 10028
$5 donation. The first 20 people to donate more than $5 will receive a special homemade chocolate holiday treat!
$1 Coors Light Drafts, $3 mixed well drinks
See the Facebook event.
Thank You Calls
If you’ve given to SAFER this year, please don’t be surprised when you get a call from one of our staff or board members. We’re not calling to ask for money (though if you can renew your support, please do!), but to say THANKS and to give you a chance to ask any questions you might have about our work. As always, you can call us any time at 347-293-0953.
Getting Involved with SAFER
We’ve recently updated our Get Involved page on our website with new ideas for how you can get involved in your community our on your campus. You don’t have to be a current college student to make a difference! If you’re interested in raising awareness for SAFER in your town or city, please contact us!
Another way you can help out this holiday season is by doing your holiday shopping on GoodShop. GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to SAFER! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting SAFER. Just go to www.goodshop.com and be sure to enter Students Active for Ending Rape as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!
Best wishes for a peaceful holiday!
Our Holiday Wish List
- A laptop for community presentations
- A Website Wizard (aka website volunteer)
- Party People (aka event planning volunteers)
- Renewed support from you!
A little more on gag rules
If you missed my first post, or need a little more information, I wanted to flesh out the federal government’s ruling related to the University of Virginia’s prohibition on students talking about their disciplinary hearings. You can read about the case background in this longish article by a Charlottesville paper. In summary, a student was raped, her rapist was found guilty by the disciplinary board, he was allowed to remain on campus(!), and she was told that if she told anybody about the disciplinary hearing or its outcome, she could be punished!
UVA argued that such a confidentiality requirement was mandated by the law that protects student privacy – FERPA – while the former student, Annie Hylton, argued that the Clery Act supersedes FERPA in making the final determination of a college or university disciplinary process available without condition to both parties. Hylton was supported in this effort by Security on Campus, the organization that helped get the Clery Act passed 18 years ago. S. Daniel Carter, the Director of Public Policy for SOC, explained the ruling to me (and corrected a mistake I made – the gag rule only ever applied to the institutional process, never the survivor’s story of the assault itself).
The U.S. Department of Education’s letter to us regarding their findings in Annie Hylton’s Clery Act complaint against the University of Virginia draws on a similar ruling from 2004 that found Georgetown’s policy of requiring sexual assault victims to sign a non-disclosure agreement also violated the Act’s requirement that disciplinary results be shared with “both the accuser and the accused”
equally and unconditionally.The new ground in the University of Virginia case is that it clearly applies the principal to cases where there isn’t a written non-disclosure agreement but either a verbal agreement not to talk and or the threat of some type of punitive action if a victim shares the information. This was implied in 2005′s “The Handbook for Campus Crime Reporting” (see page 105) but this is the first instance where it has actually been applied under these circumstances. This is important because the UVA approach is far more common than Georgetown’s.
You can read more about the Education Department’s rationale in their findings letter in the Georgetown case here.
Please note that this ruling applies to the final results in disciplinary cases which are defined as “the institution’s final determination with respect to the alleged sex offense and any sanction that is imposed against the accused.” This would include the name of the accused (and or information that could be used to personally identify them), what they were accused of, and whether or not they were found responsible as well as, ideally, an explanation for that finding.
There may still be FERPA based restrictions on other information provided to a victim if it was taken from the education records of the accused or another student as the Clery Act does not guarantee access to this information. So it is important to note that there may still be some restrictions under certain circumstances in some cases.
Finally, this issue concerns speaking about the actions taken by an institution in response to a report of sexual assault not the underlying sexual assault itself. In neither case was a restriction on speaking about the rape itself at issue rather victims were being silenced with respect to the actions their universities had taken in response.
Carter began his work with SOC when he was a student at the University of Tennessee a decade and a half ago, working on the “Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights” that was added to the Clery Act a few years after it was first passed – an inspiring example of how student activism can lead to a life-long career!
Bail Out Education
More UC students are protesting tuition and fee increases. I really don’t know how current students are going to finish school if the increases keep up at this rate.
What Women’s Magazines Could Be
I was so happy to see this article in Self Magazine this month (trigger warning on that link).
The article discusses the case of Jeffrey Marsalis, who was charged with rape 10 times but never convicted. It’s a disturbing story, but what’s great about it is that the author breaks down tons of rape myths and offers really important information about sexual violence to a huge population of women, many of whom are not likely to find that information elsewhere. The article is everything the terrible “Gray Rape” article in Cosmo could have been (I won’t link to it… You can google if you want to be disturbed). Instead of saying that rape that doesn’t fit our stereotypes is “gray” or not “real rape,” the Self article talks about the psychology of rape survivors, and the reality of rape. It’s an article that I think will help a lot of survivors.
This is a great example of what magazines like Self could be… A place where real issues are discussed, and women can gain a sense of community and support instead of judgement and calls to conformity.
Princeton Proposition 8
Rad.
Wesleyan Does It Right
This is a good example of what should happen when rape drugs are suspected in a college environment.
Two weeks ago, Health Services received information of what is believed to be two separate date rape drug incidents. One of these incidents was officially reported to Health Services, while the other incident was not reported at all…
…“It was a student activity and there were appropriate servers,†said Director of University Health Center Joyce Walter. “This situation was clearly not an overuse of alcohol.â€
The student had consumed three beers over the course of the evening, an amount that was not an unusual quantity for the student. When the student started feeling symptoms of having ingested date rape drugs, such as not remembering parts of the night and feeling dizzy and being less aware, friends removed the student from the party.
While survivors often do not realize they have been drugged within the 48 hours it takes most date rape drugs to exit the system, students who believe they have been drugged are encouraged to report their symptoms to PSafe and Health Services.
Health Services used the recent incidents to remind the student body about safety at parties and the campus resources available to sexual assault survivors. They sent out two consecutive e-mails to the student body: the first listing steps to avoid being drugged as well as steps to take if one is drugged, and the second providing contacts for those seeking sexual violence resources.
“We wanted to encourage general prevention efforts,†Walter said.
First, people should be looking out for each other, and if someone at a party looks like they’re out of it, others should help them before something bad happens to them (good bystander training can make this response more likely).
Second, students should feel comfortable going to Health Services, knowing that they won’t get in trouble for drinking and that they will be treated with respect by the staff there.
Finally, the staff should publicize the fact that rape drugs are being used, and use the incident as a chance to remind people of steps they should take if they think someone has been drugged.
I’ve heard of many situations where none of these things happened, and it’s good to see someone getting it right. The actions of the students and staff at Wesleyan may have prevented several sexual assaults.
There’s just one thing about the student newspaper article that drives me up the wall. They’re called rape drugs. There was no date. The drugs are not related to dates. Rape drugs. Overall though, I think the Wesleyan community handled this situation really well.