Monthly Archives: April 2013

Do You Know Your IX?

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This is a guest post from Dana Bolger, Amherst College, 2014 and Alexandra Brodsky, Yale College, 2012, Yale Law School, 2016.

Click here to learn about Know Your IX

Pop quiz: Survivors of sexual violence on college campuses have the right to:

-       A) Demand that their assailant be moved out of their dorm, job, and classes

-       B) File a complaint against their assailant within their school’s disciplinary court

-       C) Receive counseling and academic support services from their universities

-       D) All of the above

Answer: All of the above. These rights come straight out of Title IX, the landmark federal legislation that most people know only as the law that governs women’s sports.

The truth is that Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments—strengthened by Vice President Biden’s Dear Colleague clarifying letter—guarantees students’ civil right to education unimpeded by discrimination, including violence and harassment. It’s a powerful but underutilized tool for creating safer schools.

Unfortunately, too many survivors don’t know their Title IX rights. That’s why we’re launching Know Your IX, a campaign that aims to educate every student in the U.S. about his or her rights—and what actions to take if they’re being violated.

Last week, we debuted our Know Your IX fundraiser. This summer, we’ll launch an information-rich website, followed by an extensive social media campaign to disseminate that information virally. During the first week of classes next fall, we’ll place full-page educational ads in college papers across the country. By the time next semester is in full gear, college students will know their rights and how to hold their schools accountable.

Armed with knowledge, students will be able to insist that their schools take active steps to stop sexual violence before it occurs, and, if those programs fail, will be prepared to stand up for themselves during disciplinary procedures. Too often schools have dissuaded survivors from making reports; with Know Your IX, students will know to cite Title IX’s prohibition on such administrative abuse. In the face of an informed campus, colleges will have to shape up.

Title IX can also be harnessed for activist agitation for university reform. In 2011, when one of us was a junior at Yale, the college’s deliberate indifference in the face of rampant campus sexual violence and harassment was too much to ignore. A team of students and alumni came together to file a Title IX complaint against the school. With the support of a generous pro bono lawyer, the group collected personal testimony and wrote up recent campus events to demonstrate all the ways Yale was out of compliance with federal law.

Based on the complaint, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights decided to investigate Yale, and discovered the extent of the administration’s efforts to keep survivors silent, the opacity of reporting procedures, and the incompetence of those charged with addressing violence. Yale still has a lot of work to do, but thanks to the OCR, it has completely revamped its grievance board and must stay on its toes to avoid referral to the Department of Justice.

An official Title IX complaint, though, isn’t the only way to use the law to change your campus. Our partners at Amherst have centered the campus campaign on personal narratives—most notably Angie Epifano’s—that exposed the school’s legal failure in an emotionally compelling form. While activists are still pushing the administration to make meaningful change, the public demonstration of Title IX violations was enough to spur Amherst to action.

Have you used Title IX to effect change on your campus? Reach out to us on Facebook and Twitter, check out our Indiegogo, and help us spread the word about students’ rights. As students, we have a powerful legal tool at our disposal. Let’s use it.

Where Do Students Stand on Campus Policies?  Findings From Our National Study of Student Activists

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SAFER believes that a strong, comprehensive campus sexual assault policy is a key tool in the achievement of primary prevention programs and sustainable institutional change, and it is our mission is to provide students with the resources and support as they embark on reforming their campus policy. Yet, findings from our recently released research study, Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape Activists, indicate that many of the over 500 student activists we surveyed shy away from addressing campus policy.

Although almost three-quarters of student activists surveyed (74.1%) believe that campus policy is “one of the key tools” in addressing rape/sexual assault, less than a fifth (19.4%) reported actually working to reform campus policy. The two most common reasons activists were not engaging in policy – each given by approximately a third of students – were not knowing how to reform policy (32.1%) and being busy addressing rape/sexual assault in other ways (33.7%).

To learn more about students’ experiences with campus policy, we held focus groups with student activists working on sexual assault issues. A number of these students explained why reforming campus policy is not among their top priorities, “it’s that the immediacy of the issue at hand, and I just feel like the policy will have to come later because [we need to focus on] what’s happening now, who may be potentially assaulted this weekend or tonight.”  Students focused on the immediate needs of prevention and responding to survivors.  They were understandably most interested in taking actions that can help at that very moment.  While reforming policy may take time, it also has great potential to ensure both prevention and survivor services. It appears that the prevention possibilities of campus policy are not readily apparent and that students may not recognize how policy can institutionalize specific crisis response services. We at SAFER are now working on ways to illustrate the powerful potential of policy as tools for prevention and survivor support.

Nevertheless, a small portion (19.4%) of students in our survey had worked to reform their campus policy.  They reported utilizing a number of techniques; most (55.2%) advocated with their administration, more than a third (37.9%) involved other members of the campus community, and almost a quarter (24.1%) served on official campus policy review/revision committees.  Less common tactics included generating negative publicity about policy (e.g., writing an article for student newspaper) (17.2%), providing revised policy language without official standing (10.3%), engaging in direct actions (e.g. sit-ins, rallies) (8.6%), assessing school’s policy (8.6%), researching other school’s policies (8.6%), and seeking help from off-campus organizations (6.9%).

Regardless of whether or not they worked on campus policy reform, many student activists were dissatisfied with their school’s sexual assault policy. In fact, when asked to assign a grade to their campus policy, only one in ten students (9.8%) gave it an “A.” Students in our focus groups described not only limitations of the policy itself, but also a lack of sufficient implementation of the policy. Students clearly wonder about the ability of campus policy to make a difference.  As one student explained, “what frustrates me at my school is that we’ve had people expelled for cheating, but nobody has ever been expelled for rape.” These students identified a disconnect between policy and practice that is all too common in many of our colleges and universities.

At SAFER, we know that strong campus policies are an integral part of a sustainable approach to addressing sexual violence.  But, we also know that policies are only as effective as their implementation.  We urge student activists not only to reform their policies when necessary, but also to ensure that the policies continue to be enforced and implemented at the institutional level.   We can provide resources and support to students working to hold their schools accountable to the law and their own policy.

FAST FACT: Over a quarter of student activists (25.7%) did not know if their school has a policy addressing rape or sexual assault.

If you missed them, check out our introductory blog about this study and our earlier blogs about students’ activities and their reports of their school’s efforts to address campus sexual assault.

You can also read the full summary report of Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape. For more information about the study, contact me, Emily Greytak, PhD, SAFER’s Evaluation Coordinator at .

Lastly, we want to thank all of you who took the time to share your thoughts with us by participating in our study!

 

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.

Do Schools Make the Grade? Students Report on Colleges’/Universities’ Efforts to Address Campus Sexual Violence

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In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, we have been sharing findings from our recently released research study, Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape Activists. Last week we told you about what student activists were doing to combat rape on their campuses. Now we want to tell you about what colleges and universities themselves are doing to address sexual violence. We surveyed over 500 student activists from schools in 46 US states, the District of Columbia and 5 other countries, including a mix of public and private schools with a wide range of student enrollment. They reported that the following efforts exist at their school:

• 66.4% Safety initiatives (i.e., blue lights, safe rides home)

• 59.2% Awareness-raising events (e.g. Take Back the Night)

• 46.4% On-campus survivor services (e.g., campus sexual assault center)

• 46.1% On-campus crisis response (e.g., hotline)

• 45.0% Comprehensive, clear sexual assault policy

• 43.3% Education for potential victims/survivors, including self-defense classes

• 32.9% Social norms or social marketing approaches (e.g. “Real Men Don’t
Rape” campaigns)

• 28.3% Training for campus staff (e.g., campus police/security officers)

• 22.1 % Bystander intervention/education

• 18.1 % Training for those involved in campus judiciary hearings (administration, students)

• 16.1% Education for potential perpetrators

Safety initiatives and awareness-raising efforts were the most common strategies implemented by schools – both were reported by a majority of students. In contrast, less than a quarter of students reported that their schools provided bystander education or education for potential perpetrators.

Awareness raising and risk reduction efforts are important components of an overall campus approach to address sexual violence. But they do not address the root causes of sexual violence. We urge both schools to move beyond the risk reduction strategies of blue lights and buddy systems, and to extend their efforts to addressing primary prevention, whether through encouraging bystander intervention, educating potential perpetrators, or working to change rape culture on campus.

In addition to asking students to report on their school’s activities, we also asked them to assign a grade to these efforts. Overall, students indicated that their schools were not succeeding in their efforts; half gave their school a C or lower:

A:  9.8%          B:  40.2%          C:  33.6%          D:  13.2%          F:  3.2%

FUN FACT: One in three students rated bystander intervention (31.7%) and education for potential perpetrators (28.8%) as one of the most effective ways to end campus sexual violence.

If you missed them, check out our introductory blog about this study or our blog about students’ activities, and stay tuned next week when we’ll sharing findings about campus sexual assault policy. Thanks to all of you who took the time to share your thoughts with us by participating in our study!

Read the full summary report of Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape. For more information about the study, contact me, Emily Greytak, PhD, SAFER’s Evaluation Coordinator at .

We also want to hear from you – what is your school doing to combat sexual violence? Tell us in the comments!

Results from “Dangerous Safe Havens: Institutional betrayal exacerbates sexual trauma” study conducted at University of Oregon

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This blog post for Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month was written by Carly Smith, M.A., M.S., Department of Psychology, University of Oregon.

Sometimes it is really challenging being a trauma researcher living in a society that seems to tenaciously hang onto myths and misconceptions about sexual violence. Each carefully designed study or published paper can seem to be a drop of knowledge compared to the deluge of media coverage of sensationalized scandals or university orientations that tell young women the way to end sexual assault is to watch their drinks or walk with a buddy. The truths we discover and document about sexual violence seem to get re-circulated within communities of researchers, activists, survivors, and others already in the know. But getting that knowledge into public awareness sometimes seems hopelessly difficult. However, every so often there is a shift in the public’s willingness to re-examine some of the misperceptions about sexual violence and that is a chance for real education.  This gives us hope.

Most recently, there has been a shift in the awareness of institutional involvement in sexual violence, particularly child abuse and sexual assault. The revelations of on-going cover-ups of child abuse at Penn State and within the Catholic Church have led people to question previously unimpeachable institutions. Administrative mishandling of sexual assault on campuses and in the military has spurred outrage. People finally seem to understand that these institutions have betrayed their members by failing to prevent or responding inadequately to abuse. This institutional betrayal is precisely what I seek to understand with my research conducted with Dr. Jennifer Freyd at the University of Oregon. We recently published a paper examining the impact of institutional betrayal titled Dangerous Safe Havens: Institutional betrayal exacerbates sexual trauma, in the current issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress. We surveyed 345 undergraduate women and found that women who had experienced institutional betrayal around an unwanted sexual experience went on to suffer from higher anxiety, post-traumatic distress, dissociation, and sexual dysfunction as compared to women who had not experienced such a betrayal. We designed a new questionnaire called the Institutional Betrayal Questionnaire to specifically measure the type of institutional actions and inactions that seem to occur in relation to sexual violence. We asked women in our study to consider their unwanted sexual experience and whether an institution had played a role by doing any of the follow:

1. Not taking proactive steps to prevent this type of experience?

2. Creating an environment in which this type of experience/s seemed common or like no big deal?

3. Creating an environment in which this experience seemed more likely to occur?

4. Making it difficult to report the experience/s?

5. Responding inadequately to the experience/s, if reported?

6. Covering up the experience/s?

7. Punishing you in some way for this experience (e.g., loss of privileges or status)?

We found that nearly half of all women surveyed indicated they had experienced some type of institutional betrayal. The most commonly reported forms of betrayal were those in which an institution failed to prevent sexual assault or created an environment where it seemed common or more likely to occur. Over half of the women reported no longer being involved with the institution that betrayed them.

These results have important implications, particularly for universities, given the setting of our study. The rate of institutional betrayal reported by women in this study indicates critical problems with the institution’s current policies on sexual assault. At best, institutions are inadequately addressing a sexual assault culture and at worst they are actively supporting one. This is perhaps unsurprising given the often compartmentalized responses to sexual assault (e.g., emergency phones on campus, support services for sexual assault survivors) rather than systemic measures that address cultural values, attitudes, and sexual/social norms that may condone or normalize sexual assault. This type of betrayal isn’t just another negative aspect of sexual assault. It is associated with measurable increases in psychological distress, lending support to the notion that there is something inherently more harmful when abuse occurs within a trusted institution that responds poorly. Yet this also suggests the potential for safety and healing should an institution respond supportively. While we don’t know how many of the women left institutions directly due to betrayal versus a natural ending (e.g., graduation), it is likely the case that at least some did so. When institutional betrayal occurs in educational, professional, and spiritual organizations, this decision may mean giving up or limiting important identities or opportunities regardless of a decision to remain a member of an institution.

It is these institutional-level actions and inactions that are capturing the public’s attention as they seek to understand how seemingly trustworthy institutions can contain large scale sexual abuse. As we continue to research institutional betrayal, it is my hope to provide answers to these questions in a way that may shift the conversation around sexual violence towards an understanding based in reality rather than myths.

Putting the Activist in Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month

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Last week we introduced you to our new study, Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape Activists, where we asked student activists, including many of you, about their experiences, perspectives, and perceptions addressing campus sexual violence.

Now we want to highlight that important work they’ve been doing on their campuses. Below are the portion of the student activists who reported participating in the following activities:

• 36.1% Sexual Assault Awareness Month

• 33.0% Other sexual assault/rape education or awareness activities

• 31.7% Take Back the Night

• 24.9% VDay

• 20.1% Speak Outs or other survivor forums

• 19.4% Reform of campus sexual assault policy

• 19.4% Organizing or advocacy related to crisis response or survivor services on campus

• 19.0% Training for campus staff or administration

• 16.7% Counseling or survivor support

• 16.7% Advocated/lobbied for local, state, or federal action

• 13.9% Worked (including volunteered) with local sexual assault center in the community

• 7.4% Worked at a campus-based sexual assault/rape crisis center

• 4.4% Other (e.g., Slutwalk, Clothesline Project)

It’s obvious that student activists are doing a ton of amazing things – from speak outs to staff training to survivor support. Awareness raising events, such as Take Back the Night and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, were the most common types of activities that students participate in. These events bring the reality of campus sexual violence to light – they also demonstrate support for survivors and the need for change. Yet, it is critical that students mobilize this increased awareness to organize for change. However, only a small portion of student activists are organizing or advocating to reform their campus policies or implement programming or services. We ask that this month—Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month—student activists around the country renew their commitment to combating sexual violence by taking action to create lasting change on their campus. SAFER has resources to help support students as they organize and advocate for change.

FUN FACT: More than a third of student anti-rape activists in our survey also worked on LGBTQ issues (41.2%) and intimate partner violence issues (37.8%) on campus.

If you missed it, check out our introductory blog about this study, and stay tuned for more findings from our study throughout the rest of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month. Thanks to all of you who took the time to share your thoughts with us by participating in our study.

Read the full summary report of Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape. For more information about the study, contact me, Emily Greytak, PhD, SAFER’s Evaluation Coordinator at emily@safercampus.org.

We also want to hear from you – what activities have you participated in on your campus? Tell us in the comments!

We Asked, You Answered! Introducing SAFER’s Study of Student Activists

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Last year we asked you, readers of our blog, and other student activists to tell us about your experiences working to combat rape on your campuses. Over 500 of you responded and now we’re finally ready to share what you told us. Over the next month, we’re going to be reporting our findings from Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape Activists. But first we want to tell you the whys, whats, and whos of how we conducted the study.

Why: As we began our twelfth year, SAFER wanted to assess the current needs of student activists working to end sexual violence on campus and our effectiveness in meeting those needs. We are using the findings to inform our strategic planning and help us develop new resources and programs to provide support to students as they work to reform campus sexual assault policy. We also hope that by providing important information about the activities and perspectives of student activists, these findings will be useful to the broader anti-sexual violence movement.

What: The study consisted of two parts: 1) a national, online survey and 2) a series of focus groups. Outreach for the survey was conducted through SAFER’s constituent database and social networks, and in order to reach student activists who were not engaged with SAFER, we utilized SAFER’s partnership with a leading magazine for young women. The magazine posted announcements about our survey on its online social media. The focus groups were held at two conferences – a national conference for young feminist leaders and an NYC-based conference specifically for student anti-rape activists from traditionally marginalized groups. To increase participation and reduce sample bias, monetary incentives were provided to both survey and focus group participants. Both the survey and the focus groups explored students’ activities, priorities, perceptions, and needs related to various efforts to address campus sexual violence, with a specific focus on campus policy.

Who: 528 undergraduate students completed the online survey. They were from a diverse range of schools, in 46 different states and 6 countries, including a mix of public and private schools with a wide range of student enrollment (from less 2,000 to greater than 20,000). 19 students participated in the focus groups; they attended schools in Northeast, South, and Midwest and were from a wide variety of schools, including liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and state universities.

FUN FACT: Almost a third (31.7%) of student activists in our survey participated in Take Back the Night events.

Stay tuned for more findings from our study throughout Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month in April. Thanks to all of you who took the time to share your thoughts with us by participating in our study.

For more information about the study, read the full summary report of Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape Activists or contact me, Emily Greytak, PhD, SAFER’s Evaluation Coordinator at emily@safercampus.org.