Introduction
A quote by Judith Lewis Herman, world-renowned psychiatry professor and author: “In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.”
Since 2011, federal investigations of more than 7% of US colleges have been opened due to suspected Title IX violations. Why should we, as college students, worry about this? Only 16% of the cases have been closed, and because of the wide reach of culture, even our own community is affected by what takes place in these far-off universities.
I am not only a college student, but a female, so I have a personal stake in these investigations. So I have dedicated days to reading the U.S. Department of Education’s website, analyzing BYU’s website, and reading painful story after painful story of sexual assault.
The way BYU handled the sexual assault was almost worse than the assaults themselves, and because of their conduct, I now believe that BYU discriminates against its female students who report sexual assault. To convince you, I will first define Title IX and the institution’s honor code, followed by two main arguments. Lastly, I’ll refute a defense of BYU’s actions.
[Transition]
To orient you, I’ll first provide an overview of the legislation at play
II. Body
[Statement of Controversy]
Title IX is a law that forbids
It’s a statistic that has circled around the nation for years, one that imprints fear into the minds of young adults and rage into those that demand justice: 1 in 5 female college students will experience sexual assault in the duration of their college career (Clark), with only 20% of those rapes being reported to the police (Hefling). As a topic that is so highlighted in American society, there is a strict demand for an organized, thorough investigation that will result in justice served. Controversy regarding whether the colleges themselves or the criminal justice system should adjudicate the punishment for these vile crimes has arisen; some believe that as an actual crime, these assaults should be taken in a legal stance in order to serve justice at its fullest extent. Others believe that determining punishment through the court system is too nerve-wracking for the victims and that by allowing colleges to do so is the only way they can avoid feeling “skepticism” by the police, juries, or courts (Know Your IX). However, when juxtaposing the capabilities of the colleges and the court system when it comes to the adjudication process, it is evident that the courts are more competent in determining punishments for campus sexual assaults.
Despite having hundreds of sexual assault cases each year, most colleges take little action to resolve these cases. In fact, only 20% of female sexual assault survivors report cases, the rest believing that it was too personal to share, or that if they did, the police wouldn’t listen to them. If they did report, often times it was to the local police rather than the campus police in fear that they would be shamed or turned away by the universities.
Sexual harassment has been a problem in school situations; it inhibits a student's ability to learn since the student concentrates on the problem of dealing with the harassment instead of concentrating on her education. This occurrence of harassment can make a student fearful of going to school, fearful of authority figures and distrustful of adults in general. A woman who either is fearful or distrustful of men or women at an early age can suffer social inhibitions prohibiting her advancement through life. Title IX's prohibition on sexual harassment frees students from these fears and leaves them able to lead a normal life. Although Title IX does not eliminate the possibility of sexual harassment altogether, it does provide recourse to the student and the student's family through means of liability damages. Restrictions are placed on when the liability comes into effect, but it is a step forward in dealing with sexual harassment.
“One in five women are sexually assaulted while in college” (Not Alone, 2014). In our class of twenty women that means that possibly five women have been sexually assaulted. Out of the five women that I stated could have been sexually assaulted they may have known the perpetrator and often will not report what has happened. According to the spring count of students completed by West Chester University, 9,211 of those students were females (“Headcount Enrollment”, 2014). If I go by the statistic mentioned earlier that one in five women is assaulted that would mean that 1,842 women have been sexually assaulted while enrolled at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Out of 1,842 possible assaults only four were reported last year. Two of which the victims knew prior to the assault. Rankin and Associates consulting conducted a Climate Assessment on West Chester University in September of 2010, a section of the results focused on sexual assault on students. According to the report seven people who reported a sexual assault to the university described their reactions to the universities response. Two students shared the way they felt the response was inappropriate or poor. One described that they felt the suspension for one semester was not an appropriate response to an admitted rape, that public safety lost the victims statement, judicial affairs painted the victim offender as innocent, and that the registrar protected the offender putting the victim in harm’s way and everyone
Sexual assault and rape among college campuses has been an ongoing issue across the nation for decades. In the state of Utah, this complex issue will not have a simple solution, but measures can be taken to prevent sexual assault and rape occurring on campuses. Utah Valley University is a campus that is taking considerably impressive measures to combat sexual assault, which will be a basis of this paper. Through university sex education, stricter laws and enforcement, and providing on-campus services to students, cases of sexual assault and rape in the higher level education setting will decrease, and students will be more likely to report these crimes.
Summary: The article “Rhode Island Schools Report 18% Increase in Sexual Assaults” Arditi explains to us of the unfortunate rise in sexual assault at universities in the Rhode Island area. She gives us statistical evidence of reports by journals and newspapers. These statistics showed an increase of 65 sexual assaults by 11 schools near Providence and a 40 percent increase for 29 New England schools (Arditi). These sexual assaults are due to many conditions of the college, such as, its size, location, culture, and how well it deals with reports of the abuse. Colleges have a rising problem of victims failing to report crimes that were committed upon them. Along with problems with reports, sharing information between law enforcement and college student affairs was an increasing issue. Universities and colleges were not required to share data until a White House task force recommended that these institutions sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
The United States national government enacted Title IX in response to incidents and concerns at different Universities nationally. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”.Although Title IX is well known for its impact on intercollegiate atherley ctcs, it is not just limited to exclusion from sports or workplace programs, but from also discrimination on the basis of sex can include, but is not limited to, rape,
The lack of consistency in higher learning institutions can be attributed to that “until recently such institutions have not been subjected to legal sanction for failing to address the problem (Schneider, 1987, p. 525) Schneider writes, “only two reported federal cases have presented a claim of sexual harassment under Title IX” (p. 527). At the time, the only two reported cases were Alexander v Yale University (1980) and Moine v Temple Univ. School of Medicine (1986). More recently, however, in 2015, Michigan State was in violation of Title IX, as they were not appropriately vetting sexual harassment cases on their campus. “Prior to and during the course of Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigation, the university made revisions to its Title IX policies and procedures in an effort to correct several Title IX compliance concerns” (ProQuest, 2015). Reiterating the amount of obscurity that exists within the policies that each institution enforces and abides by is, for the most part, no use.
(3) Schools must be proactive in ensuring that your campus is free of sex discrimination. If a school knows or reasonably should know about discrimination, harassment or violence that is creating a “hostile environment” for any student, it must act to eliminate it, remedy the harm caused and prevent its recurrence. (4) They must also have a procedure for handling complaints of sex discrimination/sexual harassment or sexual violence; (5) the school must also take IMMEDIATE ACTION when a complaint is filled to ensure that the victims can progress with their education. (6) Your school may not retaliate against someone filing a complaint and must keep a victim safe from other retaliatory harassment or behavior. (7) Your school can issue a no contact directive under Title IX to prevent the accused student from approaching or interacting with you. (8) In cases of sexual violence, your college is prohibited from encouraging or allowing mediation (rather than a formal hearing) of the complaint. (9) Your college should not make you pay the costs of certain accommodations that you require in order to continue your education after experiencing
Despite federal laws issued to combat sexual violence, each year 4,000 college women report to school officials that they've been sexually assaulted. What happens after they file those reports has stirred debate on campuses across the country, leaving parents and students fearful that colleges may not be the ivory towers of security and integrity that appear on their recruitment pamphlets.
In today’s world, Sexual Discrimination is a very common issue, especially in college campuses. Unfortunately, Student’s enrolled at The College at Brockport has found themselves to be victims of the issue. Although, sexual discrimination is best defined by discriminating against a person on the grounds of sex, other forms of sexual discrimination include sexual assault, and sexual harassment. The college has also had students that have falsely reported sexual discrimination. Both of which are crucial issues that the college has to resolve because students that are involved in either case will notice a severe change in their behavior, learning abilities, and mental state.
In recent studies dealing with Title IX versus the Obama-era policies on handling sexual misconduct, arguments of preponderance of evidence and clear and convincing evidence are up for debate in terms of which protocol should be used. It is clear that due to the tenacity of college rape procedures, such as ways these cases should be handled, needs to be the court mandate of preponderance of evidence due to these situations occurring not only when a camera or second party isn’t around but creates cases of hearsay because the predominant amount of cases are from drunk or make-up sex - both under interpretation and both not able to be a substantial call to fiscal evidence.
Sexual assault has been a huge issue for many years on college campuses and universities nation wide. As society has evolved, thoughts on sexual assault have also evolved, becoming more focused on the details of victim treatment than ever before. The topic of sexual assault is debatable and sparks many opinions on weather sexual assault on college campuses is becoming more frequent, or if there is just heightened awareness. Sexual assault can happen to anybody no matter the gender, race, religion, or age. Recently there have been many studies conducted on sexual violence on college campuses and universities producing ample amounts of statistics. One may argue that sexual assault rates are the same, but there are simply more studies and attention on sexual assault in the past 20 years. Gender roles have played a huge part in sexual assault on college campuses. Women and men have different expectations when it comes to roles in the relationship, men are often expected to make the first move. One may ask what causes a perpetrator to sexually harass somebody and think it is acceptable. There are various reasons as to why perpetrators do what they do, and may vary from person to person. Although sexual violence is a large problem for many colleges and universities, there is a surprising shortage of federal laws/rules and regulations regarding sexual assault. Colleges are able to develop their own personal policies and procedures for how they will prevent and deal with sexual
Just recently, the Woman’s Center conducted a sexual assault training presentation with the UW football team. We discussed the importance of consent as well as what is rape, sexual assault, consent and the different degrees of each. Offering trainings to ensure that individuals are aware of what rape is important in generating a safe space for all. It is integral that we continue to raise awareness about sexual assault and engage in discussions to weave out any uncertainties and misconceptions one may have about sexual assault. Before the training we surveyed and asked what the athletes knew about affirmative consent and rape consequences and the results greatly illustrated why the talk was needed. Although these athletes were somewhat informed
A recent report states that one in five women will be raped during her time in college, and that of the assaults only twelve percent will be reported. Though President Obama’s speech on the nineteenth addresses more recent issues, it isn’t a new problem. Since Vice President Biden launched the Title IX Sexual