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Zhiyuan Ren

05/06/2018

Instructor-Dr. Philip Broadbent

Writing 39C

The Reality Of Campus Sexual Assualt

In the September of 2014, Emma Sulkowicz, a senior student in Columbia,

carried a 50-pound dorm mattress wherever she went around campus. She said that

this piece will only end until a student who raped her is expelled from school. This

“Mattress Performance” acquired nationwide attention and appeared on the cover of

New York Magazine. Despite the great effort Sulkowicz had made, the student was

not expelled and eventually graduated. During Sulkowicz’s graduation ceremony, she

carried the mattress across the stage.

“At the end of the day, my rapist still goes

to this school, and they haven't done
anything about that.”
Emma Sulkowicz, (Getty Images/Anthony
Burton)
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Campus sexual assault has always been s serious issue in the US, while it is only

until 1985, an article “Date Rape: The Story of an Epidemic and Those Who Deny It”

by Dr. Mary Koss was published, campus sexual assault has firstly received much

attention from the media and people. After the brutal case of Jeanne Clery in which

she was raped, sodomized, cut and strangled in her college dorm, the Jeanne Clery

Act was passed in 1990 which requires the universities to disclose “campus crime

statistics and campus security policies.”

Although the school officials have been making effort and the legislations are

trying to address the issue, the depressing statistics have not significantly changed.

According to the Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study approximately 20–25% of

women have experienced sextual assault during college. An American woman who go

to college is more likely to be sexual assaulted than a woman who do not go to

college. Sexual assault can cause devastating effects on the victims. The

psychological effects include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and

suicidality, which often last a long time.

In 2011, Office for Civil Rights issue the "Dear Colleague letter”, which

highlighted the universities’ obligations to respond, provided specific actions the

school need to take. Campus sexual assault is drawing more and more attention,

which is a good sign, while there are still some major problems.

Underreporting
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While the data that one out of five women were assaulted in college is already

depressing, what makes the problem more serious is according to the American Civil

Liberties Union (ACLU), at least 95% of campus rapes in the U.S. go unreported.

According to a study done by Kansas State University, there are several reasons that

students do not report.

“It was not a big enough deal,” Some women think the assault they suffered are

not enough to report, for example, there was no fingering or penetrating. Some of

them did not feel very scary. In either case, these women often had an idea that a

sexual assault include strangers and much fear. The truth is most offenders are

acquaintances or friends. The study concludes that these responses may be an

indication of the dominant culture which encourages women to lessen the severity of

the assault.

“I didn’t know who to report to or that I could report,” Some survivors indicated

that they did not even know the option of reporting. The universities did not inform

them what to do after sexual assault. Some others who knew they could report said

that they did not know the procedures. This finding indicates that university should

find efficient approaches to alert students to the options after assault.

Besides not knowing the procedures, some student victims did report to the

universities while they said that the university disciplinary hearings did not provide

them an impartial hearing, and even deny their basic due process rights.
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“It wasn’t related to the university” Some victims said that the violence did not

took place on campus or the offender is not a student. Actually, current legislation

expresses the university’s obligation to the sexual assault on students whether it is on

campus or off campus. Students’ lack of knowledge of this information is also the

university’s responsibility.

“I was afraid” Many survivors said that they were afraid to report. They were

afraid that there were not enough evidence and not being believed. They were afraid

of the consequences after reporting. They were afraid of the offenders. One victim

also shared a fear involving a third party, “The president of the club we were both in

told me that no one would believe me, and I would just get in trouble for slander.”

These reports highlight a lack of protection for the sexual assault victims in the

university.

“Because I was drunk,” Another reason relates to the alcohol or drugs. Some

students blamed themselves for being drunk. One student said that being drunk made

it hard to justify that it was rape. One disturbing aspect is many students tended to

normalize these types of experiences. They said that this kind of thing happen

sometimes in college.

Another three common reasons are “Too ashamed to report,” “I didn’t want to get

him in trouble,” and “Felt as if I would be blamed for putting myself in the situation.”

All of these common responses, more or less, indicate the rape culture and victim-

blaming culture in the society.

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Rape culture

Rape culture “refers to multiple pervasive issues that allow rape and sexual

assault to be excused, legitimized and viewed as inevitable” (White & Smith, 2004:

174). H.Wilhelm (2015) argues that rape culture “normalizes, trivializes, and

condones sexual assault against women”.

Across the country, college students maintain and participate in the rape culture

which makes the rape culture normalized. For example, in 2010, one fraternity in

Yale University chanted “no means yes, yes means anal”. Ashley Giraldi argues in

her article “Perception of rape culture on a college campus: A look at social media

posts” that social media also continues to reinforce the hegemonic masculinity which

allows justification for those malicious behaviors. Giraldi also found that the gender

roles at the parties in university lead to women’s degradation. In most cases, the men

control over every aspect of the parties. Giraldi said that being amiable to fraternity

members give women much pressure, fulfilling the gendered role in a party create

potential danger for sexual violence.

victim-blaming

The case of Beckett Brennan is an evident example of victim-blaming culture.

Beckett Brennan was a student at the University of the Pacific, she played in the

basketball team. In May 2008, Brennan went to a party with her teammates during a

Saturday night. During the party, she drank six shots of vodka. Later she was looking
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for a ride back to the teammates’ apartment where the party continued. Two people

from the men's basketball team offered her a ride, however, after they went back to

the apartment, they led her to an empty room and raped her. After that, a third

basketball player came into the bedroom. She was pushed into a closet and raped

again.

The rape experience was already a nightmare for
Brennan, while the later testification process was even
harder. At first, the school officials suggested Brennan
to report the assault to Stockton Police where she
talked to a detective and decided not to file criminal
charges. "He explained to me the system with cases
“Now, should we treat women as
independent agents, responsible
for themselves? Of course. But
being responsible has nothing to
do with being raped. Women
don’t get raped because they were
drinking or took drugs. Women
do not get raped because they
weren’t careful enough. Women
get raped because someone raped
them.” (Jessica Valenti, The Purity Myth: How
America’s obsession with Virginity Is Hurting

Young Women 151 2009)

that involve rape and kinda laid out the facts about it's

a 'he said, she said' and kinda scared me,"

Then the university suggested her to testify to the university's judicial review

board. While at the board, Brennan said the board did not focus on the actual assault

and the offenders but asked much about her behavior at that time. She said that they

asked many questions like how much she drank and focused on flirting.

At last, one student was expelled from the University of the Pacific, but only after

three months, he went to the University of Idaho with a full scholarship. One student

was suspended for a semester and another one was suspended for a year.
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Works cited

Boucek, Brooke W. "Ridding the He-Said-She-Said Dichotomy: The Deep

Entanglement of Sexual Violence on College Campuses." American Journal of Trial
Advocacy, vol. 40, no. 1, Apr. 2016, pp. 103-129. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=121328978&site=ehost-
live&scope=site.

Giraldi, Ashley and Elizabeth Monk-Turner. "Perception of Rape Culture on a

College Campus: A Look at Social Media Posts." Women's Studies International
Forum, vol. 62, May 2017, pp. 116-124. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2017.05.001.

Spencer, Chelsea, et al. "Why Sexual Assault Survivors Do Not Report to

Universities: A Feminist Analysis." Family Relations, vol. 66, no. 1, Feb. 2017, pp.
166-179. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/fare.12241.

Hackman, Christine L., et al. "Slut-Shaming and Victim-Blaming: A Qualitative

Investigation of Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Sexual Violence." Sex
Education, vol. 17, no. 6, Nov. 2017, pp. 697-711. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1080/14681811.2017.1362332.

Holland, Kathryn J. and Lilia M. Cortina. "'It Happens to Girls All the Time':
Examining Sexual Assault Survivors' Reasons for Not Using Campus
Supports." American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 59, no. 1/2, Mar. 2017,
pp. 50-64. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/ajcp.12126.

CBC News, “The case of Beckett Brennan”, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-

case-of-beckett-brennan/4/