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University Students Take Sexual Assault Into Their Own Hands

Sara Newman |
May 21, 2014 | 12:40 p.m. PDT

Deputy Editor

USC students protest the University's handling of Rape and Sexual Assault cases. (Kylie Nicholson/SCAR)
USC students protest the University's handling of Rape and Sexual Assault cases. (Kylie Nicholson/SCAR)
The University of Southern California has an issue with sexual assault. This should come as a surprise to approximately no one. 

Protestor have rallied and sexual assault victims have shared their stories all in an attempt to encourage the university to take meaningful steps towards increasing the transparency with which the university handles sexual assault cases and taking measures to reduce the occurrence of sexual assault on the USC campus altogether. Because hey, students are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend classes and further their education at a world-class university, not to have to spend their time in counseling to work through the emotional trauma of sexual abuse. 

READ MORE: A Timeline Of Sexual Assault At USC

But far from being alone in its problematic handling of sexual assault, USC is only one of 54 colleges currently under federal investigation for mishandling sexual assault cases. 

Earlier this year, The White House Council on Women and Girls released a report explaining that “1 in 5 women has been sexually assaulted while in college,” with nearly 22 million women becoming victims of rape in their lifetime. 

Furthermore, the study reported that most college rape victims are assaulted by someone they know and that for the assailants, these instances of sexual assault are rarely isolated incidences. Of the men who admitted to committing or attempting rape, 63 percent confessed to having committed an average of six rapes.

Universities want to distance themselves from rape as much as possible because neither potential donors nor prospective students are exactly enticed by seeing “sexual assault” appear alongside every mention of the university. Students and alumni, however, are not so easily deterred.    

Throughout the country, students and former students are finding innovative ways to combat rape on their campuses, rather than allowing their voices to be silenced in the name of good P.R. 

READ MORE: Special Report: Investigation Into Sexual Assault At USC 

Students at Columbia University are taking matters directly into their hands by posting flyers and bathroom graffiti listing the “rapists on campus.” While students have referred to these measures as “a last resort, just out of desperation." Some alumni, meanwhile, are refusing to donate to the university until the school takes adequate actions to protect students from assault. 

Through the Student Coalition Against Rape (S.C.A.L.E.) and individual efforts, students at USC have kept the university responsible for reporting occurrences of sexual assault by directly participating in the investigation of the school for violating the Clery Act. By combing through the incident logs published by the Department of Public Safety, students have fought to correct the school’s mislabeling of sexual assault, using raw data and federal assistance to help increase transparency about the true number of sexual assaults on campus.

Graduates from Brown University founded The Gift for a Sexual Assault-Free CampusRather than handing over blank checks to support their alma matter, Brown graduates are showing their support by making donations that go directly towards providing sexual assault prevention and post-assault counseling, as determined by a student-led advisory board. The Gift for a Sexual Assault-Free Campus in Honor of the Class of 2014 is intended not only to allocate alumni funds to help the victims of sexual assault, but also to encourage the university to “undertake and fully fund further initiatives to create a sexual assault-free campus.” 

While there are no simple solutions for bringing about change to such long-standing issues, students and alumni remain determined to continue fighting with the hope of making it so that they can one day sing the praises of their university without having to swallow the shame of hailing from universities with such dark histories of sexual assault. 

Contact Deputy Editor Sara Newman here.  Follow her on Twitter. 



 

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