Campus Consent In College

Campus Consent
As a senior, I am excited to finally grow up and head off to college, gaining some freedom of my own! I get to live on my own without my parents watching my every move and telling me what to do all the time and when to do it. Although, while being excited and anxious for my new journey, I am quite concerned. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, lower classmen, such as freshmen and sophomores, are more at risk for victimization of sexual assault than upper classmen, such as juniors and seniors. As a senior in high school, I need to be prepared and take precaution to keep myself safe on my soon to be college campus and home.
Sexual assault is becoming more of an issue at the college level and as an incoming
freshmen next year some changes to the education system need to be made for the safety of the student body. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women and one in sixteen men are sexually assaulted while in college. In January 2015, a young girl was at home spending time with her sister who was home visiting from college and decided to go out with her sibling and went to a Stanford University party. After drinking and dancing the night away, she found herself within a close encounter with a boy.
He led her outside behind a dumpster and forced himself on to her, leaving scrapes and cuts along her backside and arms from the gravel and pine needles in her hair. Two bikers chased the man off of her body and call authorities to take her to medical care. " I don’t sleep when I think about the way it could have gone if the two guys had never come" (Baker). This is the infamous Brock Turner case, nearly everyone in the United States has heard the story or at least heard the attackers name, but this is only one case out of the thousands that have happened within American college campuses. Sexual assault can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Generally some guys may think "this can't happen to me". While a majority of sexual assault victims are female, it can certainly happen to a male. September 5, 2011 around five a.m., on Andrew's sixth night of his freshmen year at Brown University he was sexually assaulted by a male in the bathroom stall. The assaulter flirted and pursued Andrew relentlessly to where is wasn’t an option any longer (Kassie). So how do we protect ourselves from this happening? Most students know the standard answer from what their guardians, family members and friends have told them: watch your drink and where
ever you travel go in a group. The basics still reign true. But what if students didn’t have someone to teach them these things most find practical? That’s when colleges need to step in and educate students on what to do to keep themselves safe. Some colleges have started introducing some problem solvers on their campuses such as not allowing any alcohol on campus and switching dorm floors from coed to single sex, but this is only the beginning demonstrated by remaining high amounts of sexual assaults on campus. Colleges should provide self defense classes along with educate students about how to keep themselves safe in any environment they are faced with on campus.
"I tried to push it out of my mind, but it was so heavy I didn’t talk, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t interact with anyone. After work, I would drive to a secluded place to scream. I didn’t talk, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t interact with anyone, and I became isolated from the ones I loved most.”(Baker) Colleges can’t stop all sexual assault, but they can do something after the fact if their precautionary protocol fails. Not only does sexual assault have a physical toll on the victim, more times than not it has a mental toll as well. Within the first two weeks after sexual assault symptoms include: “re-experiencing of the trauma (including nightmares, flashbacks, recurrent thoughts), avoiding trauma related stimuli, social withdrawal, emotional numbing, increased emotional arousal, exaggerated startle response, irritability”. And while some survivors have difficulty for a period of time, others' psychological distress can become a life long process. “PTSD continues to persists in survivors at lifetime rates between 30% and 50%” PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, isn't the only thing to be concerned about either, according to Rape Trauma Services “Victims of sexual assault are 3 times more likely to suffer from depression, 6 times more likely to suffer from PTSD, 13 times more likely to abuse alcohol and 26 times more likely to abuse drugs”. To prevent all of these possible occurrences, colleges need a psychological plan to help those who have become victimized by sexual assault. Colleges need to provide a safe environment where victims of sexual assault can go to when having trouble after the attack, whether it be the day of or months from the time. For research purposes, I called eight different local college campus counseling centers, including University of Central Missouri, Northwest Missouri State University, University of Missouri and University of Arkansas, explaining I was doing a research paper over sexual assault on college campuses and wanted to ask a few questions over protocol and follow up with victims, I never received a call back. It is concerning to me that universities cannot speak to future students about enforced protocol to keep them safe.
After someone is assaulted sexually, typically they need someone to talk to. Some college campuses are really big and far from home so students don't feel comfortable talking to their parents over the phone about such a difficult subject, so they turn to a school administrator they trust. But the scary thing is, college administrators don't have to report sexual assault if they are told of an of an occurrence. According to the National Sexual violence Resource Center, an estimated 20% to 25% of women will experience completed or attempted rape over the course of their college careers, but fewer than 5% of these incidents are reported to law enforcement. Title IX was a law made to keep students on college campuses more safe requiring "Institutions of higher education to report incidents of sexual violence and to track patterns of sexual misconduct and other behaviors that create a hostile environment for women". But while Title IX was a good idea, every law has a loop hole. According to the American Association of University professors, "Because definitions of various acts and their status differ widely by state, community, research study, and institution, colleges and universities are urged to determine the terms and conditions applicable in their localities". Meaning college boards determine whether or not they are going to report the assault based on what they consider sexual assault. College administrators should have to report all accounts of sexual assault on campuses, eventually it could decrease the amount of attacks on campus out of fear of prosecution.
Sexual Assault is becoming more of an issue for both men and women while in college.
Colleges need to provide self defense classes and education of how to keep safe with environments faced on campus so students are prepared if faced with an attack. Knowing not all sexual assault can be stopped, universities need to have an action plan for students who have found their selves victimized by sexual assault. Professional counselors need to be readily available to students who have experienced trauma within school grounds. In addition, college administration should have to report any and all sexual assault cases brought to them by students, this could help lower the amount of cases in the future for fear of
prosecution.