By Grae Gleason, Contributor
Colleges and universities in America face a decision between student safety and academic prestige.
One hopes that these trusted institutions would choose safety, but as on-campus sexual violence scandals arise across the country, student trust falters. Many universities reveal a history of mishandling student rape cases, ultimately causing additional harm to sexual violence victims.
Such situations remain alarmingly easy to find. The most recent and publicized example stands as Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz’s case, in which school officials have been accused of grossly mishandling the investigation of Sulkowicz’s sexual assault case. News outlets from MSNBC to The Huffington Post have covered Sulkowicz’s case and the ensuing anti-rape protests at Columbia.
While less covered by the media, Yale University also dealt with a sexual assault related scandal for misreporting on campus rape statistics. According to records on the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid website, Yale University was charged with a case of distorting the amount of forcible sex offenses that occurred on its campus between 2001 and 2003. Yale and Columbia symbolize a problem for schools across the nation.
These appalling cases lead many KSU students to ask, how is my school preventing sexual assault? Blue light emergency buttons appear all over campus, but students such as Haley Albright hope for more in the way of prevention and protection.
“Absolutely everyone should be helped and feel safe from sexual abuse. We have the emergency buttons, but I’m sure more could be done to protect people,” Albright said.
Preventing on-campus sexual assault stands as an important goal for the university. In fact, Kennesaw Hall houses the epicenter for KSU’s movement against sexual assault. The Women’s Resource and Interpersonal Violence Prevention Center (WRIVPC), directed by Shameka Wilson, leads KSU in awareness and prevention projects throughout the school year. Such events include participating in The Clothesline Project during sexual assault awareness month in April, as well as Take Back the Night during domestic violence awareness month in October.
KSU’s Clothesline Project event includes students designing and hanging up t-shirts with personal stories about assault or words of inspiration for assault victims. Last year, KSU’s clothesline display allowed many students to share their own accounts of assault and inspire others to take action against sexual violence.
Meanwhile, the Take Back the Night event raises awareness and urges change for the culture of rape and violence that plagues women in public. Many women can recall someone telling them to dress modestly or “not go out at night,” lest they be attacked as they walk down the street, but Take Back the Night aims to change this culture that blames women for being assaulted and allows public spaces to remain unsafe.
“[Take Back the Night] is really just a big rally to say that we are not going to be afraid to go out. What we wear doesn’t assume anything about us and what we are willing to do,” Wilson said.
In addition to the WRIVPC’s efforts to raise awareness and prevention of sexual assault on campus, KSU’s Counselling and Psychological Services (CPS) allow sexual violence victims access to therapy sessions. KSU offers students 16 free therapy sessions a year, which range from personal to group sessions. However, as Josh E. Gunn, licensed psychologist and director of CPS, notes, on campus factors can contribute to sexual violence.
“What contributes to the violence is very difficult because, I think, there’s a lot of variety in that. You know, obviously alcohol is a more than we’d ever want to admit factor in a lot of campus based sexual assaults,” Gunn said.
Through the emergency stations on campus and efforts from both the WRIVPC and CPS, KSU takes steps to prevent sexual assault and assist students in need. Despite this, elements of campus life, such as the abuse of alcohol and other substances, still put students at risk for sexual violence. Students such as Albright call for change, hoping that KSU and colleges across the nation will address student safety concerns.
