White House report targets sexual assaults on campus
Universities urged to step up trauma training
4/30/2014WASHINGTON — One in five women is sexually assaulted in college, usually during her freshman or sophomore year and in most cases by someone she knows. Most of the assaults go unreported.
But if the White House has its way, that will soon change as colleges and universities do more to prevent sexual assaults, provide confidential and effective services to those who are assaulted, survey students to find out the extent of the problem on their campuses, and train bystanders to intercede.
The first report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault was released on Tuesday, and along with its recommendations came a Web site for victims, NotAlone.gov. The Web site provides links for victims to find crisis service in their area, to understand their rights under the law, and to file a complaint about their school.
The Web site “indicates we are here to tell sexual assault survivors that they are not alone. And we’re also here to help schools live up to their obligation to protect students from sexual violence,” the task force report said.
“It’s been over 40 years that those of us doing this work have known this is a problem, and there hasn’t been a comprehensive program to address it, and now there is,” said Delilah Rumburg, CEO of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, in Harrisburg, Pa.
Ms. Rumburg attended Vice President Joe Biden’s presentation of the task force report at the White House Tuesday. She said the room was filled with university presidents, members of Congress, advocacy groups, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
The task force will provide schools with a toolkit for developing and conducting campus climate surveys to get an accurate assessment of sexual assault on campus and students awareness and attitudes about it. It calls on colleges and universities to voluntarily conduct the survey next year and says it will explore legislative or administrative options to require colleges to conduct the survey in 2016.
According to the report, only 2 percent of “incapacitated sexual assault survivors” and 13 percent of forcible rape survivors report their assaults to campus or local police. The reasons include fear of reprisal, worry about how they will be treated by authorities, a lack of knowledge about how to report or because they don’t consider what happened to be rape.
“If you can create the kind of campus environment where students feel comfortable to report it and recognize they are not at fault and they work through those matters, I think it makes sense for us as an institution to take this on,” said Joseph DiChristina, dean of students at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa..
Mr. DiChristina, along with other university officials, mentioned something the report did not — alcohol is frequently involved in campus sexual assaults.
“In 60 percent of the cases that involve sexual assault, there is going to be some amount of alcohol involved in that,” Mr. DiChristina said. “We need to figure out how do you add that to the conversation on sexual assault and the significant behaviors we need to change. There’s definitely an interplay between sexual behavior and alcohol on the part of the perpetrator.”
The task force was created Jan. 22 by President Obama and formulated its plans and recommendations after a 90-day review period during which it heard from thousands of people via online and in-person sessions and written comments, according to a White House news release.
The report provides clarification from the Department of Education that on-campus counselors and advocates can speak with a victim in confidence, while others on campus are required to report sexual assaults. It directs campuses to be clear about which employees are mandatory reporters and which are confidential counselors.
As part of the task force efforts, the Justice Department will develop trauma-informed training programs on sexual assault for school officials and campus and local law enforcement.
The recommendations come during the same month the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights confirmed it had started an investigation into Florida State University’s handling of the investigation of rape allegations against Jameis Winston, the star quarterback of the university football team and Heisman Trophy winner.
In January, just days after the formation of the task force, the OCR announced it was investigating whether Penn State University’s handling of sexual violence committed by students or staff is in compliance with federal law. The investigation was prompted by a dramatic increase — from four to 56 — in the number of forcible sexual offenses report on campus between 2010 and 2012 in the Clery Act data.
Under the 1972 federal Title IX laws, colleges and universities that receive federal funds are required to investigate sexual assault reports and provide a procedure to resolve the reports. Failure to do so could result in a loss of federal funds.
David Fryson, chief diversity officer at West Virginia University, said WVU “welcomes the White House initiative on this very serious issue” and will be reviewing the task force recommendations for was to “increase our efforts to combat and prevent sexual assaults.”
The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Mary Niederberger is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.
Contact Mary Niederberger at: mniederberger@post-gazette.com, or 412-263-1590.