Hunter College is a failure at protecting its students. This is no longer up for discussion.

For context, Hunter College was recently found to have "violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 when it failed to appropriately respond to a student's complaint that she was sexually harassed by a professor." As of right now, a week since this news broke, there hasn't been a single alert to the students of Hunter about the situation. I discovered all of this information through my own searching.

The United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights investigated the young woman's case after Hunter College mishandled her situation. The OCR reported that Hunter College failed to "address complaints in a prompt and equitable manner," failed to "assess and address the effects of a possibly sexually hostile environment," it also failed to "assess the need and provide for interim measures" and possibly "contributed to a continuation of a sexually hostile environment for students."

The student in question's repeated complaints sparked an investigation that uncovered Hunter College had "failed to properly handle more than a dozen cases in a two-year span." These 12 additional faulty cases took place between 2011 and 2013. They are just now seeing a shred of justice, about five years later. One 2012 case was reported by a student complaining that a Public Safety employee had "grabbed her shoulder and breast while she was making photocopies in the library," but the college never completed the investigation. Timothy C.J. Blanchard, director of New York Education Department's Office for Civil Rights addressed Hunter College President Jennifer Raab directly in a letter, resulting in a settlement, which now requires all staff and students to undergo training to address sexual misconduct. There has also been a re-examination of all complaints of sexual misconduct filed in the past three years.

The professor in question no longer works at Hunter and no evidence was found that the student was punished in any way. However, the student accused the college of retaliating against her complaints by barring her from class registration. As a CUNY Hunter student, I wouldn't be surprised if it were true considering how little it takes for a registration hold.

Hunter College has promised in a statement that it has "always been committed to maintaining a campus environment free from discrimination, intimidation, or violence of any sort" and "will continue to work diligently to comply with Title IX rules." Again, there has yet to be any notification to the students of CUNY that such heinous violations were uncovered.

So my statement is as follows:

Fuck this.

Fuck any institution that forces its students to complete stupid quizzes every semester on alcohol poisoning and sexual assault before they're allowed to register for classes. Fuck any quiz that forces victims of assault to answer redundant questions and watch upsetting videos on what can and has already happened to them. Fuck any quiz that treats its students like idiots, potential victims and nothing more. Fuck any quiz that can be passed without reading a single word of it. Fuck any quiz that doesn't address potential attackers -- only victims. Fuck any quiz that honestly believes it can make a difference by asking college students if they know the difference between yes and no.

These measures are surface-level and masturbatory at best. They pat CUNY on the back and congratulate it for doing such a good job at protecting its students, all while pulling in a profit for changing absolutely nothing about rape culture on college campuses.

I'm sick and tired of this. All of it.

I'm sick and tired of crossing my legs and holding back tears while I answer the same fucking questions every semester about what haunts me and all of my friends every single day. I'm sick and tired of being told repeatedly by every single sexual assault PSA that it will happen to someone, just don't let that poor soul be you. I'm sick and tired of being told that, "if you see something, say something," while I know for a fact that if I ever came forward about an assault on campus, I would not be safe. I would not be protected. I may even be barred from registering.

I don't have all the answers. But I know which answers aren't working. And I know which problems still need solutions. This is my open letter begging CUNY to stop treating college students like targets and start taking us seriously.