Rape is not a word that you hear very often on a school campus. Especially on a college campus. The question we should be asking our professors and higher authority figures is why we do not hear about this topic more often? Also, why are we not bringing more attention to it? Ask your professors and many of them will not tell you the truth. Luckily, a few professors have been honest with their students about the secrets behind rape on college campuses.
Colleges do not like to bring awareness or let it be known that there is rape on campuses because it is a liability to them. When a student gets sexually assaulted on a school ground, the president of the school does not want to do anything about it. Why is that you ask? Money is the issue here. Did you know that if a college were to report a rape on campus, it would cost them money? Reporting the abuse means it has to go up to the deans and eventually to the president of the college. Once in the hands of the highest person on the board, they must file a report about what had happened. It then goes to the state and long story short, the school ends up having to pay for it in the end. Colleges all over the country would rather save a few dollars than help out an innocent student.
It is even harder for a college to show awareness to rape on campus if they have dorms. The president of the college does not want it to seem like there have been rapes on their campus, so it is easier just to stay quiet about it. A study showed that one in every six women are raped at a college whether it be from getting drugged at a party or a controversy happening in the dorms. Most rapes in colleges happen from getting drugged instead of a forced rape. Another study showed that 18.6 percent of freshmen women were rape victims at just one college. The administrators who are supposed to report these cases are only doing so when the Department of Education are looking over their shoulder. When they stop looking then the amount of rape cases being reported go down. A huge number of rape cases goes unreported, and we need to bring awareness to that as well.
This is a topic that we all need to hear and learn more about. It is not okay to just brush it under the rug like it is not happening at all and money should not be the issue either. Our professors and staff should be standing by us when a tragedy like this happens. No college wants to be known as the college who ignores these issues which are happening on their campus but ignoring it is what seems to be going on. Some professors are trying to have rape awareness week but their ideas get shut down by the Department of Education. Not many staff members want to do anything about it, and that needs to change. What can you, a college student or a staff member, do to help bring more awareness to rape on college campuses all over the country? It is time to take a stand.
