College semesters are starting up again, which means welcome back parties, freshmen orientations, meeting new friends and catching up with old ones. I was going to write an article about things to remember as we all head back to school. I planned to include a variety of light-hearted topics, but instead I’m choosing to write about a much heavier issue: college sexual assault.
Why do I feel the need to write about this when there have been countless studies, speeches and talks centered around college sexual assault?
- Because 1/5 women and 1/16 men will experience sexual assault during college
- Because the Obama Administration feels 55 institutions, including Yale and UC Berkeley, are not handling the epidemic adequately and will soon ask Congress to give penalties with those who don't comply
- Because students like Brock Turner, received a 6-month sentence even though prosecution recommended 6 years. Because Austin Wilkerson admitted to sexually assaulting a half-conscious woman after he had told the woman’s friends he would care for her, and because he eventually admitted his crime the Probation Department “recommended no prison time.”
Yes, it’s true sexual violence has decreased 50 percent from 1993. We should celebrate that there seems to be some kind of improvement. However, even though sexual violence across the board has decreased, more than 90% of sexual assaults on college campuses go unreported. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the federal government’s plans for intervention, the fact the government feels it has to act should carry significance.
I’ve been told these statistics countless times. I’ve felt anger and frustration each time I heard of yet another case where the rapist got off with only a slap on the wrist sentence, because they were a college student with a ‘promising future’. Yet, even with all this going on, the severity of the statistics didn’t fully register with me until I looked at the number of students attending college.
Let me break it down:
In 2015, 11.5 million college students were women. If you apply the 1/5 statistic, then it means 2.3 female college students were sexually assaulted. To put it into perspective, the amount of college women sexually assaulted in one year is equal to the entire population of Qatar.
In 2015, 8.7 million college students were men. Going the same route, if you were to apply the 1/16 statistic then it would mean 543,750 college men were sexually assaulted. That’s 1.42x the entire population of the Bahamas.
I know this won’t end overnight, and I know all of us have probably heard these statistics before. But, at the same time, even if we’ve all heard these things a hundred times, something still isn’t clicking. If it were this would no longer be an issue.
I shouldn’t have to be told to always watch my drink. To always be with a couple friends. I shouldn’t have to live my college years around a “rape schedule”, meaning “the ways in which women alter their daily lives in order to limit their chances of sexual assault.” I shouldn’t have to look at my friends, male or female, and wonder if they’ll be part of the statistic, or even worry it’ll be me.
So, yes, I will write about this topic, and speak about the extent of college sexual assault. For even if we've heard all of this before, if it's still happening then we're still not solving the issue.
