Consequences for College Rape

By Sandra Widlan

This past May, Washington State University (WSU), along with 55 colleges, faced a Title IX investigation over how WSU handles sexual assaults which occur on campus.  Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, states:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

This means that if a college engages in gender discrimination the government may withhold federal funding.  Title IX has been used successfully to require colleges to support women’s athletics.  Title IX is now being used to address sexual assault on college campus.

A study of college campuses found that one in five undergraduate women is a victim of sexual assault.  The trauma from sexual assault prevents victims from attending class, studying, and pursuing an education.  Going through a college’s sham investigation into the assault makes matters much worse and compounds the injury.  In recognition of this, the Department of Education has informed colleges that the failure to appropriately address sexual assault on campus violates Title IX and puts colleges at risk of losing federal funding.  WSU is one of those colleges.

The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault has announced recommendations to promote fairness when responding to college sexual assault.  These include:

• Using the preponderance-of-the-evidence (i.e., more likely than not) standard in any fact-finding hearings to determine whether sexual assault occurred, rather than requiring the student prove ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that the assault occurred;
• Making sure that the adjudicators in fact-finding hearings have received adequate training in how to handle sexual assault allegations;
• Prohibiting questioning or evidence about the student’s prior sexual conduct with anyone other than the alleged perpetrator; and
• Explaining the possible results of the adjudication process, including sanctions, remedies/accommodations for the victim, and additional remedies for the school community.

In May, Time Magazine published a cover story, “Rape:  The Crisis in Higher Education.”  In it, Time cited a University of Massachusetts study which found that a small number of young men commit most of the rapes.

A crucial finding: among the relatively small group of perpetrators, more than half were repeat offenders, averaging nearly six rapes each.  Other studies of young men have reached similar conclusions.  In short, most guys are good guys.  But the ones who are bad aren’t just straying over a line.  Instead, they show a pattern of violent behavior.

In that same article, Time reported on the efforts of the University of Montana in Missoula has made to combat college rape including training bystanders to help prevent sexual assault.

With grant money from the Department of Justice, Missoula launched a cutting-edge-bystander awareness program designed by experts at the University of New Hampshire.  It helps students come up with realistic strategies to intervene in sexual assaults before they happen – by trying to distract or stop a potential perpetrator or getting a potential victim (like an intoxicated girl) away from a risking situation.

However, there are limits to what students can do to protect each other and colleges, like WSU, need to have policies and procedures in place that protect victims of sexual assault.  As Vice President Joe Biden stated:

You don’t want to be a school that mishandles rape.  Guess what?  Step up.  It’s time.