Female College Students Deserve Better

This is kind of a response to this article posted in May about problems with colleges’ judicial systems when it comes to serious matters such as sexual assault on campus.

I am a student at Alma College in Alma, MI.  Alma College has a parking lot on campus that students refer to as the “Rape Lot” or even the “RL”.  Professors who have been at this school for several years say that this nickname has been around since they first started out, yet the college has only just gotten around to adding more lighting to this parking lot.  Apparently, no rapes have actually been reported to have happened in this parking lot; whether the nickname came about because of rumors of unreported rapes happening there, or just because the lot has always been the darkest and most secluded one I have no idea.  Obviously either way this is a terrible problem that has concerned me since I first started out at this school.

I am in my senior year here now, and throughout my four years here I have heard other stories of questionable practices held by fraternities (naked leapfrog with fraternity sweethearts to name one) and I have been informed about which frats are safest to party at, and which ones are known for sexual assault.  All awful things, but also things which I know happen on most all campuses (which of course does not excuse it, but has been the reason why I never bothered transferring).

Given all I had heard and witnessed during my time here, I was obviously surprised and very skeptical when the college released their crime statistics for the past three years (2009-2007).  According to these statistics, there have only been four sex offenses in those three years.  Since we know that the Department of Justice estimates that one in four female college students will be raped within four years of their attending school, I thought this number seemed extremely off.  Perhaps Alma College, despite what I have seen and heard while being here, is actually the safest campus in existence; or perhaps these four are the only ones to have been reported by the victims–although even that seemed like a stretch.

Of course, upon talking to fellow Women’s Studies majors and minors, I found out that even when women report incidences of rape and sexual assault they are faced with barriers and loopholes used by the administration to keep their reports silent and out of the public eye.  Once I learned this it seemed obvious: of course a wealthy private college wants to maintain its image, whatever the cost.  It’s just like any wealthy corporation or business in our capitalistic society–money before humanity.  And so I began to research to get an idea of the full scope of this problem, since I figured we could not possibly the only school that does this sort of thing.  Lo and behold, we aren’t.

It took about five minutes of searching to find this article by the Center for Public Integrity: Sexual Assault on College Campus

The Center did an in depth, year-long study looking into this issue which I have seen come up over and over since I first began hearing about it.  What it found was shocking, though not surprising.  Shocking because it is hard to believe so many human beings can be involved in something as terrible as this, though not surprising because, as I said, private colleges are just businesses disguised as opportunities.  Please read through the Center’s article for yourself, and watch the interviews posted.

The students of Wheaton College who posted the article that I discussed above asked you, fellow students, to consider: “How does your private college respond to rape and sexual assault?”  And I hope that you do, because chances are good that your college, too, is guilty of this.  Share your findings with fellow students, parents, and with Feministing.  I honestly have no idea how to go about changing this, but I know spreading the word is a start.  Any other ideas?  Please, post them, for I am at a loss.