Quote of the Day: “You should not get rich over people getting raped”

This week, 23 faculty and administrators released an online campus climate survey to improve universities’ understanding of the problem of gender violence on their particular campuses. Various climate surveys have been on the market for years; the difference with this one? It’s free.

The group, which calls itself the Administrator Researcher Campus Climate Consortium (ARC3), wanted to create a free resource for schools, in contrast to the recent proliferation of costly surveys, apps, certifications, trainings, and other programs for which companies — eager to cash in on the campus rape crisis — have charged universities hefty fees. As Jennifer Freyd, a researcher and ARC3 member, explained to the Huffington Post:

I am very concerned about the profiteering going on. I don’t think people should be making businesses out of responding to college sexual assault and getting rich off it. It strikes me as very dangerous — as soon as you have a profit motive in there, it’s risked to corrupting. You should not get rich over people getting raped.

Snaps to that. And a big thank you to these faculty and staff for reminding cynical young organizers like me that the university can be more than a bureaucratic, PR-obsessed, administrative machine — the kind that outside consultants can count on to shell out for showy programming. At their best, universities provide space and support to smart, compassionate people like Freyd who are willing to fight for shared values of access, justice, and equity.

Check out the Huffington Post’s full coverage of ARC3 here.