Here in the United States, someone is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds. This is startling because many assaults go unreported and are not even included in that statistic.
A 2015 Washington Post-Kaiser Poll found that 20 percent of young women who attended college during the past four years were sexually assaulted. That is one in five women. For further context, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), more than 50 percent of college sexual assaults occur in the months of August, September, October or November.
We know that rape culture is a major problem, and is especially a problem on college campuses. According to the documentary “The Hunting Ground,” 136 sexual assaults were reported between 2001 to 2013 at UNC. Do you know how many of these resulted in expulsion? Not one. The film said zero of these reported assaults resulted in expulsion.
Let us keep in mind that sexual assaults involving students can be handled by the University.
The problem of rape and sexual assaults at universities is aggravated by a fundamental lapse in priorities.
According to The American Association of University Women, 91 percent of colleges reported zero incidents of rape in 2014. To understand why this is a problem, we should probably address why administrators are so reluctant to report rape and often minimize the person who has been assaulted. You may have never made these connections before, so let me be clear in connecting them.
Every major problem’s root cause is the influence of money.
Administrators and faculty have an incentive to be reluctant to report an assault because they have to protect their endowment and the revenue generators — like alumni donations and sports.
Colleges increasingly care more about keeping their endowments and funding than creating a safe environment for their students.
