UNC graduate student Katie Akin talks sexual assault with Joe Biden

Last week, UNC graduate student Katie Akin met with Vice President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C., to discuss policy actions to protect students from sexual assault.

The meeting was one of nine listening sessions to be hosted by the freshly formed White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, which Biden heads.

According to a White House pool report, Biden said the Obama administration could do a great deal more than it has already been doing to fight student sexual assault, and he was there to listen.

Akin was selected to attend the session by Christi Hurt, the director of the Carolina Women’s Center. Hurt and Akin are both part of the University task force that convened in May 2013 responsible for examining the campus’s sexual assault policy.

“She is very thoughtful, she is wise and she is strategic about how she wants to bring the voice of students into the process,” Hurt said of Akin. “I have appreciated her contributions on the task force, and I think she is a very wise and thoughtful contributor.”

Hurt had gained access to the conference through her colleague Monika Johnson Hostler, the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Akin said Biden has an exemplary record on fighting sexual assault, but the administration could explore the issue further.

“That deserves recognition,” Akin said. “But at the same time, the stance that they’re taking is really limiting to the possibilities of what Title IX could do and does.”

Akin said the issue was being framed as the sexual assault of women, which hampered discussions of other minority groups at increased risk of sexual assault, like those in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.

“(Biden) said that he’d heard that before, but he was worried about real threats, and was hopeful that policy could cut down on real threats in terms of sexual predators,” she said. “I understand that view.”

Akin also said the administration’s response doesn’t focus on changing the culture.

“It’s limiting and paternalistic in the sense that it acts like policy can (solve the problem) when culture has so much catching up to do,” she said.

Tenika Neely, a senior at N.C. Central University, also attended the listening session.

Neely said it was nice to see Biden speak on sexual assault and see how passionate he was about the issue, but she agreed with Akin.

“It’s a paternalistic world,” Neely said. “It’s hard for a man to relate to a woman who’s been through a sexual assault situation — it’s hard for them to see it from the victim’s point of view.”

There were 16 total guests at this listening session: 13 students, a Harvard Law School professor, a parent of a sexual assault survivor and the creator of “Circle of Six,” an app designed to help stop sexual assault.

While Akin was glad to attend the session with the vice president, she’s happy to be back at UNC because she likes working on a more personal level with survivors.

“I’m really passionate about that and interested, and I like serving where the rubber meets the road on this policy on college campuses,” she said.

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