In the past several months, lawmakers have renewed efforts to battle sexual assault on college campuses, highlighted by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s emphatic “No means no” in a speech at the University of New Hampshire on behalf of the Department of Education during which he introduced new guidelines on campus sexual assault for schools receiving federal funds.
But some Americans think legislation is not enough to effectively combat sexual violence on college campuses. Two national organizations—Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment as well as Security On Campus, Inc.—are partnering to sponsor the Safe Campus, Strong Voices national campaign, launched May 26.
Announced to follow the Senate’s April 14 introduction of the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act, the campaign aims to prevent sexual assault, raise awareness of the underreporting of sexual crimes and empower students as bystanders.
“We want to give students creative ways to be involved in preventing violence against women,” said Melissa Lucchesi, SOC’s outreach education coordinator. “If [a student] sees someone leaving a party intoxicated, they might feel uncomfortable stepping in directly so we want to give them creative ways [to intervene].”
Toolkits assembled by SOC and PAVE are components to the campaign and include educational handouts and DVDs students can use at awareness events, Lucchesi said. Though the campaign will take place only in September—Campus Safety Awareness Month—it aims to change campus cultures over the long term to promote awareness about sexual assault and to encourage more open environments to report its occurrence, she added.
Sheila Broderick, sexual assault support services coordinator for the Women’s Center, said she does not know if Duke will participate in this campaign, but noted that the University promotes many sexual assault awareness and prevention initiatives, including student group programs and posters on buses. She also noted that it is important for initiatives to happen over the course of the school year.
Though there have been national efforts to combat sexual violence on campuses in the past, Lucchesi said the Safe Campus, Strong Voices Campaign is unique because of its national status—PAVE and SOC hope the campaign will be on at least one campus in every state—but also due to its association with the SaVE Act, introduced by Senators Bob Casey (D-P.A.) and Patty Murray (D-W.A.).
“Eventually we’re hoping this campaign will become part of mandated education [if SaVE passes],” Lucchesi said. “We don’t want [sexual assault] just to be something that’s an issue for just survivors themselves or people who know survivors. This is [everyone’s] issue.”
According to the proposed bill, between 20 and 25 percent of female students experience some form of sexual assault at an institution of higher education. Nearly 3 percent of all women in college become victims of either attempted or completed rape each academic year. Less than 5 percent of these rapes, however, are reported to campus authorities or law enforcement.
If passed, SaVE would amend the current Jeanne Clery Act to update assault policy requirements for institutions of higher education. It would also address a broader scope of intimate partner violence—such as stalking, date violence, sexual violence and domestic violence offenses—in addition to requiring more comprehensive prevention education and victims’ rights provisions.
Proponents of the bill hope these changes, if passed, will facilitate collaboration between the departments of justice and education to prevent and respond to sexual assault and other intimate partner violence. Currently, the Clery Act requires postsecondary institutions to adopt a policy regarding sexual assault and to report its crime statistics.
Duke’s most recent Clery Security Report, released Sept. 30, 2010, showed an increase in the number of forcible sex offenses—13 in 2009 compared to five in both 2008 and 2007—which University officials attributed to revisions in Duke’s sexual misconduct policy. The policy now requires University officials, including resident advisors and first-year advisory counselors, to report all student-on-student sexual misconduct incidents.
“We can definitely say that the increased number is due to more reporting by Student Affairs and that policy that they changed last year,” Duke Police Chief John Dailey, told The Chronicle in October 2010.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.