We Know WE CARE. Now what?
By Kelly Kinas ‘17
On Wednesday April 15th, the Interfraternity Council and Motivate & Empower held a panel and documentary screening on sexual assault on college campuses. The documentary? The Hunting Ground, a documentary about how colleges handle sexual assault on their campuses. The panel? Experts from LAPD, the Center for Women and Men, the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center, and student activist group RISE. According to this documentary and panel, sexual assault is an epidemic - but what does that mean for us?
I never knew how to talk about this issue. I am not a survivor of sexual assault so I don’t want to trigger a victim but then I also don’t want to imply that women should be afraid of men, because not all men are rapists or sexual assaulters. I get that. Additionally, I HATE the hashtag “#notallmen” because, usually, a woman has come out as a survivor and that man who assaulted her is a monster. That’s when some random guy on the internet decides he needs to defend himself and say “well, not ALL men do that!!!” If one of your friends comes to you for support after someone sexually assaulted them, DO NOT MAKE IT ABOUT YOU. I do not care if you instinct is that YOU would never do that. Congratulations! You are a decent human being. But just because YOU wouldn’t do that, DOES NOT lessen THEIR pain, THEIR emotions. BE QUIET and be supportive.
A quick overview of the documentary, the main point is that 100,000 undergraduate females get sexual assaulted on college campuses each year and none of those assaulters are expelled to make the campus a safe environment for the survivor. With USC and many other colleges as examples, colleges may want to keep their brand in a positive light and actually admitting to the amount of sexual assaults on campus would give them a bad reputation. This documentary leads us to this conclusion but not that is definitely the truth. From my personal experience as a friend of multiple people who have been sexually assaulted, this is close to this truth.
Some of my friends who were sexually assault did not report it, some did. While I don’t think it should be a choice, I can see why some people just want to forget about it. Nothing has happened in any of their cases, that I know of because this is not normal dinner conversation. It’s not like I can walk into my sorority during dinner and start a conversation about sexual assault on our campus. It’s something that no one wants to talk about because it’s easier to just forget.
One thing I would like to point out from The Hunting Ground is that the documentary decides that fraternities are the main problem. As stated in the panel afterwards, Chief Adams stated that there are the same number of sexual assaults reported on the row and off the row. Now not all sexual assaults are reported, but for those that are, it sometimes works out. One of my friends was sexually assaulted by a fraternity brother and that male is no longer a member of that fraternity. That dismal of that member was done by the fraternity, not by the university. I understand that greek life is known for its stereotypes of alcohol and parties but these fraternities are dealing with their reputations just like the university is. That being said: THERE IS A LOT OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. This was just one case and I know it is not the norm. Let’s make it the norm.
THINGS YOU CAN DO TO CHANGE HOW SEXUAL ASSAULT IS DEALT WITH ON USC’S CAMPUS:
1. Believe and support the survivor if they come to you- False reports are not the problem. People not believing and shaming their friends for being the victim of sexual assault is the problem.
2. Join a on-campus group to help change University policy- Join Undergraduate Student Government, Sexual Assault Task Force, RISE, and some many other organizations that are trying to make this campus safer.
3. Stop blaming the victim- If a person gets sexually assaulted, they were not asking for it. It does not matter what they were wearing. A person could be really drunk and unless there is a RAPIST in the room, that person will not be sexually assaulted or raped. IT IS THE RAPIST’S CHOICE TO RAPE.
4. Set the example- i.e. Don’t make unwanted advances; if you see someone in trouble, help them out and get them out of that potential dangerous situation; DO NOT TOUCH ANYONE WITHOUT THEIR SPECIFIC VERBAL OR OTHERWISE NON-AMBIGUOUS CONSENT.
We can change this campus and make it safer for survivors.
Fight on!
