An Open Letter To University Presidents About Campus Sexual Assault
On March 7 2014, you were granted unprecedented authority to engage in gender discrimination and explicit subjugation of women on campus. Bestowed upon you by Congress, the Campus SaVE Act (SaVE) provides that the redress of civil rights violence on the basis of sex should occur under less protective standards compared to civil rights violence on the basis of all other protected class categories such as race, national origin and religion.
Sexual Violence Begins in Middle School
A recent survey of 1,391 students from four Midwest middle schools (grades 5-8) indicated that middle school-aged students are experiencing real acts of sexual violence. The survey sample was evenly split between boys and girls.
Campus Update: Why Am I Afraid?
I am currently a freshman at Fordham at Lincoln Center, a Jesuit university in the heart of New York City. As a newly independent young woman, I follow these basic rules along with a few extras: don't ride subways alone after 10 PM; don't go out without telling someone when you'll be back; and if you notice someone following you, take a circuitous route to maximize the number of open businesses and potential safe havens you pass. And it constantly occurs to me that all of these apprehensions are completely unfair. I should not be afraid of walking home, I should not be afraid of running alone in the park, and I should not be afraid of the guy staring at me through the Starbucks window as I write this. But I am.
Bloomberg Businessweek – Changing How Colleges Deal With Rape
On April 20 of that year, Karasek says, she and three other women walked into Berkeley’s Center for Student Conduct to report that the same student had assaulted them. They told their stories to several administrators, including the school’s Title IX officer, Denise Oldham. At the meeting with Oldham, who enforces women’s rights to equal education under Title IX, Karasek says they were asked to write statements about the assaults. She assumed this was a formality and didn’t submit hers for almost a month. One woman, she says, misunderstood and didn’t write anything. Karasek says the school never followed up with that student. “She thought that telling her story out loud counted as informing the school,” she says. Berkeley acknowledges that a verbal report is enough—but Karasek says the women don’t know if that complaint was ever addressed. Berkeley says it can’t comment on specific students’ conduct cases and refused repeated requests to make Oldham available for interviews, saying “she’s focusing all her attention on addressing the situation.”
Sexual Violence Facts at a Glance
Here is the complete datasheet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Why the SaVE Act Harms Women on Campus
Please resist supporting or seeking support from any group that lobbied for the Campus SaVE Act. It is profoundly anti-women's equality; it's overtly sexist and it explicitly segregates and subjugates women by requiring or allowing the redress of violence against women on campus to be subjected to less protective legal standards compared to all other forms of civil rights violence.
That women WERE equal under Title IX BEFORE SaVE (at least in the written law—if not its enforcement) for more than forty years and then became expressly UNequal in higher education in 2014 is outrageous, though maybe not surprising. Only when victims started speaking up did Congress slap them down by giving schools express permission to devalue civil rights violence against women.
For those of you who care about the fair treatment of women, please take the time to read the law critically, and read the lawsuit that was recently filed to stop SaVE so you can understand WHY certain of its provisions are so offensive and dangerous.
That women WERE equal under Title IX BEFORE SaVE (at least in the written law—if not its enforcement) for more than forty years and then became expressly UNequal in higher education in 2014 is outrageous, though maybe not surprising. Only when victims started speaking up did Congress slap them down by giving schools express permission to devalue civil rights violence against women.
For those of you who care about the fair treatment of women, please take the time to read the law critically, and read the lawsuit that was recently filed to stop SaVE so you can understand WHY certain of its provisions are so offensive and dangerous.
The Problem of Campus Sexual Assault
Recently, a friend and fellow University of Chicago alumna showed me an open letter to university president Robert Zimmer demanding that the university reevaluate its policy regarding campus sexual assaults. After reporting an assault by her then-partner and being illegally offered a mediation session by Dean of Students Susan Art, current fourth-year student Olivia Ortiz filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR), prompting a larger investigation of the university for possible violations of Title IX. In response, a coalition of alumni wrote and circulated the letter in question. I gladly added my name.
Allegations of a botched UVA rape investigation at center of a challenge to the Campus SaVE Act
Today, the local Charlottesville paper, C-Ville, published this story about the Marsh Law Firm's case against the United States Department of Education and the University of Virginia. Here are some excerpts from the piece.
Sexual Harassment Law, a Step Back for Class
A woman who claims the University of Virginia brushed aside her sexual assault claim filed a federal class action challenging the Campus SaVE Act, a federal law she claims undermines the rights victims of sexual assault and harassment.
Please Save us from SaVE!
There are lots of reasons that Title IX activists should be working to stop the Campus Sex Violence Elimination Act (SaVE) from taking effect. This law was snuck in as part of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) re-authorization and now it’s time to take a much closer look.