Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

Dear editor;

Suggesting that campus rapes be reported to law enforcement officials is a fine idea, but arguing AGAINST school involvement is exceedingly ill-advised.  The whole point of Title IX is to ensure equal access to education, free form gender discrimination - the most severe _expression_ of which is sexual assault.  Just as harassment and violence against Muslim or black students on campus would be both a civil rights crime AND a school-based disciplinary concern, violence against women deserves redress in all spheres.  Title IX also covers harassment and violence against LGBT students, an issue of major significance that too often leads to desperation, including suicide. Discouraging on-campus resolutions is not only dangerous but also illegal because schools are mandated to provide "prompt and equitable" redress for all forms of harassment and violence perpetrated against students because of who they are in society.  Violence against women has never had its rightful seat at the anti-discrimination table because Title IX has long been misunderstood as a sports-equity rule.  After decades of the law's near-invisibility as an anti-violence measure, we finally have an administration willing to elevate the scourge of sexual violence against women in education to a place on-par with other forms of targeted harassment and abuse.  It is the most important development in education for women since Title IX was enacted in 1972.  The Globe should be celebrating the President for his much needed leadership - not complaining that redressing such serious harm might require schools to expend resources.

Wendy Murphy

New England Law|Boston

617-422-7410