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

WENDY MURPHY: Elite colleges earn title of ‘Rape U’

By Wendy Murphy
GateHouse Media
Posted Jun 01, 2013 @ 06:00 AM

COMMENTARY —
Many parents will spend this summer contemplating their high school 
graduate’s move to university life.
It’s a time of mixed emotions and the angst of separation as moms and 
dads wistfully reminisce about
how quickly little Mary went from toddler to young woman. Every trip to 
the beach will evoke old memories
of swimmy arms and sunscreen. After the dutiful drop-off at freshman 
orientation, Mom and Dad won’t
be around to protect Mary from the sun – or anything else.

The greatest threat to Mary’s well-being will involve alcohol, 
rape-drugs and sexual assault. One in four
students will be victimized, probably during freshman year. College 
women are more likely to be attacked
than women who do not go to college, which is particularly disturbing 
given that civil rights laws
(Title IX and Title IV) provide extra protection against sexual assault 
on campus compared to laws
in the real world.

University administrators bear much of the blame because they often 
discourage reporting and
retaliate against victims who speak up. Elite schools are among the 
worst because they have
more to lose, especially if a scandal erupts. They also face the loss 
of alumni donations if, as is
often the case, the offender is the son of a somebody. Victims just 
don’t have the same legacy
value at universities where women have only (relatively) recently been 
admitted. Preservation of
male entitlement is in the water at schools where the ivy grows long. 
Administrators raise a wet
finger to the wind to test whether it’s “worth it” to punish a student 
rapist, and let’s just say there’s
rarely any breeze blowing in favor of the victim.

For $50,000 a year, Mary’s parents have a right to expect that their 
child will be safe, and that if
Mary is victimized, she will be believed and her attacker will be 
punished. But Mary’s parents will
be shocked when they learn the ugly truth and suffer their own feelings 
of betrayal as they realize
officials care more about money than their little girl.

If Mary is assaulted, she will probably quit school after being told 
that her word is not “good enough.”
She will try to hold her head high and act like she is OK, but she will 
struggle in an environment where
the man who raped her is walking around carefree while her life becomes 
mired in despair.

The school that was once the crowning achievement of Mary’s hard work 
and dedication will soon
become a cold and unwelcoming institution in which the brutal violation 
of a young woman’s rights
to autonomy and bodily integrity will be chalked up to an “unfortunate 
incident” and “bad sex.”

Victims don’t matter very much at places like Harvard and Princeton, 
both of which are under federal
investigation due to complaints I filed, for violating women’s civil 
rights under Title IX because of the
way they handle sexual assaults. In fact, they have the ignoble status 
of being the only two schools
in the nation with policies that declare the word of an offender PER SE 
more weighty than the word of a victim.

The University of Virginia is also under federal investigation, again 
due to a complaint I filed at the behest
of the victim, because of the alleged actions of a UVA nurse who is 
accused of changing a rape victim’s
medical record to falsely reflect that the victim suffered no injuries 
after being drugged and raped by a
repeat offender. This same nurse reportedly took dozens of photographs 
of the victim’s internal injuries,
but when the victim’s family asked for copies, UVA officials said the 
photos did not exist.

A hearing board assigned to determine whether to punish the perpetrator 
ruled against the victim on the grounds
that there were “no injuries.” The nurse who allegedly lost the 
photographs is responsible for nearly all UVA rape
cases and, interestingly, UVA has not expelled a single student for 
rape in more than a decade.

Parents who think their daughters are safe at schools where SAT scores 
are high and acceptance rates are
low are kidding themselves. And things are only going to get worse 
because elite schools just spent a fortune
on lobbyists who got Congress to pass a new federal law called Campus 
SaVE that will give them even more
power to silence victims and protect offenders after SaVE takes effect 
in early 2014.

My advice to parents of young women headed off to elite schools in a 
few months:
Don’t be sad that your little girl is gone. But be very afraid of where 
she’s going.


Wendy Murphy is a leading victims rights advocate and nationally 
recognized television legal analyst.
She is an adjunct professor at New England Law in Boston. She may be 
reached at .

Read more: WENDY MURPHY: Elite colleges earn title of ‘Rape U’ - 
Quincy, MA - The Patriot Ledger 
http://www.patriotledger.com/topstories/x1160897693/WENDY-MURPHY-Elite-colleges-earn-title-of-Rape-U#ixzz2UyebGWi5 

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