Campaign to Prevent Sexual Harassment

April 4, 2011 5:00 pm     Posted in College, Reality  Kassandra - SUNY Geneseo g+ page


By Kassandra

From the moment we step foot on campus, we’re warned about sexual assault and sexual harassment. We’re told about the 1 in 4 women that will be assaulted in some way before they graduate, about the ways to protect ourselves from sexual assault, and the number to call in case we ever find ourselves victims of sexual assault. But this information almost always refers to student on student sexual harassment.

Unfortunately, sexual harassment isn’t just a student student problem. Sometimes, it’s professor to student. Or coach to student. Or some other school official to student. Sexual harassment in schools is more common than you think and it’s finally being talked about.

So what exactly is sexual harassment in school? Well, let me break it down.

There are two kinds of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile environment. Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when a teacher or school employee offers rewards or threats for sexual acts. For example, if a professor offers an extension on a paper for sex, that’s quid pro quo sexual harassment. Hostile environment sexual harassment occurs when unwanted sexual touching, comments, and/or gestures interfere with schoolwork, make you uncomfortable or feel unsafe, or prevent you from participating in school programs and activities.

So now that you finally know what sexual harassment is, how many of you have been victims of sexual harassment? I’m willing to bet that a lot of you have encountered or heard about others being sexually harassed. And I know for a fact there are many other girls out there who have been harassed and haven’t told anyone.

Recently, the White House launched a campaign to fight against sexual harassment. Vice President Joe Biden says that “a nation that prides itself on fighting the abuse of power has an obligation to prevent sexual violence in schools and on college campuses.” Makes sense, right? This campaign is supposed to be nationwide and will outline victims’ rights and schools’ responsibilities concerning sexual harassment.

Okay, so I know a few of you are wondering why this is even necessary or if this will even help. Knowing if these campaigns will actually help the situation is something only time can tell. However, these campaigns are very necessary. Currently, federal civil rights officials are investigating Yale University because of complaints about its sexually hostile environment and the university’s inability to ameliorate the concerns. Apparently 7,000 sexual harassment complaints were filed there last year, yet only 1/3 of the cases were actually investigated. What kind of message does that send to Yale students? What message does that send to students in general?

How would you feel about seeing a sign that says “We love Yale sluts” outside a women’s center, or hearing “no means yes” chanted on campus by fraternities? And then how would you feel about being a student of an institution that doesn’t protect your rights? Alexandra Brodsky, a Yale junior, says that the students writing these complaints are “really frustrated and disappointed that Yale again and again fails to respond to both public and private acts of sexual harassment and assaults which creates an environment in which women feel devalued.”

Yale responded to these appalling displays against female students on campus by releasing a statement in the Yale Daily News that basically pointed a finger at the fraternity, but did nothing else. Sexual harassment needs to be taken seriously, and the White House’s campaign is definitely a step in the right direction. Hopefully, Yale University will see this as a chance to reevaluate how its treated its female students and finally do right by them. And hopefully every other university will quickly follow suit.

5 Comments on "Campaign to Prevent Sexual Harassment"

  1. JMD says:
    Mon, 4th Apr 20118:41 pm 

    I believe the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights as a whole receives 7,000 complaints annually, not Yale University, based on the Huffington Post article.

  2. MWM says:
    Fri, 29th Jul 201112:01 am 

    In Yale’s climate of hysteria, polarization between the sexes and the propensity for well-connected groups such as the Yale Women’s Center to manipulate the public image, some men are left to suffer enormously, yet quietly, from the generally unequal burden of sexual frustration. I can contribute one data point in support of this assertion. Sexual frustration was a primary factor causing me to quit sports teams, be physically aggressive with friends, go on loud, obscene and utterly embarrassing public tirades, cry, stand motionless for half an hour at a time, undergo grueling body modification, eat nearly twice as much as a person my size requires, experience suicidal ideation such as jumping out of windows and in front of trains— symptoms that may even rival those of the devastated masses of sexual assault survivors I am led to believe pervade Yale. I was easily one of the Top 10 most miserable and negative people I knew of there due almost entirely to my unfulfilled desire for sexual activity. But I could go to no one in the administration who would give a damn or take me seriously, since I was not a victim. At Yale, believe it or not, I never raped anyone, nor do I have any reasonable suspicion that anyone I know has perpetrated rape. Yet cliques of women wielded the power to impose the demeaning labels of monster and rapist on others (provided they aren’t too cool). I left college a psychologically debilitated virgin, mired in an intense, irrational loathing for all women rendering me unable to work for on the order of a year. And never, ever do I see any articles presenting a balanced account of the story of wronged women at Yale. What do you think is making criminals and monsters out of us— the fact that we have it easy and are egomaniacs on a power trip? Have you considered some of us are significantly worse off than you, with all of your (albeit often unwanted) attention? Most men are not followed by a mob of docile sycophants and more often than not, a few of us are lucky while the rest flounder under the competition (especially within the boundaries of elitist Ivy walls). One sect threatens that if its needs are not met the institution will face financial consequences devastating to everyone including those outside it that would be affected by a reduction of Yale’s research output. I will propose solutions that do not amount to browbeating the institution to capitulate and that will be beneficial to a large segment of the male and female population at Yale alike:

    Advertise and provide hormone therapy to reduce libido of those who are at high risk to engage in aggressive sexual behavior.

    Offer non-chemically based therapy based on responsible usage of pornography or exotic entertainment.

    Take on a more balanced administrative stance deemphasizing the aggressor-victim paradigm and emphasizing a needs-management paradigm

    These suggestions would in no way marginalize any groups. It is at least worth research into the feasibility of their implementation, given that there has been a lack of progress in changing the campus’s sexual climate under the current tactics— a fact that everyone can agree upon.

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