Yale Under Fire: Title IX Complaint Filed for Tolerating Sexual Abuse
April 6, 2011
by Patricia Garrison
|Although academic leaders will always publicly insist that their institutions are committed to creating a ‘welcoming environment for all students’, their actions show that they are far more focused on protecting their reputations. Plagiarism at many colleges will get you expelled, but rape or sexually abuse a woman and you’ll likely be back in no time after a brief suspension.
A group of 16 students and alumna – 12 women and four men – at Yale University have had enough. They recently filed a Title IX complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) alleging that the university has failed to address repeated incidents of sexual harassment and assault, producing a “hostile environment” that denies women an equal opportunity to an education. Title IX forbids discrimination, violence, and harassment on the basis of gender in any educational program or activity receiving federal funds.
The OCR has launched a formal investigation and if found in violation, Yale stands to lose more than $500 million. Vice President Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan yesterday announced a national sexual assault awareness campaign directed at schools and colleges. The program is aimed at reminding institutions of their Title IX responsibilities in preventing and responding to sexual assaults They clearly need a wake-up call. The latest statistics show that nearly 3,300 women are sexually abused on college campuses each year, and one in five college women will be victims.
Image from The Daily Beast's "Title IX Complaint Against Yale"
While the Yale complaint specifies an October 2010 campus incident in which fraternity members chanted “No means yes, Yes means anal,” men at Yale have had a free pass to denigrate and humiliate women with abandon for years. In addition to numerous allegations of sexual assault, the complaint puts in bold relief the routine ways in which sexual harassment of young women has been normalized– the theft of T-shirts marked with testimonies of sexual assault survivors from a national violence against women organization; photos of fraternity pledges holding a sign “We Love Yale Sluts” outside of the Women’s Center; an email ranking female freshmen based on their sexual desirability. These incidents are specific to Yale, but this kind of relentless misogyny happens at middle schools, high schools and college campuses every day. Just recently, the University of Southern California chapter of Kappa Sigma came under investigation for circulating an email that described women as not “real humans” but “targets”, and gave fraternity members tips on how to sexually abuse female classmates without getting caught. Parents of daughters have heard of slut lists and Social Network-style rankings of girls based on their looks, and we know that raising a daughter now demands that we consider her vulnerability to sexual crimes. The vast majority of rapes in this country happen to young females ages 16-24.
Someone somewhere has had to have the guts to say it out loud – that groups of young men – for whatever disturbing and warped their reasons — are allowed to spew their contempt and hatred for women without regard to consequences. The Yale students have taken a major step which could make an enormous difference for female students at every level. The Department of Education has woken up and put institutions on alert that their funding is in jeopardy. Now, it’s our turn. We need to take a hard look at our own environments – our communities, schools, and homes – and think about how we might unwittingly contribute to a climate in which boys are raised to think that contempt and hatred for females is ok. And then we need to have the guts to do something about it.
I recently read a book about a young woman who was gang raped during her freshman year. It was amazing how the school tried to minimize the seriousness of the situation. The local police force was sympathetic and instrumental in getting the woman her day in court.
If you look at crime stats for colleges and universities it is amazing to see how few sexual assaults are reported. The crimes are either not reported because the young woman are discouraged or threatened or reported as a another type of crime. Clearly colleges and universities do not want to tell parents “Spend $55K to send your daughter here to be abused.” It would impact the bottome line.
BTW, Pat the Daily Beast did a series of articles on the safest and most dangerous schools —based on crime stats. Guess what? Yale was at the top of the list for the most dangerous ….hmmm.
Great article Patricia! Shared this on Facebook with these questions for my friends and fam:
“If you are male and have a son or nephew or other young man in your life, have you considered having an important conversation about sexual morals and how to treat women as human beings? If you are male, do you ever talk about what to do about rape/sexual assault issues?”
I would guess most guys just don’t think about it. I’m hoping my questions will prompt one or two to have that conversation.
Thanks AnnaBelle….your FB post is great. I too hope it sparks a conversation.
Good to see Ivy Leaguers actually lead.
Great article, Pat. This, in conjunction with Amy’s article on sex assault on college campuses has me thinking about how absolutely common sexual assault is for young people. And when it’s soooo common it’s so hard to stand up against it. Because that would mean students confronting their friends, their boyfriends and even themselves.
One of the pivotal moments in my life as a young feminist was when I learned that a good friend of mine was raped her freshman year. In the very liberal east coast school where this happened everyone (male and female) excused the act as consensual, stating that my friend was very sexy and that she had flirted with the rapist.
But rapists and assaulters can be charming, they can be good friends to many and they can go on to get married and have children which I have seen happen. Rapist are not always the crazy guys hiding in the bushes and it’s so much easier to look the other way when a rapist/ sex assaulter is someone you know.
I feel like what the New Agenda (and other orgs like Hardy Girls) is doing is staging a massive intervention in regard to the reality of sex assault in the United States. The first step is to acknowledge the problem! And damn, this is going to take a lot of painful self-reflection on the part of our country.
So right Henrietta…what is really upsetting is that we have come to see rape as a sexual act, when it is in reality an act of control and violence. But there’s the rub — if the culture, media etc. defines rape as ‘sexual’ than it can blame the victim for dressing or behaving in a ‘sexual’ way….it’s a convenient set up that protects the perpetrator…this will be a tough one, but as you say, worth it.
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