Danica Jauregui, a student member of Survivors + Allies at UCLA, expects to be met with laughter when she presents about consent to fraternities.
“I have been laughed at to my face about saying, ‘Hold your brothers accountable,’” said Jauregui, a third-year psychology student. “They’ve laughed and elbowed each other and giggled about it.”
This is the kind of behavior that has been normalized on college campuses. It is not difficult to understand why.
At Cornell University, a woman known as Jane Doe has accused seven men in the Chi Phi fraternity of brutally gang raping her. Documents reviewed by The New York Times showed that while some of the accused men were expelled, others were only required to study sexual harassment, social media use and bystander intervention and write reflection essays.
Cornell’s minimal punishments for some of the men send a clear message: Sexual violence is not taken seriously. UCLA ought to take an alternative – and proactive – approach.
With the world’s eyes on the Cornell gang rape allegations, universities like UCLA must take this moment to reflect – and reform – their educational materials for sexual violence to focus on accountability and give more funding to survivor-centered resources.
[Related: UCPD notified of alleged sexual assault reported early Tuesday on the Hill]
UCLA requires students to complete the UC Sexual Violence and Harassment, Anti-Discrimination, Prevention and Education course. However, the course is in a virtual format, where students can click through the questions and modules without giving them a second glance.
“They (SHAPE trainings) are helpful to the extent that the University is trying to have that conversation,” said Kat Contreras, the policy director for IGNITE, a club focused on advancing reproductive justice. “But I do think the conversation could be had a little better.”
SHAPE trainings may be a start to making our campus more accountable to sexual violence, but they do not do enough.
“I am someone who has found online trainings to be mostly ineffective because they are perceived as a burden that needs to be quickly done without much attention,” said Ashley Hodge, the co-director of the Bruin Consent Coalition and a biology and Central and East European languages and cultures student.
UCLA is not building a community that protects students from sexual violence. It is hurting its students by failing to educate them.
“There needs to be at least a multisession skill-building program, instead of just a brief passive training like SHAPE,” Jauregui said.
An in-person course required for graduation could be a way to ensure students recognize the importance of this issue, Jauregui said. Having courses that require active participation could help students internalize the magnitude of these issues and hopefully lead to long-term prevention.
Beyond SHAPE trainings, what is also certain is that weak institutional accountability mechanisms fail survivors of sexual violence.
UCLA’s Title IX office fails to publish statistics regarding rates of sexual violence – its site hasn’t posted them in five years.
Creating embedded accountability practices within university institutions could also lead to a more effective reporting system. Contreras, a fourth-year public affairs student, said an accountability policy exists for her job at UCLA Residential Life: Employees can lose their jobs for failing to report sexual violence. All UCLA employees are mandated reporters to the Title IX office.
We must ensure members of the Greek life community – as well as all students who aren’t bound to mandated reporter policies – are held accountable for sexual assault in a similar way.
While resources like Title IX are important, they are nonconfidential. Resources like the Campus Assault Resources and Education Program that are confidential must receive enough funding, as they truly help survivors make peace with their trauma.
More than anything, when sexual violence fades from social media feeds and news headlines, students and universities cannot let attention – and accountability – disappear.
Roma Kapoor, a member of Survivors + Allies at UC Berkeley, said people are often focused on posting on Instagram and discussing the issue but fall short of taking substantive action to address the systems that perpetuate sexual violence.
Amid discussions about the Cornell case, UCLA must take steps to protect survivors and foster a culture of accountability. Our campus community must remember that sexual violence occurs every day, and it occurs across our country, state and school more than reported.
“Sexual assault and violence – it’s not just that one incident,” Kapoor said. “It’s a systematic issue, and bringing more awareness about that helps address the systematic issues that not a lot of us look at.”
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