Government launches video to tackle sexual assault rates in US colleges

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/02/us-government-video-college-sexual-assault

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As part of a campaign to lower sexual assault rates on college campuses, the Obama administration has released a new public service announcement, a reminder to viewers that sex without consent is rape.

But the PSA, which features several well-known actors, and the administration’s push to radically redefine how sexual assault is interpreted under federal civil rights legislation is not enough to satisfy all activists, who say university disciplinary proceedings remain secretive, and the campaign lacks accountability.

“There’s one thing you can never have sex without,” Zoe Saldana tells the camera.

“It’s not something you buy,” Matt McGorry says.

“Or something you take,” Minka Kelly says.

“It’s consent,” John Cho says. Without it, viewers are told by Josh Hutcherson, “It’s rape.”

The new PSA is part of the It’s On Us campaign, a program that debuted last year with celebrity support and a video that emphasized bystander intervention. The bystander intervention theory emphasizes sex assault prevention by training peers to protect one another during vulnerable moments, such as when a friend is drunk or being harassed. Surveys suggest that roughly one in five women will be assaulted while in college.

But there’s hardly a consensus about whether the president’s awareness campaign and PSAs can be effective in combatting sexual assault, or if the reform movement is on the right course.

“We have seen two really big problems with the It’s On Us campaign,” said Mahroh Jahangiri, a co-organizer with the Know Your IX, a student-organized group focused on teaching peers how to use Title IX statutes.

“If someone just watches this video, you still walk away not really knowing what consent is. You’re not taught how to ask for it,” Jahangiri said. “It’s On Us places the burden of stopping violence on us as students.”

Organizers at Know Your IX would prefer, Jahangiri said, for the federal government to require schools to make changes to participate in the campaign, and reap the inherent public relations benefits. Jahangiri pointed to campus climate surveys and open statistics about sexual assault hearings as two ways schools could provide transparency about sex assault rates on campus.

Related: Students need to learn about sexual assault and consent long before college

Title IX refers to a portion of education rights legislation passed in 1972 which bars gender discrimination. Until a dramatic reinterpretation of the law changed sexual assault hearings in 2011, Title IX was associated with providing sports opportunities for women. Women had been largely excluded until 1972.

Title IX has been used by sexual assault victims to bring civil cases against schools who they claim mishandled sexual assault investigations. Under the same statute, the US Department of Education required schools to use a lower burden of proof in sexual assault hearings, one typically applied in civil cases.

Now, Title IX is shorthand for how schools handle sexual assault disciplinary proceedings and comply with accompanying federal law. Reform has been ongoing since 2011, when standards of proof changed, but sexual assault disciplinary proceedings remain secretive with little or no public scrutiny. Federal education privacy laws shield universities from divulging disciplinary hearings.

Boston University law professor Katharine Silbaugh is more optimistic than activists about whether progress is possible. She sees reducing sex assault rates on campus as a multifaceted problem with which universities are just beginning grapple. Additionally, she said, the Obama administration’s decision to publish a list of universities under Title IX investigation is a “real reputational embarrassment”.

Many colleges and universities, Silbaugh said, “feel a new kind of urgency but don’t yet know exactly which steps to take to effectively reduce sex assault and protect due process interests”.

“Although, maybe that’s what we should expect two years into an initiative.”

The 2015 academic year is the first in which colleges and universities participating in financial aid, covering virtually every postsecondary institution in the US, will be required to implement the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, or SaVE.

The act was an amendment to the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. Under the act, schools have to report domestic violence and stalking, and conduct education campaigns to teach bystander intervention, risk reduction, disciplinary proceedings and victims’ rights. Schools already report incidents of sexual assault.