Who is a Sexual Assault Victim? Ambiguity and Political Correctness Change Lives

A great deal of attention has been paid to sexual assault problems over this past month. In an editorial published in the Brown Daily Herald on October 11th, Lily Shield ’09 writes, “For a school of our size and with our money, Brown has an appalling lack of resources dedicated to helping sexual assault survivors.” Shield, along with approximately 15 other Brown and RISD students, have formed a Sexual Assault Task Force, “to address the critical need at Brown for comprehensive resources, trained assistance and options for survivors to pursue against assailants.”

In an October 17th letter to the Herald, Interim Vice President for Campus Life, Russell Carey ‘91 MA ‘06, et al, presents the following list of services currently offered by the University to victims: 1) a sexual assault crisis counselor from Psychological Services on call nights and weekends: a psychotherapist trained in responding to the trauma of sexual assault; 2) ongoing sexual assault training for Health Services, Psychological Services and other campus life staff to insure [sic] that we are responding sensitively and knowledgably [sic] to victims of sexual assault; 3) advocates: non-crisis support by staff trained in and experienced with sexual assault issues; 4) the Sexual Assault Advisory Board: administrators and students working together on services; 5) a new web site (http://brown.edu/Student_Services/Support/), a central site to connect students to all resources for sexual assault, sexual harassment and relationship issues; 6) orientation program with nationally renowned and highly rated speaker Katie Koestner; 7) more time during residence hall staff training dedicated to sexual assault; WPC training on abuse in dating relationships; 9) ongoing support of the student group Coalition Against Relationship Abuse, which operates out of the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center; 10) support of the student-run Sexual Assault Resource Center by providing space and computer access out of the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center; and 11) participation in Ivy Sexual Assault group so we are up-to-date on resources and practices at peer institutions.

Given the continued articles in the Herald and several Sexual Assault Task Force protests around Parents Weekend, these, apparently, are not enough. Brown’s Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance activists would have us dramatically expand sexual assault resources and training: in an October 29th Herald article, they call for the creation of a full-time staff position to deal with sexual assault cases, a sexual assault resource center, university backing for a peer-led support group for survivors, and a 24-hour on-campus sexual assault hot-line. They are quick to note that one in six women will be sexually assaulted, and that sexual assaults are dramatically underreported to law enforcement officials.

Fighting sexual assault is an easy agenda item for an activist to take up. No right-minded individual likes sexual assault, and it is a fairly straightforward task (as it should be) to find sympathy for victims of sexual assault. When it comes to establishing effective university policy for dealing with sexual assault issues, however, the task becomes markedly more complex.