Recently at Berry, students have been trying to raise awareness about the amount of sexual assaults on campus. Through an anonymous social media platform called YikYak, users are posting several messages accusing both students and faculty of sexual assaults and discussing how Berry administration has handled them. Among these messages users are also encouraging victims of sexual assault to utilize the resources that Berry has to offer. The Counseling Center, Dean of Students and Berry Reducing Assault and Violence through Education (BRAVE) are a few of the resources available to sexual assault survivors.
The 2019 federal grant from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) funded BRAVE, a relatively new project at Berry. BRAVE aims to prevent sexual assault by educating the campus community while also providing support for survivors of sexual assault. Since receiving the grant, BRAVE has worked to speak with Resident Assistants (RAs), BCC mentors and other student leaders across campus.
While YikYak may have sparked the current push to call attention to sexual assault cases on Berry’s campus, the MeToo Movement in 2017 brought awareness to the widespread impact of sexual assault. In 2017, news broke that well-known Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had been sexually assaulting women for many years. To highlight the magnitude and severity of sexual assault, the hashtag #MeToo was created and shared by survivors of sexual assault on multiple social media platforms. As the hashtag continued to gain popularity, more and more people began telling stories of their experience with sexual assault. It became very clear just how common sexual assault is and that it should be treated in a more serious manner.
Sexual assault obviously does not just affect Berry’s campus. In fact, college campuses across the U.S. have numerous reports of sexual assault each year. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), 26% of female undergraduate students experience rape or sexual assault and 6.8% of male undergraduate students experience a form of sexual assault as well. In addition, statistics from RAINN indicate that only 20% of student females from 18 to 24 actually reported being sexually assaulted so the true number of sexual assaults is much higher than the numbers show.
Many survivors of sexual assault face short-and-long term repercussions such as sexually transmitted infections, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, chronic illness and post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies have also shown that college students who experience sexual assault are more likely to engage in “risky” behavior such as binge drinking and drug use and can have lower academic achievement, according to the U.S Department of Justice.
One would think that because of the multiple consequences that result from being sexually assaulted, most colleges would take the issue extremely seriously. However, that is often not the case. As stated before, many survivors of sexual assault do not report what happened to them, to adults or authorities. However, in the instance that they do report their case, it is not always taken as seriously as it should be.Very seldom are any actions taken towards getting the abuser off campus or at least away from the victim. As a result, the survivor of sexual assault may have to deal with seeing the person who took advantage of them around campus. This obviously can create a great deal of stress for the survivor.
The fact that sexual assault is not treated seriously by everyone is an extremely dangerous problem. If college administrators fail to consider the well-being of a student who is dealing with serious trauma and do not take action to help them through that trauma the student might feel as if they are all alone in their struggles. The consequences of a student feeling alone after going through something as traumatic as sexual assault are detrimental.
In the Nov. 11 issue of the Carrier, we reported that Berry had three total reports of sexual violence in 2020. Despite the low number of cases, the number still isn’t zero so every member of the Berry community should keep these sentiments in mind when faced with the topic of sexual assault.