Do you know someone who has been sexually assaulted or raped while they were in college? Well it happens more than you would think. One in four college females will be sexually assaulted before their senior year in college, seven percent of males say they have been sexually assaulted since the start of college, and those who identify with being part of the LGBT community or not heterosexual reported higher sexual assault rates than their heterosexual classmates. Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape (The Department of Justice). "Rape is the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim" (The Department of Justice). You may not feel like rape or sexual assault could happen to you, but rape is inevitable on most if not all college campuses. You may also feel that it does not happen around you, but there was a sexual assault near the University of South Carolina Columbia campus earlier this year. Harrison Cahill reported, "On Jan. 30, Columbia police officials said a woman was reported to have been sexually assaulted between 3:15 and 3:30 a.m. The woman told police a man, who was later identified as Hernandez, said he had a weapon and forced her to go to the 800 block of Barnwell Street where he assaulted her" (Cahill). A lot more case like this happen on campuses all around the United States, but colleges and universities do very little to support the victims of these crimes and to raise awareness about what could happen. Colleges and universities need to take rape and sexual assault more seriously in order to prevent and stop future incidents from happening, support those that have already fallen victim, and help catch the guilty party. 

Colleges and universities need make students more aware of the dangers that are around them in order to protect themselves from the harms of sexual assault and rape. Mary Koss, a public health professor at the University of Arizona, states, "One questions what it is going to take to convince people that rape on campuses is serious when the siren has been on for 25 years ... . However, the numbers suggest that the alarm is louder today" (Tyler Kingkade). In order to do this, certain policies need to added and changed. In a study conducted Bradford Richardson and Jon A. Shields, they claim that rates at which rape and sexual assault happen would drastically decrease if colleges and universities would strictly enforce two polices. They state, "our findings suggest that students are not so much victims of a 'rape culture' as they are victims of faulty institutional policies that contribute to higher risks of sexual assault" (Richardson & Shields). The first policy that they say should be enforce is a dry campus. A dry campus is a term that describes a college campus that bans alcohol regardless of the person's age or plan to drink it else where. The second policy Richardson and Shields state should be enforced is strict guest visitation policies. They claim that guest of the opposite sex should be banned from staying over night in dorms. In the study Richardson and Shields conducted, they labeled a campus as dry only, guest ban only, guest ban and dry, and no prohibitions. They then compared the number of reported rapes and sexual assaults according to the policies that are in place. The study shows that assault rates were drastically lower at colleges and universities with policies that were strictly enforced. The rates were 3.1 to 4.4 times higher at schools with more lackadaisical polies. The authors of this article state that these policies exist at most schools, but the schools do not strictly enforce them. Because if this, students are more likely to be at risk of these terrible crimes. Colleges and universities must decide whether they are willing place some restrictions on the students in order to keep them safe or continue to be the way they are allowing their students to do whatever they would like.

College and universities need to also educate their students on rape culture, the signs that someone is in danger, and the effects of what alcohol can do to you. Some colleges and universities make incoming freshmen take some sort of course about sexual assault and the effects of alcohol, but the majority of students just click through or breeze through the information that is provided. Then after the students are "finished" with it there is not a follow up course. Ruth Anne Koenick, director of the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance at Rutgers, states, "You can't do a one-time program and expect it to make a difference" (Beth Howard). Students should have to take a course to refresh their memory every year. This could seem like an annoying task for both the school and the students, but it could possibly help in the long run. The school would have to pay for this added course, but it would benefit both them and the students, and the students may fell like it is something that they have already done, but it can only benefit them by expanding their knowledge about what could happen to them and to their friends. By enforcing students to take part in these courses, you are educated bystanders that will hopefully step in and help a person out that is in need. 

A lot of the drinking that occurs while students attend college may be off campus, but the drinking is normally associated with some sort of community or group that is sponsored by the college or university. Even though these parties or events may not be on campus, the school should still be about to enforce certain rules or the event must meet university policy. In order to do this, the event or party should be registered through the university so the university can regulate to some extent what goes on at the event or party.

At the 2016 Oscars, Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech reducing sexual assault on college campuses. In part of his speech he says, "Tonight, I'm asking you to join millions of Americans, including me, President Obama, the thousands of students I've met on college campuses, and the artists I've met here tonight to take the pledge  --  a pledge that says, 'I will intervene in situations when consent has not or cannot be given. Let's change the culture. We must change the culture, so that no abused women or man, like the survivors you will see tonight, ever feel they have to ask themselves, 'What did I do?' They did nothing wrong" (Tre'vell Anderson). Lady Gaga then preformed her new song "Til It Happens to You" that she co-wrote with Diane Warren. This song is about sexual assault on college campuses.

The college or university can try to prevent and stop sexual assault and rape all they want, but sometimes it is not enough because of this the colleges and universities need to be there to support the victims of these terrible crimes. Colleges and universities are currently not doing a very good job of this because more sexual assaults and rapes go unreported than the ones that get reported. Students should not feel like it is their fault in anyway. In a study that was conducting about the 2014-2015 school year in a handful of schools, 12.5 percent of women who were raped reported it to the police, school officials, or a rape crisis center this percentage is way below the percentage of rapes that go unreported. Many cases go unreported because students feel embarrassed or like it is their fault. The college or university they attend needs to have support systems in place to help the victims through their time of pain and need.

In order for colleges and universities to provide the kind of support the victims need, the faculty at the school must be equipped with all of the information and training that they will need to be able to provide the victim with the right advice and help they need. Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama, sates, "They (schools) should also ensure students know about helpful resources, such as victim advocacy, housing assistance, academic support, counseling, disability services, health and mental services and legal assistance" (Valerie Jarrett). College and universities need to make sure that when an incident is reported that it does not just fall through the cracks and get ignored. In order to make sure that does not happen, Senator Claire McCaskill, along with Senators Dean Heller of Nevada, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire have help get the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. This Act will make sure that these rape and sexual assault cases are "no longer be ignored, brushed aside and mishandled" (Claire McCaskill). Another bill that is being passed is the Survivor Outreach and Support Campus Act by Senator Barbara Boxer. This bill would make sure that each college and university campus has a confidential independent advocate that would provide assistance to the victim every step of the way. This would include helping the victim report the assault, getting them medical help, and counseling. Senator boxer explains that, "These students inspire us to act. If they are willing to go on-camera and share their stories with the world, if they are willing to risk retaliation in the pursuit of justice, the least we can do is put in place policies to support them and to prevent other young people from becoming victims of these brutal crimes. We cannot turn away from this epidemic any longer. Enough is enough" (Barbara Boxer). President Obama put together the first White House Task force on college sexual assault. This task force makes schools realize that they have a problem, then measure this problem, and finally address the problem. This task force makes the colleges and universities conduct "campus climate" surveys. These surveys measure and give information about how often sexual assault happen. Colleges and Universities should not have depend on the government for things that they should have handled. These schools are too worried about how the incidents that happen on their campuses negative affect their image. If the colleges and universities were as concerned to for their students as they were their image student would feel better about reporting the incidents that happen to them. Students that are victims should want to seek help in order to cope with the crime that has been committed against them. In order for this to happen they need a environment where they feel safe not one where they will further neglected and pain is added to the pain they already feel. 

Colleges and Universities also need to assist law enforcement and the victim in finding the guilty party. The school needs to report these crimes to the police so that the chances are increased in finding the individual that committed the crime. "A college can do nothing more than expel a rapist, who may then commit new crimes, while police can take him off the streets" (Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune) Some school fear that when they report the crimes that their reputation will be damaged and that the victims will sue because they did not want to deal with the police, but when these crimes are reported to the police, they will help get offenders off of the street so they cannot commit future crimes. Even though it may hurt the university, it will help society and the victim in the long run. It will allow the victim to have justice and closer, and society will not have to fear that someone else could be harmed by this offender. It is best also for the college or university to report this crime because there, "are advantages of involving police and prosecutors from the outset are obvious: They have forensic resources, investigative skills, extensive experience and legal powers that colleges lack" (Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune).  

In the opposing article, it talks about how colleges and universities are starting to fight sexual violence. Colleges and universities should not now be beginning to start to fight sexual violence. Sexual violence should have always been fought against. Opposition should have started the second the sexual violence started. In this article, it talks about schools are teaching their students how to react when a situation starts to look dangerous. They are educating students on how to act before the crime happens. In order to do this, schools are starting to make students take part in multiple programs to learn about the signs and prevention of sexual assault. The article also mentions how fraternities have to start following certain rules in order to have parties or events. The university will monitor how much alcohol is allowed and what type of alcohol is allowed. The article also mentions how schools are changing their policies in order to help victims after the fact of the crimes. All of this is a good start and the colleges and universities obviously have to begin their fight against this terrible crime somewhere, but they need enforce stricter policies on how to actually prevent sexual assault from ever happening. In this article, the colleges and universities are still getting the help of the government. It should not be the governments job to stop this problem and help the victims. The government already has to deal with so many other things why should colleges and universities put another thing on their plate. The subtitle of this article is "Many schools are revamping their reporting programs and the most responsive institutions are now teaching classes on prevention and healthy relationships." Schools should not need to revamp their reporting programs because they should have kept their reports up to date instead of sweeping cases of sexual assault and rape under the carpet. Also why are schools just now starting to teach classes on prevention and healthy relationships? As soon as the problem of sexual violence came about there should have been classes to help students prevent these problems. In order to get ahead of this problem, colleges and universities have a long way to go in order to catch up to the terribly horrifying crimes such as rape, sexual assault, and sexual violence. 

Colleges and universities have let the issues of rape and sexual assault get away from them, and they are struggling to catch up. When a young adult heads off to college, he or she should not have to worry about if they will be safe or not. They should be worried about their classes and making new friends, and not whether or not they will be a victim of sexual assault or rape. But even though they should not have to worry about it, they still do because mostly the school they chose to go to cares more about its own reputation and status than its student and their well being. Because of this I am arguing that colleges and universities have gotten entirely too relaxed on trying to bring sexual assault to an end on college campuses, helping those that have already been victimized, and getting the individual who committed these unfortunate and shocking crimes. In order for schools to do these things certain methods and procedures must be carried out. College and universities must pull some policies in place in order to protect its students. Campuses need to be dry meaning alcohol free and have very strict opposite sex visitation policies because some people that are victims know the person that did this to them. Students also need to be educated on how to see the signs and how to help themselves and friends out of a situation that maybe could be avoided. With the help of people that are speaking out against these awful crimes, hopefully a majority of these crimes can be prevented in the future. Schools also need to have people ready to help those that are victims. Also colleges need to have procedures ready and in place so that when someone reports a crime it does not get pushed to the side. Universities also need to help the police catch the individual that is responsible for heinous crimes, but in order to that schools must put the student before themselves and their reputations. In order for students to feel like they at home away from home universities and colleges need to do their part in fighting sexual assault and rape. The Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune does a great job of summing my research paper up, "the bottom line here is that universities and colleges have to do more to address the dangers of sexual assault and protect students. They also have to recognize that they can't  -- shouldn't  --  do that job alone" (Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune). 

