One of the most severe topics of discussion on college campuses nationwide is the sexual assault crisis. Sexual assault is a federal crime and the job of handling reports of sexual violence on college campuses is left to university authorities. Even though sexual assault is one of the most concerning and reflected-upon issues on college campuses, it is very common among universities in the United States for college authorities to mishandle these cases. University officials only worsen the problem of sexual assault on campuses by managing such reports and cases of sexual violence inadequately and ineffectively.

A shocking amount of college students who are victims of sexual violence will express how unprofessional, unserious and insensitive campus authorities acted towards them when they brought their case to the universities attention. Audrey Logan, a victim of sexual assault at Occidental College, recalled that after meeting with campus authorities, the administrator "didn't direct her toward any resources or review her legal options" (Goldberg). Audrey explained how the situation "only got worse from there. There was just a level of professionalism that was lacking throughout the entire process" (Goldberg). The campus officials' absence of seriousness towards Audrey's case was clearly shown when "the dean of student life acted as the investigator in the case" (Goldberg). This unprofessional behavior from the administrator continued when Audrey arrived to give her statement to find that "the dean's recorder was broken ... Later, she produced a document that was missing important information" (Goldberg). The dean was unprepared, unprofessional and showed a lack of seriousness towards Audrey's case. Sexual assault on campus should not to be taken lightly by administration, however the dean's carelessness towards her case decreased the legitimacy of Audrey's report. It is unfair to Audrey, and all other victims of sexual assault, to be mistreated by campus authority when sexual violence is such a severe problem that they face. The inappropriate ways that many college administrators handle sexual violence can be one of the most scarring parts of the situation. After an extremely re-victimizing hearing with her assailant appearing through Skype, Audrey recalls that, "the adjudication board itself was one of the worst things I had to experience outside of the actual assault, and in some ways it was worse" (Goldberg). Instead of holding proper trials and maintaining professionalism while dealing with a sexual assault case, more often than not campus officials "bring to the task a toxic mix of unqualified investigators, underdeveloped judiciary processes, and conflicts of interest that undermine both their effectiveness and their legitimacy" (Cohen). By allowing unqualified officials to handle such cases, it is almost guaranteed that victims will not receive appropriate treatment or justified, fair results throughout the experience of their case.

Often times, authorities are too quick to assume that the case is a false reporting. When they assume this, campus officials tend to aim undermining questions at the victims, and make them feel as if the reason they were assaulted was either partially or fully their fault. A clinical psychologist, David Lisak, reports that "the percentage of false reports is somewhere between 2% and 8%. Which means 90% but more likely 95% to 98% of reports are not false" (Video). It is alarming that university authorities are so quick to assume most cases are false reports when in fact a little less than 100% of cases are true reports. Emma Sulkowicz, a twenty-one year old student who was assaulted at Columbia University, expressed publicly on how horrifying her experience was with Columbia's disciplinary board. She recalled how an "administrator asked her incredulously how anal rape was possible without lubrication" (Goldberg). Daniel Dirks, a woman who accompanied two rape victims in filing their reports, stated that when dealing with officials, they encountered "hostility mixed with indifference. In one case, she says, a student was told it couldn't have been rape if she voluntarily entered her assailant's dorm room" (Goldberg). Both of these examples show the insensitive questions that administrations use to try and target a false report, however the situation should not be handled with insensitive inquiries and rude accusations of the victims' behavior while they were being sexually assaulted. Kamilah Willingham was sexually assaulted during her freshman year at Harvard Law School. Her story is a part of a documentary called The Hunting Ground, which focuses on the sexual assault crisis on college campuses and how college administrators fail to handle these reports adequately. Kamilah was asked completely imperceptive questions by Harvard officials that left her feeling victimized and as if they thought she was not telling the truth. She remembers how she "went into the hearing and even the professors were like, did I give him the wrong message with our friendship and that he misunderstood our friendship?" (Video). Her response was, "no because sex was never a part of that friendship and if we were ever going to be introduced, when I was awake would be a good time for that" (Video). Like so many other schools, the Harvard authorities attempted to dissolve the report by being too quick to assume a false reporting, and asking her questions that required her to fight for her place as the victim in the situation. Victims of sexual assault should not have to fight for their role as the victim and the situation is traumatizing for them when campus officials put them in that position. They also asked her unaccommodating questions like "why didn't you fight him" knowing that she has a small, fragile frame which is no comparison to him being six foot three and over 200 pounds (Video). Kamilah and her family were shocked that "there was this extreme reluctance to believe me" (Video). Because administrations are adverse towards the lengthy process and solutions that follow a report of sexual assault, it is remarkably common among United States colleges to have victims feeling like university authorities are unwilling to believe their story. 

The rarity of assailants who are actually expelled or punished for their crime is one of the most revealing factors displaying the mishandling of sexual assault cases by college campus officials. Even if authorities do punish the offender, the punishment is almost always short-lived, allowing perpetrators to return to campus only to continue assaulting and harming more and more people. In one particular investigation series on campus rape by the Center for Public Integrity, Kristen Lombardi reported that only four of thirty-three student victims "said that the findings led to expulsion of their alleged attackers- two of them after repeat sexual offenses. The rest of those victims said discipline amounted to lesser sanctions, ranging from suspension for a year to social probation and academic penalties, leaving them feeling doubly assaulted" (Goldberg). Although sexual assault is a federal crime and should be dealt with seriously as such by university administrations, "more often administrations suspend [perpetrators] for a semester or two, or for the duration of the time that the accuser is on campus" (Burleigh). If the school only suspends the assailant until the accuser has departed campus, they are essentially allowing the attacker to return to school and put all others on campus and in the community in danger. Allowing perpetrators to come back to campus does not create or maintain a safe and healthy campus environment that universities attempt to portray. It would be reasonable to think that campus administrations would want perpetrators gone for good in order to protect their students from these known criminals and their actions. Sexual violence on college campuses is a crime "largely perpetrated by repeat offenders, who instead of facing a prosecutor and a jail cell remain on campus after a short-term suspension, if punished at all" (Gillibrand). When university administrations fail to punish assailants, these offenders continue to assault over and over again, only enhancing the issue of sexual violence on that campus. RAINN, the United States biggest anti-sexual violence organization recently reported that "over 90% of college rapes are committed by just 3% of college men who are repeat offenders" (Gillibrand). This shows how the deficiency of college administrations leads to the reoccurrence of assaults by the same offenders who were overlooked and ignored when first reported. In some seemingly victorious cases, the assailant is found guilty and expelled, but shortly after this they are allowed back on campus against the victims will or knowledge. Kamilah Willingham experienced this very situation when she received a message from the Dean of Students at Harvard Law, reading that the assailant could appeal the board's decision and "they voted again on whether to uphold the decision to remove him and decided to let him back in" (Video). This was a decision coming straight from the university that automatically put not only Kamilah, but also the rest of Harvard's student body in danger. The improper and appalling way in which Harvard handled Kamilah's case confirms that, "the message is clear. Don't proceed through these disciplinary hearings. No matter what you do you're not going to win" (Video). Kamilah might have won when she was able to get her assailant expelled, which is a rarity in its own; however, she ultimately lost when the university authorities voted to let her offender return to campus. It is not comforting to think that victims, who are at their lowest point after being sexually assaulted, do not feel safe or comfortable going to their campus authorities for help. There are countless cases with campus administration that "rather than helping to punish sexual assault and prevent it's occurrence, these failures contribute to reluctance in reporting, and--as in the recent case at the University of Virginia--undermine trust in both the authorities and the victims who turn to them for help" (Cohen). Victims are becoming more and more hesitant to go to authority for help, knowing that they will only be put through hell once again in doing so. This vicious cycle of dealing with unprofessional and unserious college administrations after being assaulted only aggravates the sexual violence problem on campuses. 

 In order to keep their number of applicants and money income increasing, universities strive to keep their reputations clean and pristine. A high crime rate can easily put a dent in a college's status. To prevent this, university officials attempt to sweep reports of sexual violence on campus under the rug. University administrations know that parents are more tentative to send their children off to a college with a high crime rate, including sexual assault reports on campus, so campus officials attempt to keep these numbers low by brushing off or turning a blind eye to sexual assault reports, cases and victims. A large proportion of student victims "find campus disciplinary boards more invested in protecting the school's reputation than in seeking justice" (Goldberg). Because schools want to protect their image against anything that could hurt them, college administrations find it easier to ignore or mistreat cases of sexual assault than to deal with the potential damage these reports could do to their reputation. Countless egregious accounts of sexual assault express how "colleges also have other motives that make them less than ideal for adjudicating rape: They often put their brand and reputation above the rights of the victims" (Burleigh). In one case, Amherst students filed a complaint under Title IX against the university, Amherst's President, Veitch, accused students and faculty members of "trying to 'vilify' the student-affairs staff and seeking 'to embarrass the college on the evening news'" (Sander). Instead of taking the complaint into account and revising Amherst's strategies for sexual assault reports in order to better campus environment and safety, the president was more concerned that this complaint would publicly embarrass the college. If colleges and universities put their superficial interests aside, it would allow them to focus on improving such crucial and urgent issues like campus sexual violence. When Kamilah Willingham informed the Dean of Students at Harvard Law that she was assaulted by someone she knew, the dean responded saying "I just wanted to make sure above all else, that you don't talk to anyone about this, it could be bad for everyone if people start rallying around having [the accused] removed from campus" (Video). The dean was hoping to shuffle Kamliah's case under the rug in order to prevent a rally on campus. Dissolving a rally is substantially less of a problem than having victims of sexual assault on campus who cannot receive proper help or support from the universities that they originally trusted with their successful college experience. Kamilah's mother "absolutely assumed Harvard would do right by Kamilah," which is something that all students and parents should expect and receive from United States colleges (Video). Mishandling cases of sexual assault is quite the opposite of 'doing right' by any college student, whether it is the victim or any other student on campus who has the potential of being assaulted by un-convicted or un-punished perpetrators. Universities treat their student population unfairly when they attempt to sweep pressing sexual assault issues under the rug in attempts to protect their image and reputation.

Poorly handled cases of sexual assault by campus authorities are not limited to certain universities or regions. This issue runs ramped through colleges all over the United States, and over time has caused more college women to speak up about it publicly through social media. Groups of victims are increasing in number, all who experienced "campus investigations that led nowhere" (Burleigh). Two very influential activists, Annie Clark and Andrea Rino, who were both raped at UNC Chapel Hill, began talking and "saw patterns everywhere of colleges not doing anything" (Burleigh). These victims are challenging their universities to try and improve the way colleges handle reports and cases of sexual violence. Although these organizations strive to change the way in which United States' universities handle campus rape and assault, they still face enormous walls when the situation comes to university officials who fight against their complaints and claims of mishandling cases. Another minor movement towards changing the way college authorities handle sexual violence is an online investigation tracker introduced by The Chronicle, "with which readers can browse comprehensive information about federal inquiries and sign up to receive alerts about important developments" in the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation of universities over their handling of sexual violence (Mangan). Since the investigation browser has been launched, numerous cases of investigation have been opened up and solved. However, "the fact that only 19 percent of the cases tracked in The Chronicle's database have been resolved shows the challenges facing investigators" (Mangan). It is going to take a lot more than networks of students and investigation trackers to improve the real problem of sexual assault facing college campuses, which is how campus officials inadequately handle reports and cases of sexual violence.

The improper ways in which reports of sexual assault on college campuses are dealt with by university officials only exacerbates the wide spread problem of sexual violence on college campuses. By having college administrations that are unprofessional, insensitive and lack seriousness, they continue to damage to the victims situation. These officials are quick to assume false reporting's, and will ignore or mistreat cases of sexual assault in many ways including allowing perpetrators to go unpunished or assigning short-term consequences that allow offenders to return and put other students in danger. Although there have been many efforts to implement changes in the methods colleges handle sexual violence, none have been influential enough to cause major alterations. In order to improve the sexual assault crisis among colleges in the United States, university officials need to improve the ways they handle sexual assault cases. 

