This morning Vice President Joe Biden published an open letter directed to the senior administration members of colleges and universities. The message is direct and clear: as leaders of our academic institutions, they have a moral and legal responsibility to take real steps in addressing campus sexual assault.
In “A Call to Action for College and University Presidents, Chancellors, and Senior Administrators: Step Up on Sexual Assault” he talks about the leaps and bounds our country has made to lower the the number of victims who are subjected to gendered violence. But this progress has failed to reach the rates of sexual violence at our schools. He explains:
But over the past twenty years, we have made substantial progress toward protecting victims and changing attitudes in this country. Domestic violence rates have dropped 72 percent over the last 20 years — with an even higher percentage of victims reporting their abuse to authorities. Rape crisis centers and sexual assault forensic examiners are now in nearly every major city in America.
But have we made sufficient progress to protect students and change attitudes on your campuses?
You probably already know the answer: no. In fact, it is hard to know whether there’s been any real progress at all. The statistics on campus sexual assault remain grim. Over 20 years ago, research found 1 in 5 women are raped or sexually assaulted during their college career. That number remains true for students today.
A quick look at the stats gives us a glimpse into why: only six percent of college presidents believe that sexual assault is a problem at their school and a whopping 91 percent of colleges reported to the government in 2014 that zero rapes occurred on their campus. We have a long way to go.