Predators

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Summer 2004 by Lisak, David

It is these facilitators and bystanders-men who know who the rapists are in their communities-who must be educated, challenged and coaxed back to a firm stance on the right side of the line, the side where we as a community plant ourselves in opposition to those few who choose the criminal path.

Colleges and universities do more than provide young people with the credentials to make their careers. They also help to socialize young men and women and prepare them for responsible citizenship in their communities. What lessons do we teach these young people when we allow sexual violence to flourish in the college community? The predators graduate, taking with them increased power and authority-the tools they turn into weapons of violence-and find new victims in the larger community beyond the ivied walls. The bystanders graduate with lessons in passive cooperation with criminal conduct, surely the opposite of what we would have wished for.

Sexual violence remains as much a dirty secret on our campuses as it is in the larger society. It flourishes because to confront it, an institution must be willing to shine a bright light on aspects of itself that are both ugly and painful. One of the most important steps that must be taken is a comprehensive, led-from-the-top campaign to change the community climate such that victims of sexual violence feel comfortable to report attacks to authorities. Paradoxically then, the first indication that an institution is courageously moving to end sexual violence is almost inevitably an increase in the official tally of that violence. This is not the kind of publicity that most college administrators strive to create.

Yet some institutions have moved forward regardless. The U.S. Air Force Academy, faced with a national spotlight on its sexual assault problems, has moved comprehensively to make fundamental changes in how sexual violence is handled institutionally and to alter the culture of the academy to make such violence less likely. The academy has used mandatory, small group meetings to educate the cadet corps as well as faculty and staff about sexual assault and sexual harassment. It has established new policies regarding sexual assault complaints and investigations and improved services to victims. If a military academy imbued with a traditional, masculine culture can take such far-reaching steps, surely the rest of our institutions of higher learning can do the same. It's a question of motivation.

Social Sensitivity

"I've run into couple of situations where, when I've asked the women outright 'Well, did you indicate that this was not all right with you?' they've stammered and said, 'No, not exactly, but he should have been able to tell.' And probably he should have, but we all arrive at Yale with different levels of social sensitivity."

-Laura King, dean of Yale's Trumbull College, as quoted by Kristen Thompson in an October 2003 article in The Yale Herald student newspaper exploring the "rape culture" at the university.