Rape on a College Campus : A Study of the Claremont Colleges
Abstract
The author worked with Project Sister, a rape crisis center serving Southern California’s Claremont Colleges. Because of confidentiality issues, she does not use the experience of her clients directly, but instead uses structured field interviews with campus employees and students for her research. The intent of this paper is to analyze how a college campus addresses the problem of rape. College campuses, as a microcosm of society, accept violence against women through actions and policies developed in the context of a society that accepts and perpetuates rape. But since a college is a business that must look after its own interests, no college can afford the publicity and expense of a high profile rape case or law suit. Its first priority must be the students. Though individually administrators seem to support the fight against rape, their collective actions do not. The majority of judicial board cases are handled badly. Rape is a serious problem on college campuses, yet many insist on denying this until incident after incident is brought to their attention. Waiting until a rape has occurred is the wrong way to address the problem. "Although educational programs will not guarantee that acquaintance rape and sexual assault will stop, they may help in reducing the number of sexual assaults on campus" Continual education to inform students about the reality of rape and dispel the myths surrounding it is the primary way to foster an environment that denounces rape and accepts its survivors. The interviews and field notes are included as appendices.
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Kalamazoo College Self-Study Report: A Decade of Change, Challenge, and Promise. Prepared for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Kalamazoo College (2003-03)The title of this report—and of this introductory chapter—was chosen with some trepidation, for what college could not say that the past decade, or any ten-year period of its history for that matter, was a time of change, ... -
College Women's Leadership Aspirations: The Influence of the First-year College Experience
VanDerWege, Abbie (2003)The proposed study would determine the effects of the first year of college on female students' leadership aspirations. According to research describing the task- and interpersonal-oriented leadership styles, gender ... -
Kalamazoo College Response to The Higher Learning Commission, A Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Kalamazoo College (2006)In the Assurance Section of its Report of a Comprehensive Evaluation Visit to Kalamazoo College in April of 2003, the Evaluation Team identified a number of"inadequately addressed" issues that needed "further clarification." ...