A new report from the Department of Education shows nearly a hundred colleges and universities had at least ten reports of rape on campus in 2014 – among them the University of Virginia, with 35 claims of sexual assault. Sandy Hausman has more on that story:
Brown University and the University of Connecticut topped the list of reported rapes in 2014, with 43 cases each. Dartmouth, Wesleyan and the University of Virginia followed – with 35 reports of sexual assault at UVA. Officials on campus had no comment, but at the Sexual Assault Resource Agency in Charlottesville, Director Rebecca Weybright said that relatively high number could be seen in a positive light.
“Rapes happen on every college campus," she explains. "If there are reported numbers happening, it typically means the school is receptive to people coming forward, so I wouldn’t look at that as a bad thing.”
Tiny Reed College drew a similar conclusion. With 1,400 students, it had 13 reports of rape. Weybright says rising public awareness is surely a factor in people’s willingness to come forward, and she hopes our culture is changing – that fewer men view women as objects and more are asking the right questions.
“How do we build a bystander environment so that people will intervene if they see something happening?" Weybright asks. "How do we get people to say, ‘My friend is too drunk. I need to get her home?"
Last year the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation published a national poll that found one in five college women had been sexually assaulted at least once in four years on campus, a finding that has been reinforced by several other studies.