Rape and sexual assault on college campuses is an arduous component of collegiate life that students must navigate around. Unfortunately, allegations do not seem to rattle the student body, especially when it is associated with the party scene. Repeated sexual assaults and rape cases have created a vicious rape culture on campuses across the country. This culture exists at Syracuse University.

When students’ safety is compromised, the necessary action is to address it, although that doesn’t seem to be the case for collegiate sexual assault cases. One in five women experience sexual assault while at campus, but only one in five women who are sexually assaulted report the crime, according to the U.S Department of Health & Human Services. This means that about 20% of survivors report to law enforcement. 

Women are left to navigate college fearing we could potentially become a part of that statistic. Lilliana Evans, a first-year student at SU, has voiced her concern about the culture of college campuses. 

“It is an inevitable truth that women must live with, and rape culture leaves us feeling powerless,” Evans said. “When girls go to parties and something happens, people almost immediately blame the girls for being there in the first place.”  
The nature of victim shaming and victim blaming leaves students afraid to raise concerns about assault on campus, as they fear ridicule and nasty comments. Psychotherapist Beverly Engel said that, due to shame, survivors of sexual assault often do not come forward because they believe they are at fault or they cannot bear the thought of others thinking it is their fault.  

But silencing the survivors feeds the monstrous culture, and blatant disregard for women and sexist remarks invigorates it. Popular platforms such as Yik Yak, which allows users to scope out social life and post commentary anonymously, have been prominent in the collegiate atmosphere recently. The terrible side effects are comments that are harmful for women and survivors.  

Freshman Linda Baguma said university administrations tend to avoid criminal proceedings to protect an idealistic and pristine image from tarnishing.  

“It’s very important to look into how each college or university handles their sexual assaults or rape allegations because that sets in stone how serious the campus is about protecting their students,” she said.  

Many women feel powerless when the institution they attend neglect the concerns of sexual assault and harassment allegations, and it seems that it is impossible to win against this culture. This further invigorates the already vicious culture, because as the feeling of powerlessness sets in, women tend to accept rape culture as part of the college life.  

According to the survey on Sexual and Relationship Violence in compliance with the New York State’s Enough is Enough legislation, SU reported that 19% of students that participated in the survey said they experienced non-consensual sexual contact. SU’s rape culture is no different than the myriads of colleges across the country.  

“It’s naive to think that these problems will go away, but I want to be able to say that my university responds to sexual assault allegations very seriously and takes actions immediately,” Evans said.

Many students at SU feel that allegations of sexual harassment and assault are not taken seriously. For many first-year students, the start of their college career begins with worries about their safety.  

To dismantle rape culture, it is imperative to listen to survivors and reach out to authorities who specialize in helping survivors of sexual assault. Eliminating shame within survivors is imperative to show support and continue the support throughout the healing process, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

“We are all in this together. We need to be in solidarity or else change can’t happen,” said Evans.  

To raise the standards of safety, the SU community must band together to protect survivors of sexual assault and harassment, raise concerns to the university’s administration and prevent sexual assault and harassment on our campus. 

Rainu George is a freshman classical studies major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at rcgeorge@syr.edu.

Published on September 30, 2021 at 1:05 am