o, it’s 1:06 a.m. on May 7th. The Dartmouth Daily Updates blitz is deleted from my inbox almost as quickly as it pops up. Why so dismissive? Well, if the messages were important, I should have already received a million other blitzes about them. The next day, a friend mentions something that sends me rummaging through my trash for this particular DDU, buried among announcements about the swine flu and President Wright’s farewell party:
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From: “Harry C. Kinne” <Harry.C.Kinne@Dartmouth.edu>
To: Undergraduates in Residence, Tuck Students, Thayer Students, DMS Students, Arts and Sciences Graduate Students
Subject: Safety and Security Alert
Safety and Security Alert
I write to alert the student community that a woman has reported that she attended a party on campus where she was served a mixed drink. That is her last recollection until she woke up the next morning in a common area of another residential building on campus. The women reported that she had bruising and scratches on her body but has no memory of how they occurred or how she got to that location.
More info: http://d2u.dartmouth.edu/archive?id=2145
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Umm…what?! I immediately copy and paste the link into my browser. The webpage describes the dangers of date rape drugs—drugs suspected to have been used in this case of sexual assault.
I thought everyone would be talking about this. I expected an endless array of blitzes, official announcements, student organization responses, and forums addressing student concerns. I expected the issue of sexual assault on campus to flare up once again. Instead, on May 7th, my inbox remained clear and calm—that is, until notice of an AD party popped up. What little discussion this blitz eventually prompted made mysteriously little mention of date rape drugs. That fateful DDU that I at least dug out of the trash remains unread and largely unacknowledged weeks later.
Dartmouth Safety and Security has a duty to inform campus of incidences like these. As part of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, S&S is required to publish and distribute an annual security report, which is available through the Dartmouth website. (Refer to http://www.dartmouth.edu/~security/information/clery-act/ for last year’s report.) However, something strange is afoot; the number of sexual assault cases reported by S&S does not match the actual number of cases seen on campus, or even the number of “reported” cases. We can thank a face-saving clerical loophole for this: S&S is only required to report cases that occur on or around campus, yet survivors of sexual assault often do not mention their location. Without locations, therefore, Safety and Security does not report incidents as having occurred on campus. In 2007, Safety and Security reported’ forced sexual offenses; however, Dartmouth’s Center for Women and Gender recorded approximately 60 cases that year (as reported by the Sexual Assault Peer Advisors [SAPAs] and/or counselors). The numbers—19 versus 60—simply do not match. Which looks better on paper? Which weighs less on our campus conscience?
The Clery Act also requires colleges to make “timely reports to the campus community on crimes considered to be a threat to other students and employees…” The beloved Dartmouth Daily Updates technically notified students of the possible roofie incident. But even S&S realized that this wasn’t a proper notification. “After feedback from students we found a way to use the system that goes out looking like a regular Security Blitz Alert and goes immediately. Lesson learned. Future notices will go out looking like an alert and not a DDU.” Safety and Security may have tried to report this crime to the campus, but all sexual assault cases, not just those involving date rape drugs, are crimes. Shouldn’t we be notified of ALL sexual assault cases? Perhaps if 60 blitzes reporting these crimes were sent out each year, the terrifying frequency of sexual assault at Dartmouth would be better understood.
Initially I was outraged that the Dartmouth community was not properly informed of the use of roofies. My anger remains, but it’s now anger that all sexual assault cases are not reported to the campus (assuming, of course, the anonymity of survivors). Sexual assault is a problem on campus and we can’t fix it without addressing it. If this seems intuitive, or even unnecessary, consider one student’s response to a mass blitz sent out about sexual assault on campus. He responded “I am not outraged by sexual assault on campus because, at least in my experience, I do not see it occurring. I respect your right to have a forum, but I am not interested.”
To whomever wrote that blitz: consider some statistics (see below) that prove you completely wrong. Not only does sexual assault occurs regularly here, every single case should be cause for outrage.
