2 results for author: Alison Kahler

The Problem of Campus Sexual Assault

Recently, a friend and fellow University of Chicago alumna showed me an open letter to university president Robert Zimmer demanding that the university reevaluate its policy regarding campus sexual assaults. After reporting an assault by her then-partner and being illegally offered a mediation session by Dean of Students Susan Art, current fourth-year student Olivia Ortiz filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR), prompting a larger investigation of the university for possible violations of Title IX. In response, a coalition of alumni wrote and circulated the letter in question. I gladly added my name.

Though I am heartbroken to read about my beloved alma mater's betrayal of sexual assault victims, I am not surprised. Campus sexual assaults are chillingly common, according to the Department of Education's 2011 Dear Colleague Letter: Sexual Violence Background, Summary, and Fast Facts (found on Marsh Law Firm's roundup of Title IX resources):

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Another Teen Sexually Assaulted

The recent Rolling Stone piece "Sexting, Shame and Suicide" tells the story of a teenage girl from Saratoga, California, who got drunk at a party, passed out, and woke up the next morning covered in Sharpie marker drawings. She frantically pieced together the story: she had been carried to a bedroom where three boys stripped her, fingered her, drew all over her skin in Sharpie—all while capturing the whole thing on camera. As the images spread around her high school, the victim found herself publicly shamed and abandoned by her friends, lamenting in a Facebook message, "My life is over…I ruined my life and I don't even remember how." ...