In the wake of the ongoing Cornell University investigation of rape on campus and federal rollbacks of Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ communities, the Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies program hosted an open conversation regarding sexual violence on Wednesday.
The event invited all members of the Lehigh community to talk about culture that surrounds and perpetuates sexual assault on college campuses, and how to work towards a safer campus culture at Lehigh and in general.
Attendees, made up primarily of faculty members, shared their thoughts and concerns regarding the rape culture in Greek life and the lack of institutional response, with many stressing the systemic nature of the issue.
Vera Fennell, a professor of political science at Lehigh, said she was flabbergasted by the events at Cornell, especially with the lack of action from administration for two years.
“This wasn’t like ‘oh, it happened last week and we haven’t gotten around to it,” Fennell said. “This was systemic, this was deliberate and it was shameful.”
Lack of administrative action isn’t exclusive to the recent Cornell case. According to CBS News, approximately four incidents of sexual assault per 5,000 students are reported by large universities, yet nearly one in five students claim they have been sexually assaulted in independent surveys.
According to the American Psychological Association, 25% of college-aged women report being sexually assaulted and it is estimated that 90% of sexual assault cases on college campuses go unreported.
A student, who has asked to remain anonymous, said the insular nature of fraternities allows these cases of sexual violence to continue.
“The one thing (the Cornell case) tells us is that it’s not new,” Fennell said. “Fraternities were like that when I was an undergraduate (at Princeton University,) and it was the kind of thing that people talked about.”
Holona Ochs, a professor of political science at Lehigh, said much of the cohesion and insularity that perpetuates this culture comes from hazing rituals that Greek life pledges endure when they are first recruited into the organization.
A common belief at the event was that the violation of boundaries experienced by fraternity members translates into violence perpetuated against others, through things such as hazing and sexual violence.
“You’re telling me I have to do all of these things to protect myself, but you’re not doing anything to protect me from this person and if this person attacks me, you’re also not going to do anything except blame me?” Ochs said.
A recent systemic contribution to increased sexual violence has been the rollback of Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students.
While the changes introduced under former President Joe Biden were never fully implemented due to a court ruling blocking full incorporation, Ochs said the symbolic removal of these protections “makes the most vulnerable among us even more vulnerable.”
According to the UCLA Williams Institute, 18% of LGBTQ+ students enrolled in four-year or graduate school programs experienced sexual assault. The American Psychological Association also reports LGBTQ+ men are nine times more likely to experience sexual violence compared to their heterosexual peers.
Systemic contributions to rape culture also came into focus, as attendees discussed building solutions for a safer campus.
The student said having conversations about sexual violence on campus and cases like the ongoing investigation at Cornell and in academic departments outside of the social sciences, where these topics fall into their subject matter already, helps create an environment where students feel safer and more comfortable to report their experiences.
“I think the issue is that we have the same people talking about things and the same people wanting change, and it needs to be more widespread,” the student said.
Suggestions for improving Lehigh’s institutions and responses to not only sexual violence reports but racist, homophobic or otherwise discriminatory instances included collecting anonymously reported experiences to present to the administration.
Also suggested was faculty pressure for more concise and clear statements in response to these issues, with students present citing issues with the vague nature of the administration’s response to a BORG found depicting blackface last semester.
It was also said faculty should be more equipped and available to have conversations regarding sexual assault to provide students a place to go outside of administrative offices.
Plans for a similar meeting are intended to include the Title IX Office and continue building towards institutional improvement at Lehigh.
“This is a systemic problem, and we keep paying attention like we’re going to hold one person accountable,” Ochs said. “We focus on punishments instead of focusing on ‘how did we get here?’”
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