These past two days, Lyndsay Jones and Emily Smith spoke out openly, and everybody seemed to listen.
The fact that these two women came forward without the veil of anonymity and addressed the complexities that shroud sexual assault in the manner they did matters a great deal. The bravery and selflessness demonstrated by these individuals is immeasurable. If sexual assault continues to only be discussed in anonymous terms and behind closed doors of IU administrators, law enforcement officials and politicians, it makes it all too easy to ignore this issue of epidemic proportions.
Sexual assault is often difficult to quantify. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 2 million women are the victims of sexual assault per year. And that’s just the women. The real figures are actually considerably higher because these crimes are so underreported.
While there are countless statistics, studies and research that attempt to communicate the urgency of this issue, numbers are just that: numbers. Sexual assault on college campuses is not an issue we can begin to understand simply by looking at a spreadsheet. By reading and hearing these personal accounts, it helps us to establish a human connection and to understand that these issues are very real and very close to home.
Another driving point behind our investigations series was the fact that IU is one of more than 50 institutions in the United States under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The schools on this list are being investigated for their handling of sexual violence and harassment cases and possible related violations. IU’s placement on the list, a DOE spokesperson told the Indiana Daily Student, is deliberate — contrary to University officials insisting that the review and list placement is random.
It is the obligation of IU, and all universities for that matter, to be more transparent about what is being investigated and why.
We wanted to take this opportunity to invite you to talk about your own experiences. Whether you have reported a sexual assault or not, we’d like to hear whatever you are ready to share.
The thing is, this conversation didn’t end with the conclusion of our investigations series Tuesday. This is where the conversation ?begins.
Michael Majchrowicz | Editor-in-Chief | editor@idsnews.com
