I think Inigo Montoya describes it pretty accurately here. These “safe spaces” that college campuses are providing have the potential to be damaging in a number of ways, but I’m gonna look at a perspective that I have yet to see written about and that kind of infuriates me.
I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts and figure out where I stand about this for a few weeks and I think I’ve finally come to a conclusion. The hardest part is putting it into words that are coherent and make sense, so bear with me.
So, for starters,
here is an example of what I’m talking about as far as “safe spaces,” if you aren’t aware.
Now, I think I’m a pretty open-minded person and part of me can understand the fear and the distress from the results of the recent election. I have many friends who feel personally victimized by what Trump has said and are actually terrified of what the next 4 years hold. I want to make it clear that I am in NO WAY discounting those fears or playing down what you may be feeling. I may not completely understand because I haven’t lived your life and I don’t have to face the same things you do every day and that’s okay. I still love you and I’ll still stand up for you. I’m not at all saying that the things you are feeling aren’t real or valid.
This is not a commentary on the election or Trump or whether the “safe spaces” should exist. I’m bringing this up because I can’t handle the hypocrisy of these college campuses. It makes me sick. These “safe spaces” are a mockery and show what is valued by these universities, and, frankly, it is exactly what these campuses are protesting or trying to be protected from.
To get to my point here we need to dig into the why. Why do these “safe spaces” even exist? Why do people feel that there’s a need for them? The answer, of course, is because people are shocked, distraught, and frightened by the results of the election.
Well, why do they feel that way? Because they feel that Donald Trump is a threat to them and those they care about and will be a nightmare.
Well, why do they feel that way? (I know I sound like a 2-year-old right now, but we’re getting to my point.) Here is where the answers get more diverse and trickier. Maybe it’s simply because he’s a Republican and they’re worried about his policy? Maybe it’s because he has absolutely no political experience? Maybe it’s because of his comments on immigrants? Maybe it’s because of his treatment and comments on women?
I don’t really have a solid answer to this one because there isn’t one. Everyone’s opposition stems from their own experiences and therefore is going to be completely different. But the one I want to focus on today is his treatment of and comments towards women because that is where I feel the most blatant hypocrisy is on the part of these schools.
I know many people who oppose Donald Trump and are truly terrified about his presidency because of his comments towards women. Some have been longtime Republicans or conservatives who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him because they feel that his comments and actions normalize, condone, and make acceptable the sexual assault and harassment of women. I can’t disagree with those feelings. The day after the election
this disgusting sign was up outside of someone’s home in College Station. It is absolutely revolting and it is a perfect indication of why those fears are valid.
So we have this man as our president (in January, remember) who has placed fear in the hearts of millions that they will now be the victims of sexual assault or harassment and that everyone will think it’s okay. I understand this fear and the longing to provide “safe spaces” to students struggling with this fear seems reasonable. It also seems reasonable to want to provide for the students struggling with the other emotions mentioned earlier (although some of the methods do seem a little ridiculous and I can’t disagree with some of the criticisms, but this is an open-minded post, so no judgments here).
But you can’t offer your campus up as a “safe space” for all feelings and unity and then demonize everyone that doesn’t agree with you. And you ABSOLUTELY cannot do this and then not offer a safe space for those who have actually been assaulted and raped. If the reason you need a “safe space” in the first place is to help those that are struggling with Trump being our president because of what he’s said and done to women, you better make damn sure that you’re taking care of those same issues on your campus. You can’t pretend like you abhor him because of the things he’s said and then turn around and sweep rape allegations under the rug. If you can create a “safe space” for people who need to play with Play-doh to get over their shock of the election results, you better be able to create a safe space for the women (and men) who have actually been assaulted and raped and are dealing with these things in real life, not just for those who are offended because someone who said something they didn’t like was elected.
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We all know about the scandal at Baylor (
here are the full findings) and it wouldn’t surprise me if the same sort of things were happening at schools all around the country. After reading of Baylor’s absolutely horrifying findings, I had to see if the climate at other universities was as abysmal as theirs.
In 2015, the
AAU released the results of their Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct. This was one of the first and most comprehensive studies on sexual assault and misconduct at institutes of higher education. They involved 27 universities around the country and had a sample size of almost 780,000 people. (I was one of those, they conducted this at A&M as well). The purpose was to figure out the prevalence of this problem on campuses and try to identify ways to help schools address it. You can check out the report
here.
They found quite a few striking things:
1. “A relatively small percentage (e.g., 28% or less) of even the most serious incidents are reported to an organization or agency (e.g., Title IX office; law enforcement).”
2. “More than 50 percent of the victims of even the most serious incidents (e.g., forced penetration) say they do not report the event because they do not consider it ‘serious enough.'” — This mindset brings up a whole entire different issue about what society thinks is and isn’t okay.
Here,
here, and
here are some articles that help explain why rape culture is accepted.
3. “A significant percentage of students say they did not report because they were ‘…embarrassed, ashamed or that it would be too emotionally difficult’ or ‘…did not think anything would be done about it.'”
4. “About a quarter of the students generally believe they are knowledgeable about the resources available related to sexual assault and misconduct.” — That means 75% of the student body doesn’t know where to get help or where to report incidences.
These findings are scary! You can already see that these campuses may not actually be “safe spaces.” But let’s dig a little deeper.
Almost half of the students surveyed have been victims of some sort of sexual harassment or misconduct. Those numbers skyrocket when they specifically look at undergraduate females and students who don’t identify as a binary gender.
What are the schools doing to solve this issue? The students don’t seem to have much confidence in them. Only about half believe that the victim would be supported by other students, that the victim would be protected, that a fair investigation would occur, and that campus officials would take action against the offender. And a little more than 1/3 of students believe that the university would take action to address the issues that led to the incident. These numbers drop when you look at the responses from undergrad females and the students who didn’t identify as a binary gender. The group most likely to be assaulted was the group least likely to trust in campus officials. That is telling.
Another interesting thing this study looked at was “bystander intervention.” When someone sees another person acting in a sexually violent or harassing manner, what do they do? Of the students who had witnessed this occurring, more than half did nothing. They just let it happen. So it makes sense that only half of the students believe that a victim would be supported because only half of the students who witnessed an encounter did anything about it.
In summary, the AAU study found that almost 3/4 of incidences are not reported because the victim feels ashamed, like nothing would be done, or it wasn’t a big deal (SERIOUSLY?? How are we still perpetuating this lie??). Most people who witness an incident occurring don’t do anything about it. Roughly half of all students don’t trust the campus officials (to put it in general terms) and less than 40% believe that campus officials would take action and the climate would change. (You can read the full report and check out the statistics here.)
I just can’t even put into words how sad this is to me.So what does this prove about “safe spaces”?
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So what does this prove about “safe spaces”?
3 of the schools that participated in this survey are also three of the schools mentioned in the first article that are providing “safe spaces.” Guess what? All three of them were above the average of the 27 schools as far as percentage of sexual assault/misconduct goes and two of them were in the TOP THREE!
Here is a brief rundown of the findings by school.
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Let’s talk about Yale first.
Here is one reaction from the Yale Daily News, showing the overall attitude on campus after the election. It highlights that students are upset about the results of the election
because of Trump’s attitude toward women. Like really upset. So upset that they organized a
group scream so that participants could “express their frustration productively.” I’m not going to comment on that method because it really isn’t all that bad and it is more respectable than what some of the other universities have done. And because that’s not the point of this post.
What those students probably don’t know is that while they’re venting their frustration and stressing out because a man “who has such a vocal hatred toward women” will be the president, there are students at their university living out that hatred and there are students actively dealing with the repercussions of the sexual assault and sexism that they are so vehemently against.
Out of the 27 schools the AAU surveyed,
Yale had the 3rd highest percentage of female undergraduates who experience sexual assault. More than a third of all students have experienced at least one incident of sexual assault since their enrollment and almost half of all students experienced sexual harassment.
Yale Daily News followed the findings with a
commentary and, it seems, an improved resolve to change these statistics. However, the discrepancy between what these students say they believe and how they actually live is troubling.
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Let’s talk about
Cornell now, the school who held a “cry in” for students in shock after the election. Nearly a quarter of undergraduate females at Cornell were victims of sexual assault, which is above average for the 27 universities surveyed. Only a small percentage of students know how the university defines sexual assault. Only about a quarter know where to turn for help and where to make a report. They are leaving their students with nowhere to turn when sexual misconduct occurs.
Cornell’s news department also released a
response and have an improved resolve to change their statistics.
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Now let’s talk about the school who came in first (out of only 27, so possibly not the highest in the nation) for the percentage of female undergraduate sexual assault: Michigan.
Here is a little bit about the reaction on their campus after the election. According to a student, Michigan offered “safe spaces” and a vigil. After reading that article, it’s actually pretty understandable. But, again, where is the safe space for the victims?
According to the AAU survey at
Michigan, more than a quarter of all students surveyed believe that sexual assault is a big problem. Nearly half of undergraduate women believe that sexual assault is a big problem, which I think has the most credence because almost a third of undergraduate women experience sexual assault, with another quarter experiencing non-consensual sexual touching. In total, more than half of all students had experienced some sort of sexual misconduct while at the University of Michigan. This number is astounding.
Of course, the President of the university also intends to make changes. You can read his response
here.
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Stanford was not a participant in this survey, but what the heck, let’s just address the issues there too.
The Brock Turner case, for one, put the students at Stanford, and really the nation, in a rage. The way it was handled is indicative of a larger issue at Stanford. So much so that students are
condemning the university’s internal campus climate survey and are
asking for a new one that adopts the methods that the AAU survey used. Those two articles really sum up the issue well, but in a nutshell, after some controversial decisions by the university, students are calling for a new survey that accurately reflects the campus climate at Stanford, and the university is blatantly ignoring them. This attitude is reminiscent of what has been going on at Baylor, and it is sickening.
While Stanford is ignoring those pleas, they are offering
psychological counseling and programs for students and staff after the election. They want to “reaffirm the university’s commitment to support every member of our community.” Really? Where is the safe space for
this woman, whose attacker was still able to show up at her home and classroom? Where’s the safe space for
these women, whose assailant stayed on campus for years afterward and was still able to graduate?
What is the most terrifying about the situation at places like Stanford and Baylor is that it is the university and administration that are perpetuating this culture of rape acceptance. At least at Cornell and Yale and Michigan, the administration went on record to say that they would do more to prevent sexual assault on their campus. Whether that happens or not is another issue, but at least they are recognizing the results of the AAU survey and looking for ways to resolve them.
So this is really my issue with these “safe spaces.” This is not a commentary on politics or on Trump, I only used those examples to point out the hypocrisy of these universities. I honestly don’t even care that the universities are setting up these “safe spaces.” My problem is that they are spending their students’ tuition money, their alumni’s and donors’ donations, and sometimes taxpayer money to coddle these students when they can’t even take seriously the rape, sexual assault, and sexual misconduct that happen on their campuses and to their students every day.
How about we provide a safe space for them?