Schools need a more human centric lens on supporting rape/SA survivors, but they are more on track than you might think.
Colleges and Universities have limits on what they can and can’t legally do, but the focus might be in the right place.
In the summer of 2020, there was a clear explosion of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts put in place (you know this already). We are kind of judgemental of it because for one you should have had this already, and two, most of them seem wildly inauthentic.
Well a few years ago around 2014, Universities had started doing something similar but about sexual assault (and yes they were calling it universally sexual assault rather than “and rape”). There were countless media reports and new research on the experiences of young women in college and the lack of support they have for sexual assault and rape cases. Now, I believe that this is still true, although it has changed but hear me out.
The school I was attending, now referred to as X University was putting together a sexual assault policy to be released for the next academic year. They had hired some consultants, and not yet any full time staff to be devoted to this, and they had reached out to a few active students on campus to get input on what needed to be done and where they could adjust the policy while they were making it.
Because of this, I had a one on one meeting with the Provost, Students at the University and if you are unfamiliar with the term, it means she was the highest ranking person at the university who was responsible for well being of students. Now, that introduction didn't mean to sound condescending, she was really quite lovely and I could tell that she cared a lot about this particular policy. I was antsy as I usually am about something I care about, and she explained with the most sincere regret that she simply cannot charge students with any accounts of sexual assault or rape. They just can’t. They don’t have the authority.
The immediate reaction is like hell no, yes you can. Cameras are everywhere. But if you are at all familiar with trauma or trauma-informed design, an area that I am exploring is that this can often be more harmful to the survivor.
Recently, I published an article about a rape I had experienced. I didn’t go to the police, I didn’t go to my school or any other authorities. I simply called in sick and wanted to end it there. I spent my time trying to heal and going through the emotions that I needed to. I absolutely did not have the strength to fight another battle like in court or with a bunch of police officers asking me about what I was wearing. I needed to keep myself sane and strong enough to shower at the end of the day and make sure I ate enough. That was the goal. Not to take down that ass hole who did it to me.
Now, this is only my experience and we all experience differences in the trauma that we have been through and how we have dealt with them. I am not here to explain trauma, I am not qualified for that. But I am here to consider that the approach that schools are taking might actually be more human centric than they appear, because they have to be trauma informed.
Since this time, X University put out their policy and hired staff members to work on sexual assault support at the school. However, the gap that is still missing is the need for trauma informed design (read that once more). It is not enough to have a policy or an admissions agreement. Each survivor experiences the healing differently and schools need to work on building their human centric design capabilities in addition to being trauma informed in order to support young women during an incredibly vulnerable time in their lives.
It’s like the DEI efforts fast forwarded 10 years. What efforts are real, what efforts can actually legally be put in place. And what laws need to be broken in order to break environments where trauma thrives.
