Researchers in Los Angeles say that UO has a rape-tolerant culture, as the White House launches a national campaign to increase penalties for college sexual assaults. While UO is not one of the 55 colleges with potential violations, UO President Michael Gottfredson has started several new programs and hired new employees to improve rape prevention, reporting and university response.
Caroline Heldman, a researcher from Occidental College in Los Angeles, found that between 2009 and 2012 only one UO student was expelled after a rape conviction. While 15 to 35 UO students each year are found guilty of rape, they are almost always given a slap on the wrist, temporarily suspended or made to write essays.
Nationally, an average of 10 to 24 percent of convicted rapists are expelled from college. The UO only expels one percent.
Last month Jennifer Freyd, a UO psychology professor who studies sexual assault, was invited to the White House for the announcement of a new push to use Title IX to mandate that colleges respond to sexual assaults or risk losing federal funding. Rape is considered sex discrimination under Title IX.
The White House also created a “road map” to help victims navigate reporting Title IX violations if their school doesn’t respond adequately.
Freyd says that rather than expelling rapists, colleges often blame the victims for what they were wearing or invalidate their concerns. Research shows that this “institutional betrayal” can cause depression and anxiety, forcing the victims to drop out of school.
Meanwhile, the perpetrators go unpunished.
The UO sanctions against rapists “don’t actually treat this as a crime,” Heldman told The Register-Guard.
Gottfredson announced last month that ending sexual assault is a top priority, with new programs like the UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence, a new website, new employees to deal with complaints, a 24-hour hotline, and mandatory employee training in sexual harassment prevention.
However, Freyd said that the introduction of employee training, which consists of an online test, is motivated by insurance companies and liability concerns, not a genuine desire to educate and change attitudes.
“It is not a solution to ignorance to take a passive online test, and, in fact, a lot of people resent it,” she told The Register-Guard. “They feel they’re being forced to do something. Information is being stuffed down their throat. They see it as less than respectful and useful.”
But Freyd said the new White House effort is a step in the right direction.