New tool from End Rape on Campus
The non-profit activist organization End Rape on Campus just released a new Campus Accountability Map and Tool. It’s a pilot digital interactive map where users can get information about specific colleges and universities — crowd-sourced information like sexual assault statistics at that school in 2018-2020, and whether the school is under investigation for Title IX violations. It lists the school’s policies around sexual harassment and assault, including how it conducts its investigations, its prevention efforts, the kinds of support offered to assault survivors, and how these are accessible to students with disabilities.
At its launch, the map includes 750 of the 6,000 accredited educational institutions in the United States and its territories. End Rape on Campus hopes to add more in the near future. The tool facilitates comparisons of different institutions.
“Transparency and accountability are the keys to creating meaningful, long-term change,” the website says.
I can imagine the Campus Accountability Map could be useful to high school students considering attending different colleges, or their parents, and to college students, administrators, and activists.
Of course, considering context is important for interpreting the data here. For example, at Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, which has 40,936 students, there were 15 rapes reported in 2018-2020. That’s more than twice the national average of 6 rapes per college or university. Susquehanna University in Sellinsgrove, Penn., with just 2,241 students, had 16 rapes in that time. Is Susquehanna a “worse” university because of that? Not necessarily. It may have a higher number of rapes reported because its policies help students believe that if they report, they will be helped instead of betrayed by administrators. The numbers alone don’t tell the whole story.
The map makers point this out on the site. If a school had no reported rapes, that “is not an indication that an assault didn’t occur. Many factors may play a role in low statistics – including schools not disclosing their numbers as mandated by the Clery Act, underreporting, or investigations that have yet to be concluded. Higher numbers in these fields can sometimes actually be indications that schools are doing a good job of making their campuses safe places to report.”
The policy descriptions offered by the Campus Accountability Map can help fill in the unknown aspects when considering the statistics.
A lot of love and work went into creating this tool. Users like you can make it better. Take a look.
Where to find me
Tuesday, February 7, 2023, 7:00 p.m. CT — I’m honored to be speaking at Iowa State University, giving the 35th Mary Louise Smith Chair Lecture hosted by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. I’ll meet with students in the late afternoon and speak at 7:00 p.m. in the Durham Great Hall of the Memorial Union.
Tuesday, March 21, 6:30 p.m. ET — In the first of a series of bookstore events I’ll be doing in March for Women’s History Month, I’ll be at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, N.H., the capitol of the Granite State. We’ll talk politics and education and, of course, Title IX.
Thursday, March 23, 5:30 p.m. ET — I’ll speak and sign books at the wonderfully named Bedlam Book Cafe in Worcester, Mass. Come have a bite and talk books with me.
Saturday, March 25, 2:00 p.m. ET — Meet me at Tatnuck Booksellerand Cafe in Westborough, Mass., and bring a friend!
Sunday, March 26, 3-5 p.m. — As part of the Be The Change series, I’ll be speaking at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass. with special guests from Know Your IX and the Women’s Sports Foundation. Each group will receive a donation equivalent to 20% of book sales during the event. I hope you can join us if you’re in the area. If not, please consider supporting these organizations.
*** Would you like to set up an in-person or Zoom session with me for your organization or book club? Reach me through my Contact page.***
Here are links to order your copy of my book 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press, 2022).
#TitleIX #37Words #TitleIX50th
