Emotional, complex and often only dealt with at the point that they have become a crisis for the institution.
These words and phrases are characteristic of the communication functions of universities nationwide when it comes to sexual assault.
There have been seven reports of sexual misconduct during the spring semester at Pepperdine, defined as “forcible rape, including date rape and sexual battery” and “sexual battery.” While the Pepperdine Public Relations Office sent out a timely public safety notice following an incident on March 14, other assaults are not as well known by most students.
An online poll of 45-50 students asked how Pepperdine can improve its communication to students about sexual assault.
One response read, “I was one of the seven [victims]. It’s a misguided and ill-informed process.”
At Pepperdine, while each complaint is investigated in a timely manner, all complaints are unique which makes the timeline for each case different, according to La Shonda Coleman, associate dean for Student Affairs and Title IX coordinator.
“When a person files a formal Title IX complaint, they are informed about reporting options and are provided interim support, like counseling and other available resources,” Coleman wrote in an email.
Additionally, an investigation of the complaint is immediately initiated and a report is generated, which is then forwarded to the Office of Community Standards for assessment and resolution, according to Coleman.
Though knowledge of this process may not be known to those students who have not been victims of sexual assault, it is nevertheless important for students to understand their reporting options and the resources that are available.
Sexual assault communication from a university can only occur if students report the sexual assaults. Freshman biology major Keliya Perry said she heard about one office where she would report a sexual assault.
“Definitely Title IX,” Perry said. “That was, like, a big emphasis, especially at the beginning of the year.”
Only 28% of students knew of the seven assaults according to the poll. Perry was one of them. The problem may be a lack of conversation and updates surrounding the topic, despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of college students experience sexual harassment, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
Aside from Pepperdine’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week April 1-5, students get information about sexual assault if they read page two of the print version of the Pepperdine Graphic. Other times, students hear about incidents from word of mouth.
T-shirts made to represent sexual assault victims and their stories during Sexual Assault Week, as well as words of encouragement. Photo by Anastassia Kostin.
When it comes to the topic of sexual assault, there exist three main objectives: the prevention of the crime, the protection of the victims and the prosecution of the offenders, according to Sergeant Charles Gates of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD).
What are the legal requirements when it comes to sexual assaults on campus?
The 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter” sent out by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) intended to remind schools of their obligations to prevent and address sexual violence under Title IX, which some described as a “failed system,” according to HuffPost.
After the widespread circulation of the Dear Colleague Letter, schools pushed to formalize the process of investigating sexual assault with centralized communication and tracking.
“Simply stated, Title IX is a federal law promulgated by the Department of Education which prohibits sex discrimination in education and activities related to one’s education,” Coleman wrote.
Since it is a federal law, the standards which apply to Title IX are often changing, sometimes as a result of Presidential turnover or other administrative policy change within the Department of Education itself, according to Coleman. Additionally, the State of California’s courts often issue decisions about the application of Title IX within California schools, including Pepperdine.
“These changes impact how we as an institution are required to investigate and process Title IX complaints,” Coleman wrote.
Another federal law colleges must follow for reporting crimes is the Jeanne Clery Act, a federal consumer protection law.
“It is a law that’s designed to promote transparency and accountability between students and employees and the institutions of higher education that they either attend or work at,” said Laura Egan, senior director of programs at the Clery Center.
Jeanne Clery’s parents, Howard and Connie Clery, advocated for revolutionary policy changes which became known as the Jeanne Clery Act. They founded the Clery Center to continue lobbying for changes and to guide higher education institutions in implementing effective campus safety measures, according to their website.
The Clery Act requires institutions of higher education to report certain crimes that are on or near the institution’s campus(es). These crimes must be reported within two business days in a daily crime log and included in the Annual Security Report.
Communication at Pepperdine
Universities have a duty to inform students about crimes, including sexual assault.
All crimes are documented in the Department of Public Safety’s daily crime log when they occur on campus or on properties adjacent to campus in accordance with the Clery Act.
However, the log only includes all reportable crimes and fire incidents reported for the last 60 days, meaning that any incidents of sexual assault may no longer be available for the public to see. Additionally, some information may not yet be loaded into the system when someone is looking.
“You have two business days to update the daily crime log when you get a report that comes through,” Egan said.
Additionally, Pepperdine, along with other institutions, release an Annual Security Report on its website in accordance with the Clery Act.
“Included in these reports are incidences of sexual violence, intimate partner or dating violence, and stalking, among other forms of campus crime,” wrote Tori VandeLinde, Training and Technical Assistance Specialist of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, in an email.
Additionally, campus climate surveys are sent out to students to measure incidents of sexual violence, intimate partner or dating violence and stalking on campus. They also measure how students perceive the help and support available on campuses.
However, these surveys are not mandatory for schools to put out and the school is not required to share the results with the student body, according to Tori VandeLinde.
The Title IX office also hosts campus-wide trainings, presentations and student programming to educate students about sexual assault, according to Coleman.
Finally, there are two organizations at Pepperdine which play large roles in raising awareness on the prevention of sexual violence and providing support.
These are the Title IX Prevention Education Committee, which consists of faculty, staff and students that work collaboratively to create and implement awareness raising, primary prevention efforts and support, and the Student Wellness Advisory Board (SWAB).
SWAB is a student organization that “works to empower their peers with education and resources that combat the issue of sexual violence,” Coleman wrote.
Despite these efforts, only 25% of students polled indicated they felt adequately informed about sexual assault incidents at Pepperdine.
For example, an email sent out to students as part of the Timely Warning of the Clery Act on March 14 regarding non-Pepperdine student Jonathan Pope was about a crime that could “pose an ongoing safety concern.”
According to the minimum requirements of the Clery Act, an institution should issue a Timely Warning if all of the following distinctions are met, according to Egan;
- The incident is a “clery crime,” which includes sexual assault and rape.
- The incident is reported to a campus security officer.
- The incident is on “Clery Geography,” defined in the Clery Act as buildings and property that institutions control on campus as well as public property adjacent to campus. It also refers to any buildings over a mile away from the central institution but related to students.
Campus security deems the crime a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community.
Some students say that timely warnings are not enough.
“It doesn’t help us once it already happened,” said Justin Rorick, sophomore sports administration major.
As Rorick pointed out, there is only so much that can be done after a sexual assault has taken place, demonstrating a dire need for an increased focus on the prevention of the assaults.
Prevention of the crime - Sexual assault communication at other schools
Schools vary in their prevention efforts as they find solutions suitable for their unique community.
The Foot Patrol Initiative in Isla Vista, California has existed since the 1970s. It is unique in that deputies and officers patrol the area primarily on foot or bicycle due to the large student population living in the area.
The goal with the initiative is simple — put deputies in the community to do community policing, said Isla Vista Senior Deputy Justin Schroeder.
Foot Patrol also sets up stations on busy nights to address various problems including lost cell phones, getting drunk students home and general help. Once in a while, students will approach the tents to report a serious crime, according to Schroeder.
“We are working with residents to solve problems instead of against them,” Schroeder said.
“Face to face interaction gets us a lot closer to the community. They trust us, they know who we are, they know our names, they feel more comfortable coming to us. It breaks that communication barrier down so we can communicate back and forth better.”
Reports of sexual assault in Isla Vista are rare, happening about once or twice a year, Schroeder said. Too, victims are typically reluctant to report to police and generally require encouragement from friends and family to come forward.
“So many crimes go unreported because of that reluctance,” Schroeder said.
When they do happen, that established relationship of trust comes into play. Last March, Schroeder said he wrote a report for a young lady who came to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's office to talk to him specifically.
“She came into our station to report it to me and that's the only person she wanted to talk to,” Schroeder said. “She knew me because I gave a presentation in her class before, so she felt comfortable reporting that to me because she knew me on a personal level.”
Pepperdine’s student organizations can create opportunities and events for genuine community engagement with the Department of Public Safety (DPS) such as informal meet and greets or competitions. Discussion topics can include talks about the importance of trust, expectations from both sides and policing strategies.
This will require students to change their negative perceptions of DPS officers, if they exist, which may take some time.
Another issue in the sexual assault prevention stage is some students are altogether unaware of how to report a sexual assault if it were to happen. In the online poll of 45-50 Pepperdine students, only 44% indicated they are aware of the process of reporting a sexual assault.
One solution offered is the Callisto app which helps to empower survivors, provide reporting options and allow disclosure in a way that feels safe.
Sexual assault survivors wait an average of 11 months to report their assault to their colleges according to the Callisto’s 2017-2018 Impact Report. Callisto allows student users to immediately write and record their experience in a private, time-stamped record. Its unique matching system connects victims of the same perpetrator to identify repeat offenders.
The app recommended by Pepperdine to increase safety is LiveSafe. This app allows an individual to submit tips to Public Safety, request medical or security escorts and look out for friends using the SafeWalk feature. Unlike Callisto, LiveSafe is geared toward general crime and not specifically sexual assault.
Additionally, LiveSafe is only mentioned to students during a few seminars at Pepperdine’s New Student Orientation. The lack of discussion around campus means a student may not utilize LiveSafe because they are unaware of its existence.
Another concern with LiveSafe is the difficulty to report anonymously. The app does not allow for one to decline location sharing, according to multiple LiveSafe app reviews on the Apple App Store.
Link to video about the founders of the Callisto app explaining its purpose
Callisto, on the other hand, writes on its website that “survivors can securely and anonymously store information about their perpetrator in Callisto.” Its success, however, depends on campus adoption of the software.
Currently, Callisto partners with multiple universities, including Pomona College, Stanford, Loyola Marymount University and the University of San Francisco.
The app has already made a difference in that those who used Callisto were 6 times more likely to report their assault to their school or the police than survivors who did not, according to Callisto’s 2017-2018 Impact Report.
Pepperdine could take advantage of existing technology or have its DPS officers develop more personal relationships with the student body to show students the process of reporting does not have to feel isolating or re-traumatizing.
When it happens - Sexual assault communication and reporting
When a sexual assault takes place, it is important to protect the victim. In case of rape, the most underreported crime, this is especially necessary.
Only 230 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police. In other words, three out of four sexual assaults go unreported, according to RAINN.
Since there is a need to hear both sides of the story before disclosing information to the public, there is a blurred line when it comes to how much sexual assault case information can be disclosed and how much should be kept hidden, according to Mandy Rose, assistant attorney general at Washington Attorney General.
“On the one hand, information is good to let victims know that they need to report,” Rose said. “On the other hand, what occurs in the media and when the public gets their hands on information is public shaming of the victims and a lot of misinformation.”
Rose recalled a case she chaired regarding a school teacher in which the victim was publicly humiliated on social media, despite the fact that much of the information was based on missing facts and assumptions.
“This makes life very difficult for the victim,” Rose said.
Student responses to a poll about sexual assault. Infographic by Anastassia Kostin.
Another important aspect that makes rape the most underreported crime is the traditional way sexual assault information is communicated.
“Traditionally it seems it’s not common to communicate about the sexual assault at all or in very limited ways,” Rose said. “This is why assaults are many times not reported until years later.”
Those who do report assaults, whether for themselves or others, find that students are often left out of the loop. In the online poll, only 25% of students said they feel adequately informed about sexual assault incidents.
Jane Smith* reported a sexual assault she witnessed while studying abroad.
“Three of us reported the incident together,” Smith said. “What prompted us was we wanted justice for the victim and not reporting it wasn’t an option especially once finding out this wasn’t his first offense at Pepperdine.”
She recalled meeting with the program administrators, who called Pepperdine’s Title IX office. She and the other students who reported the assault then had individual phone calls with La Shonda Coleman.
Despite the steps it took to report the assault, Smith said there was a lack of communication to other students and she said she found the faculty’s reasons for dismissing the perpetrator unsatisfactory.
“Students were not notified right away [when] he was banned from campus for about a week before he left,” Smith said. “Rafa [former Buenos Aires director] announced he was leaving due to mental health reasons. I don’t remember Rafa outright saying that he assaulted a student and that was the reason he was leaving.”
Whether reporting for oneself or someone else, there is the emotional cost for all involved despite the legal system providing victims with victim advocates, according to Rose.
“There is typically a victim advocate that will have more regular communication with the victim and act as a support through the process,” Rose said. “The entire process is very difficult and many times traumatic for victims, which is likely why a lot of victims don’t report.”
Another student involved in reporting the assault, Jane Doe*, recalled the staff saying post-incident that guys and girls should not stay in the same hotel rooms.
“I was like, ‘Wait, that’s not the issue,’” Doe said. “If it’s someone from my friend group I should be able to trust them.”
Additionally, Doe said she felt a lot of guilt after the situation happened, as she felt the victim was not around campus as much as before and did not know if the victim received proper support.
“I kept thinking, ‘I could’ve done more,’” Doe said.
At schools like Murray State University, the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) is a model of a collaborative group of individuals who respond to instances of sexual violence by working together to achieve the following goals,
1. Coordinate a victim-centered approach to intervention.
2. Care for sexual assault survivors.
The members of the group include the MSU Police Department, University Counseling Services, MSU Women’s Center and the Purchase Area Sexual Center, according to the Murray State website.
The SART model has become the standard for responding to adult and adolescent victims of sexual assault, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. This approach is unique in that it balances two distinct sets of needs — those of the sexual assault survivor and those of the criminal justice system.
The SART model, which intends to take on a victim-centered approach to sexual assault. Infographic by Anastassia Kostin.
However, one major challenge for SARTs is determining the metrics by which to measure their effectiveness. The impact of SARTs on prosecution rates is difficult to determine due to the low number of studies and the complex number of factors that determine whether or not a case is prosecuted, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
Should Pepperdine develop this kind of approach, responses to assault will not only be comprehensive but help those involved with the process to understand these offenses from the perspective of the victim. This is important so as to comprehend the magnitude of the offending behavior and see the full picture.
To address the challenge of measuring effectiveness, Pepperdine could focus on seeing whether the use of a SART decreased the annual number of sexual assaults and whether the needs of victims were adequately addressed. This could be determined via a post-prosecution survey, whose results would be analyzed by the Title IX Office.
The aftermath - communication to students
The University of California, Los Angeles, made the list as the No.1 Most Dangerous College in America in 2011 due to a total of 49 violent crime incidents in one year, with twelve of those forcible rapes, according to Business Insider.
Pakizah Fatimah, junior international business major at UCLA, said she felt like more could be been done to prevent sexual assault on campus.
“Last year while I was there, there have been sexual assaults but there is no direct communication [to students],” Fatimah said. “It’s like the school tries to drown the whole scandal. It definitely feels like the school isn’t transparent because we don’t receive any emails about stuff like that.”
Other schools that have dealt with repeated sexual assault scandals, such as Baylor University since 2012, have taken more active approaches to addressing improvements in the University’s Title IX processes.
On its “The Facts About the Sexual Assault Crisis at Baylor” webpage, Baylor is transparent in releasing the Findings of Fact and Recommendations for Improvement documents following the Pepper Hamilton investigation.
The latest sexual assault scandal with the Baylor University football team happened the year before Junior Psychology major Alexandra Plank came to Baylor. Her first year, however, dealt with a lot of the aftermath that came with the firings of those involved.
“I think people feel more open to report things to Title IX,” Plank said. “Every teacher has to put the Title IX office and phone number on their syllabus and at freshman orientation we all had to watch a video about consent. We also had to take an online survey and stuff.”
Though Plank said she believes Baylor is trying harder to make the university a safer space, there are still things that can be improved on, including increased communication of information to students.
“There was something this year where The Lariat [school newspaper] reported on three cases of sexual assault in the dorms and Baylor didn't tell people about it and people were mad,” Plank said.
The school addressed the issue after The Lariat reported on it, which Plank said she believes is due to legal issues.
Sexual assault communication in three stages. Infographic by Anastassia Kostin.
After an assault occurs, Gates said that most information is indeed kept confidential.
“All our investigations are confidential and there isn’t any information that gets put out to the public unless there is a need to release it, like it’s a public safety issue or you might have someone who is a predator,” Gates said. “Normally nothing is put out into the public. It’s on a need-to-know basis.”
The situation is different if the sexual assault happens on campus. Per law, they have to put out certain information, but it will still be very general, according to Gates.
“They’re not going to give any descriptors other than let’s say, young female adult, period,” Gates said. “We don’t put anything out because victims have rights and because of the sensitivity of these kinds of cases. You don’t want to be able to identify who the victim is for her own livelihood.”
Egan said that according to the Clery Center handbook, Timely Warnings should not contain information that identifies the victim. When describing a suspect, care must be taken to ensure that identifying them does not inadvertently state who the victim was.
What is typically put out is the date and time, suspect description, possible witnesses in the area and number to call back with tips anonymously, according to Gates.
What’s next?
Knowledge is key to preventing sexual assault, which is why communication about sexual assault cases is an important aspect of these often-complex issues.
“Besides complying with all federal and state laws that regulate how information is shared about incidents of sexual assault, our Christian Mission affirms our commitment to safety, equity and response in these matters, without compromising privacy,” Coleman wrote.
Pepperdine actively works to prevent sexual violence and other forms of gender-based harm through prevention education, policy and coordinated response efforts. Additionally, all members of the University share in the responsibility to foster safety and support for those impacted by gender-based harm, according to Coleman.
Though sexual assaults have and will continue to occur, “Even one occurrence of gender-based harm is too many,” Coleman wrote.
The hope is that these efforts to prevent sexual assault incidents and educate the Pepperdine community not only continue, but improve.
*Names changed to protect students’ privacy