Elon students reflect on the issue of sexual assault on college campuses

By Lilly Blomquist

At the beginning of Elon students’ college experiences, they are hit with the reality that sexual assault incidents are prevalent on college campuses.

“At orientation, we started off with a big presentation about the seriousness of sexual assault and violence,” sophomore Jordan Shaw said. “And I’ve seen that carry throughout my education.”

During orientation week, incoming freshmen learn about sexual assault, non-consensual sexual activity, while participating in a HealthEU seminar. Looking back on the experience, some of the students now view it as a distinct time because Elon introduced them to the extent and severity of sexual assault on college campuses.

According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 59 percent of women and 27 percent of men say they have personally received unwanted sexual advances or sexual harassment. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center said one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted in college.

But, Felicia Cenca, Elon’s coordinator for violence response, said the numbers that reflect incidents of sexual assault on college campuses are misleading.

She said the statistics represent only those who have reported sexual assault to high level administrators. More than 90 percent of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report the assault, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Since victims do not share their stories with authorities, Cenca said colleges are reporting zero incidents of sexual assault. In 2015, based on an analysis from the American Association University of Women, 89 percent of colleges revealed that rape did not occur on their campus.

Cenca said the lack of reports demonstrate that students are not comfortable disclosing that information.

“Growing numbers doesn’t mean a growing number of assaults,” Cenca said. “It just means a growing network of support for victims.”

She said students are hesitant to report incidents because they have internalized the cultural belief that sexual assault victims are responsible for the occurrence, so they do not want to be blamed. Cenca also said female students worry that authorities will justify occurrences of sexual assault because society views aggression as expected masculine behavior.

She said students may also be hesitant to tell the police because they distrust the officers, fear not being believed or fear getting another student in trouble. As a result, victims delay the healing process instead of immediately seeking help, Cenca said.  

Shaw said she thinks universities skew sexual assault data to preserve their reputation and avoid facing repercussions.

“No one wants to be known as the school known for sexual assault,” Shaw said. “If you can report fewer of these things, then it makes you look better.”

At Elon, in particular, Shaw said students do not always grasp the severity of sexual assault because she said the university tends to emphasize Elon’s advantages, not its problems.

“On Elon’s campus, I think it’s something that does often get overlooked because everything is so pretty, and no one wants to focus on that,” Shaw said.

Senior Alex Harris said he knows sexual assault is a problem at Elon because of conversations he has had with other students, but he is unsure of its scope because he rarely attends weekend parties.

Harris said parties dominate the social scene at Elon, resulting in alcohol consumption that perpetuates sexual assault incidents.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said men use alcohol to validate their behavior and said alcohol impairs judgment, causing women to make decisions they would not make sober.

Elon’s Moseley Center hangs fliers about consent and sexual assault.

“You have to be sober to give consent,” Harris said. “That is hands down the only way to give consent, so I think that party atmosphere is one of the easiest ways to lend to sexual assault.”

Freshman Alexis Malaguti said alcohol does not contribute to cases of sexual assault. She said she knows many victims of sexual assault, and in each situation, either both parties, neither party or only one of the parties had been drinking.

“The one common theme is the decision their assailant made to attack them,” Malaguti said.

Instead of blaming the cause of sexual assault on alcohol and partying, Malaguti said gender norms contribute to incidents on college campuses and beyond.

“Guys feel like they have to assert their dominance to feel like a man, which is the expectations we are setting for boys from such a young age,” she said.

Cenca said societal expectations for men escalate the rates of sexual assault on college campuses. She said men are responsible for the problem, so they have to work to overcome these cultural practices to solve it, which means taking ownership for their actions and addressing incidents.  

“I hope culturally that we’re going to see more men stepping forward and talking about engaging other men,” she said.

Harris agreed that men taking responsibility is going to help create a future with reduced rates of sexual violence in college and in society.

“As far as the solution goes, men are the ones who are going to have to fix it because we’re the ones who are making victims,” Harris said. “The solution can’t come from the victims. It has to come from the people who are making it a problem, and that’s men. If things are going to be fixed, we as a gender have to recognize we’re the problem, and we have to make strides to be better than the ones before us.”

After students experienced the HealthEU presentation at orientation, Elon coordinated a speaker to come further the conversation. Alanna Vagianos, a Huffington Post women’s reporter and Elon alumnae, spoke on April 16 to Elon students in her talk, “#MeToo, Journalism and Activism: Perspectives from an Elon Alum,” about her experience reporting on sexual violence.

“In the beginning of #MeToo, we didn’t need to hear from the men,” she said. “It was a space for the women, for the victims. We had that reckoning. Now, we need to leave that space and hear from the men. What I want to see is men in all male spaces say that these types of discussions are not okay.”