This is a letter send to BYU students.
This is from a blogMessage to Students, Faculty and Staff: Update on Sexual Assault Study; Request for Your Feedback
May 19, 2016 | Carri Jenkins
Editor's Note: The following message was emailed to all BYU students, faculty and staff on Thursday, May 19.
To: All Students, Faculty and Staff
From: Jan Scharman, BYU Student Life Vice President
Subject: Update on Sexual Assault Study; Request for Your Feedback
Last month, President Worthen announced that BYU would study the sexual assault reporting process and structure under Title IX at the university. He reiterated his and the university’s concern for the well-being and safety of all of our students. He also emphasized that we are listening to the concerns expressed about the reporting of sexual assaults to our Title IX Office.
President Worthen asked me to chair the group that would spearhead this study. He outlined two primary goals for our group, the Advisory Council on Campus Response to Sexual Assault:
Identify changes that will help BYU work toward the elimination of sexual assault on campus.
Determine how to better handle the reporting process for victims of sexual assault as sensitively and compassionately as possible consistent with the requirements of the Department of Education’s Title IX program.
As the university has already stated, we are specifically looking at potential structural changes within the university, the process for determining whether and how information is used, and the relationship between the Title IX Office and the Honor Code Office.
Over the last month we have reviewed feedback from students, faculty, staff, alumni and others, as well as the comments that were delivered to BYU on April 20.
Your Feedback
This morning we launched a website to obtain additional feedback from you and others on matters related to sexual assault. This website – feedback2016.byu.edu – is open to all, and feedback is anonymous. We appreciate and value all input.
The information that is gathered from this website will be an important component of a thorough and comprehensive study. The members of the advisory council were chosen for their experience, expertise and concern for every student at BYU. They have a deep commitment to preserving a safe campus environment where there is zero tolerance for sexual assault.
Advisory Council
As the Vice President for Student Life, I have been asked to lead this council. I have served as dean of students at BYU and am a licensed psychologist, with a doctoral degree from the University of Utah in counseling psychology.
There are three other members of the advisory council:
Dr. Julie Valentine, a BYU nursing professor whose research focuses on sexual assault and violence against women.
Dr. Ben Ogles, the dean of BYU’s College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, who came to BYU from Ohio University, where he served as chair and director of clinical training in the Department of Psychology.
Dr. Sandra Rogers, the International Vice President at BYU and a former dean of the BYU College of Nursing.
This group has called and will continue to call upon others inside and outside the university to provide added perspective and insight. I assure you that this advisory council will study every part of the sexual assault reporting process at BYU. Thank you for your ongoing faith and effort to help in this commitment.
- See more at: http://news.byu.edu/news/campus-message ... LI604.dpuf
http://www.wheatandtares.org/21185/byu-rape-myths/BYU Rape Myths by: hawkgrrrl
May 24, 2016
There has been push back among conservatives within the church (most notably the church’s PR team in their defensive reply to Salt Lake Tribune coverage of the Title IX violations at BYU) about the term rape culture as applied to the issues at BYU. These concerns stem from a misunderstanding of the term rape culture as well as (ironically) the prevalence of rape culture.
Rape culture is a term coined in the 1970s to explain the prevailing ideas in American society at large that enable rapists. Those who are pushing back against the term seem to think that the Tribune is using hyperbole or sensationalism in singling out BYU as creating a “rape culture” for women. This is a strawman argument, and those unfamiliar with the term rape culture should put on the safeties for five minutes and google the term rape culture before they come out firing. Discussing rape culture elevates awareness by educating people on the ways in which our society at large, as well as subcultures like BYU, enable rapists through rape myths, denial or minimization of rape, discouraging reporting and victim blaming. From an article at Everyday Feminism online magazine:
We know that at its core, our society is not something that outwardly promotes rape, as the phrase could imply. That is, we don’t, after all, “commonly engage” in sexual violence “together as a society.”
To understand rape culture better, first we need to understand that it’s not necessarily a society or group of people that outwardly promotes rape (although it could be).
When we talk about rape culture, we’re discussing something more implicit than that. We’re talking about cultural practices (that, yes, we commonly engage in together as a society) that excuse or otherwise tolerate sexual violence.
First, a few facts. According to the American Association of Universities, 26% of college attending women and 7% of college attending men are sexually assaulted. Only between 15.8% and 35% of rapes are reported. Only 8% of rapes are “stranger” rape. In 60% of cases, the rapist is known by the victim. In 32% the rapist is a romantic partner prior to the assault. Between 8 and 2% of rape accusations are false. Unreported rape (between 84.2% and 65%) is a far bigger problem than false reports of rape, and of course, most rapes that are reported are unproven and often unprosecuted. The risk of a rapist going free and raping again is far greater than the risk of a false accusation.
