Hold Accountable Colleges that Refuse to Protect Survivors of Sexual Assault

“You’ll never find rape advertised in a glossy college brochure,” said the authors of the petition, at Change.org state. Yet the past two years have brought a deluge of evidence that sexual violence is a staple of U.S. higher education, with one in four women — and a significant number of men- suffering rape/sexual assault during their time in college. The sexual assault can come from a fellow student, professor, teaching assistant, coach, administrator or staff member. These are the reported numbers the actual numbers are much higher. After 175,000 people joined change.org petition asking the Department of Education to enforce Title IX — the federal legislation that requires colleges to protect their students from violence — President Barack Obama created the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. But while the President’s task force is a step in the right direction, it isn’t an end in itself. That’s why we’re calling on the task force to make Title IX enforcement meaningful by directing the Department of Education to conduct timely and transparent investigations, issue substantive sanctions against offending schools, and provide substantial resources to colleges about issues, like intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, harassment, stalking and abuse, that impact a diversity of students, including queer survivors, survivors of color, and undocumented survivors. Please stand with all survivors who have been denied their civil right to justice and safety in education, by going to change.org and signing the petition. Together we can show the President and his task force that we’re going to keep fighting until every single student can go to school in the United States without fear. No one should be a victim of sexual abuse. After all, sexual violence is an extracurricular no student should have to endure.