This story from the Post-Gazette is an opinion piece about sexual assaults on college campuses. You can read the whole story HERE. The gist of the editorial is that parents have enough to worry about sending their daughter off to college without having to worry about whether or not she will be raped. And of course the young woman is in the same boat. She has plenty to be concerned about as well. But she shouldn't have to worry about being sexually assaulted. "A recent White House report revealed that...

Although the Federal Clery Act requires U.S. colleges to document and disclose all sexual assaults that occur on their campuses annually, universities can only tabulate reported incidents; and sexual assaults often go unreported. To address the problem, a number of students and experts on sexual violence are pushing universities to conduct comprehensive student surveys. While some schools have been accused of manipulating the statistics -- as alleged in complaints against the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Southern California -- the major obstacle for most universities lies...

One week ago today Pres. Obama signed a memorandum creating a task force to combat sexual assaults on the nation's college campuses. He gave the task force 90 days to draw some recommendations on how to deal with sexual assaults on college campuses-both on how to prevent them and how people respond to them-specifically law enforcement and University officials. Read the whole story HERE The White House released a report that shows that many female college student face this problem. Some of these staggering statistics are: 1. One in five...

more info here There is a new law before the California General Assembly that would change the way rapes on or near college campuses are reported. One of the big problems, in our opinion, is that sexual assaults on college campuses have typically been handled by on campus personnel with no outside interference from local police. This has led to a a plethora of problems all designed to protect the reputation of the University at the expense of the victims. Read the whole Newsweek story HERE. This new law would...

When the California legislature reconvenes in January, assembly member Mike Gatto from Los Angeles is introducing a bill that would amend the state code of education requiring colleges to report sexual assaults that occur on or near college campuses to local police departments. This is a huge change from the way assaults on college campuses are handled now. Now they are either swept under the carpet, investigated in a halfhearted manner or completely mishandled. In any event the punishments are ludicrous all in an effort to avoid a public relations...

For years now women have filed federal complaints which claim that campus sexual assault investigators lack training and failed to adequately investigate facts of that assault. They also maintain that these felony assailants get too much leniency in their punishment. Read the rest of the story HERE. Now men are claiming that the investigations are biased in favor of the accusers. There is little doubt in anybody's mind that the justice system on campus widely differs from the criminal justice system in existence for everyone else. Colleges that receive federal...

more info here The Los Angeles times recently did a story about occidental colleges' deliberate under reporting of sexual assaults on campus. Read the Los Angeles Times article HERE. The tiny Los Angeles College has been the center of a firestorm revolving around sexual assaults on college campuses. In October the college said it failed to disclose two dozen sexual assaults made by students in 2010 and 2011. College officials claim that was a complete accounting of assault cases. The Los Angeles Times review found close to 30 additional sexual...

more info here Some senior design students at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana have decided to raise awareness of the link between sexual assault and alcohol in a creative way. You can read their whole story HERE. The students decided on this campaign after the abnormally high number of campus alerts for sexual assault this past semester. The campaign is part of a course that it is an elective called "Design for Social Good: Affecting Positive Change" Part of their idea is to put up posters...