The city of Boston has plenty to be proud of. The Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox have all won at least one world title in the past 10 years. We worked together to overcome a terrible tragedy last April. One thing this city and its college students in particular cannot be proud of is the dramatically high number of sexual assault cases on campuses.
According to a recent report by the Boston Globe, “forcible sexual offenses” on college campuses have risen nearly 40 percent from 2008 to 2012. According to a federal study, 88 percent of college victims do not formally report sexual assaults.
Between Emerson College’s Sarah Tedesco coming forward about her own alleged assault and reports that surfaced about the alleged assault by the Boston University hockey team in 2012, this issue has not been a quiet one, either. That was the same year The Daily Free Press released its April Fool’s Disney-themed issue that made fun of rape on multiple occasions.
In the Globe’s report, Suffolk University reported only two sexual assaults in 2010 and no other assaults between 2008 and 2012. This number is much lower than most other Boston area schools but this could be attributed to a few different factors.
Obviously, Suffolk doesn’t have as many on-campus students as other schools, so you would expect the rate of sexual assault here to be lower. But it could also mean Suffolk students are not reporting assaults.
Suffolk’s student affairs office recently put out a new pamphlet called “Sexual Misconduct: What Every Student Needs to Know.” It describes the different ways students can recognize, report, and seek counsel. For more information, students can visit suffolk.edu/sexual misconduct.
On one hand, some will argue that the uptick in reported assaults means that more students are coming forward and letting people know what happened to them. While it is nice to see students like Tedesco feel safe enough to tell their story, this is not a report that should fill people with pride.
Boston is one of the most college-filled cities in the entire country and therefore needs to be one that makes its young adults feel safe and comfortable. The students that have been a part of this city in recent years have failed to do that.
There needs to be more encouragement for victims to come forward and that seems to be the trend emerging as of now. What is the higher need though is a change in mindset among college students. For most, the idea of “no means no” is just common sense but there is a growing minority that does not seem to get that.
