UCLA must show solid support for women’s safety bill
By Hayden Padgett
July 29, 2012 11:23 p.m.
Congress is currently deciding whether to give college-age women greater protection from sexual and domestic violence ““ a decision that seems like a no-brainer.
After all, at UCLA, which statistics judge as a relatively safe campus, last year’s instances of sexual assault serve as a reminder that “relatively safe” is not enough.
Up for debate in Congress is whether to renew the Violence Against Women Act, which seeks to disseminate information on domestic and sexual violence, and to standardize the practices of campus law enforcement across the nation.
Hundreds of individuals, including several within the University of California system, have signed an open letter by the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women, which urges Congress to expand this act. Given the partisan gridlock that currently pervades Congress, such a letter may be what is needed to spur our representatives to action.
Currently, both houses of the legislature have passed the act ““ in separate forms ““ but have yet to reconcile those versions. The House’s version of the act, which incorporates the CAMPUS Safety Act, should unquestionably be passed in Congress to ensure protection to all campus populations in a controlled and consistent manner.
The UC is an example of how federal regulations on campus crime can drive down violent acts.
Under the 1998 Clery Act, which mandates annual reports of campus crime statistics, UC campuses have had fewer instances of sexual violence compared to national collegiate averages.
At UCLA, between 2009 and 2011, instances of assault reported by university police dropped from almost 90 to about 60.
The Violence Against Women Act also created the Office on Violence Against Women, which among other things, provides universities with grants that they can use to educate students on the realities of sexual and domestic violence.
The grants proved insufficient at UCLA ““ but could be effective if directed at the right programs.
“(The grant) only gave us $30,000, which really doesn’t fund much,” said Elizabeth Gong-Guy, director of Counseling and Psychological Services at UCLA.
Instead, it only allowed them to tackle low-level projects, Gong-Guy said.
Instead of tossing checks to colleges to institute large-scale projects, the federal government should target specific projects. Small but highly visible groups like the Clothesline Project could use the money to effectively promote an active acknowledgement of these problems on campus.
Student groups can also help develop a culture of safety that encourages victims to come forward.
Many students that may have been victims of sexual assault are hesitant to tell law enforcement what happened to them, said Nancy Greenstein, a UCPD spokeswoman at UCLA. The Violence Against Women Act might help college campuses fight that reluctance. Women ““ and men for that matter ““ need to be aware of what constitutes sexual violence and how to prevent it.
This is also the primary concern cited in the letter: that universities lack a single, nationwide system of practices that provide protection and information to students, a hole the CAMPUS Safety Act hopes to address.
The new CAMPUS Safety Act would form a national research center to study campus violence. That center’s mandate would include the formulation of standard protocols for campus law enforcement to prevent sexual and domestic violence.
A set of standard procedures would help reduce sexual assault by better training police officers and giving thousands of colleges one place to access gathered knowledge about sexual violence, according to Representative Bobby Scott (D-Virginia).
Furthermore, under the new provisions, colleges won’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to violent crime protocols, Scott added.
The UC system is already a standard bearer of campus safety, adhering to standards outlined in the Clery Act for more than a decade.
But what happens at other college campuses impacts ours. By working with other colleges to develop a culture of safety, UCLA can help ensure that all universities have zero tolerance for sexual violence.
To achieve this, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block should take strong action in favor of the Violence Against Women Act. As it stands, the open letter is primarily backed by individuals; with the support of a prominent university like UCLA, the letter will hopefully become a movement and not simply a footnote.
In an act of solidarity and good faith, Block ought to sign this letter and encourage other administrators to do the same.
Such a gesture would reaffirm UCLA’s intolerance of sexual and domestic violence and, with any luck, spur other colleges to say the same.
Email Padgett at [email protected].
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