One in Five, a new, unofficial Stanford student group aimed at promoting awareness of sexual assault, hosted a Student Congressional Summit with Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) on Monday at the Black Community Services Center.

The event featured perspectives from the eyes of sexual assault survivors and also from a policy standpoint. Speier spoke on the Hold Accountable and Lend Transparency (HALT) Campus Sexual Violence Act, the bipartisan legislation she authored and recently introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Speier emphasized students’ responsibility and ability to bring about change on college campuses, including at Stanford.

“[Students] have to demand specific changes,” she said in an interview with The Daily after the event. “Not just demand change in general, but specific demands that you want the University to undertake to transform the culture so that everyone feels safe going to school here and everyone feels that if in fact they are violated, the institution is going to make sure that there’s an environment where there’s going to be justice and equality.”

Speier address and HALT legislation

Congresswoman Speier’s address focused on combating sexual assault across college campuses and highlighted the importance of student advocacy. She also discussed the changes the HALT Act would make to the way universities respond to reports of sexual assault.

“The HALT Act requires a climate survey every two years that would have to be made public,” Speier said after the event. “It would be uniform across the country for any school that receives federal funds. It creates a private right of action for someone who is victimized. It provides for greater tools within the Department of Education to fine and penalize institutions when they do not provide the level of educational opportunity for all students.”

According to Speier, the bill also aims to aid victims of sexual assault by requiring the Department of Education to penalize universities that violate civil rights requirements, including Title IX, and to increase penalties for violations of the Clery Act.

“Campus sexual assault is not a new phenomenon,” Speier said. “The only thing that is new is that young people, like you in this room, have decided to step up and change the culture that must be changed.”

Congresswoman Speier reported that 20 percent of women and 6 percent of men will be victims of attempted or actual sexual assault during their college years. According to Speier, education at the start of each academic year, especially during the first four months, is important to decreasing sexual violence.

Her address concluded by focusing on the importance of promoting awareness and decreasing instances of sexual assault.

“Each and every one of you deserve to be safe at this institution,” she said. “It’s one of the greatest institutes of higher learning on the planet and you should demand and expect that it will be safe.”

Students advocate for change

In addition to Speier’s address, the summit provided the opportunity for numerous students, including members of One in Five and sexual assault survivors, to speak.

One in Five grew out of a Sophomore College class taught by law professor Michele Dauber. Students were inspired by their experiences speaking with survivors, activists and politicians during the class and decided to form a group on campus to continue the conversation about campus sexual assault with the entire Stanford community.

Stephanie Pham ’18, co-founder of One in Five, emphasized the importance of student-led initiatives, activism and communication.

“[The goal] is to truly create a climate on campus that shows that students are here to listen to you, believe and support survivors,” she said. “We want to work with the administration and as many organizations as possible to foster a campus-wide effort, but in order to do so we need a mutual sustained cooperation through all groups.”

“We are beginning that conversation today, right here,” she added.

Pham’s introduction was followed by an address by ASSU President John-Lancaster Finley ’16. Finley emphasized the importance of events like this one in fostering discussion of this issue among members of the Stanford community.

“[Sexual violence] is something that we cannot afford to not pay attention to,” he said. “I really, truly believe that the narrative of survivors must always be at the center of any conversation we have around eradicating sexual violence.”

Matthew Baiza ’18, another co-founder of One in Five, applauded the survivors speaking on the panel.

“It is never easy to speak about sexual assault,” Baiza said. “Sexual assault is an issue that affects each one of us, whether directly or indirectly, and it is up to us, the generation of tomorrow, to stop sexual violence.”

Student survivor panel

In the panel discussion following Speier’s speech, student survivors shared their stories and discussed what they feel needs to be changed about how Stanford and other universities handle cases of sexual assault. They criticized the University’s response to their reports of sexual assault. The audience was asked not to disclose the identity of the panelists outside the event. 

“The process that I underwent was almost as traumatic as the rape itself,” one panelist said.

Another panelist was told she had a three-week wait time for counseling at Counseling & Psychological Services. Her perpetrator was later found responsible, but he wasn’t expelled. He instead received a one-quarter suspension as punishment.

To improve the handling of sexual assault cases, one panelist advocated for establishing a standard Title IX investigation process and hearing procedure across universities nationwide, explicitly defining categories of sexual violence and mandating that federal and state governments appoint and hire Title IX investigators.

“Attempts of non-consensual activity should be taken seriously, particularly when they’re repetitive,” one panelist said. “We need to push for administrators to handle such an issue as sexual assault to reflect the gender, race, sexuality and diversity among students.”

During her speech, Speier also supported educational efforts for staff and called for increased national accountability. She noted that the National Institute of Justice estimates 63 percent of universities in the country shirk responsibilities under Title IX, and a recent Senate Committee report found that 21 percent of universities surveyed provided no sexual response training for members of faculty or staff.

Speier believes the Department of Education and the Department of Justice should make publicly available a list of institutions under Title IX investigation.

“There is nothing like transparency to sanitize the environment,” she said.

Speier also discussed the consequences of universities’ current systems of dealing with sexual assault accusations. For example, many victims of sexual violence suffer academically as a result of lengthy processes.

Her view was echoed by multiple panelists. One panelist talked about how she can only pass one of her classes this quarter and will not receive a refund on her tuition because her alleged assaulter was found not guilty.

Speier also discussed how faculty members often do not know how to support students who are suffering academically after experiencing sexual assault.

“I don’t know to what extent the faculty on any campus has been properly educated on the very clear experience that we’ve seen over and over again of student grades just being impacted in such a big way,” she said.

Education is important not only for staff members, but also for the entire population, Speier said.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us in terms of properly educating men and women about what rape is, what sexual assault is, what unwanted sexual assault is,” Speier said. “And really what it all comes down to is what your student body presence says. And it’s all about respect.”

 

Contact Sophie Stuber at sstuber8 ‘at’ stanford.edu and Sarah Ortlip-Sommers at sortlip ‘at’ stanford.edu.