Call for a New Paradigm: University Courses in Sexual Violence
Trainings Aren’t Enough
Colleges and universities across the US are missing the mark when it comes to preventing sexual violence on campus. They are required by Title IX to prevent and respond to sexual violence on their campuses. But most prevention work in higher education is not effective enough, and I suggest a different paradigm.
Prevention work generally takes the form of workshops and lectures that happen once or in a series and cover basics. They try to increase awareness of violence and sometimes encourage bystanders to intervene. These prevention initiatives fail to create real and meaningful change.
A one-time event, even within a framework of a month-long series, cannot present the complexities of sexual assault or theories about root causes, including systemic inequality based on gender, race, class, sexuality, and disability. Researchers estimate that approximately 20% of women are victimized by sexual assault while in college. Sexual violence is a complex social problem, and it’s time that universities start treating it as such. Current prevention efforts tend to present simplistic messages to students to not sexually assault each other and step in to help if they witness a peer being assaulted.
For too many college campuses, sexual assault prevention education is just a way to avoid liability when sexual assaults happen on campus. Typically, a small amount of funding is given to a student or a group of students to plan an event. This funding sometimes coincides with student complaints about assaults on campus. The best sexual assault prevention education is designed based on research and includes evaluation of efforts. Campuses doing the best sexual assault prevention work currently have campus staff devoted to sexual assault prevention and tailor education to their campus cultures.
Given that Title IX is being dismantled by the current administration and the lack of significant efficacy by current efforts, it’s time to take a new approach.
A New Paradigm: Courses Over Events
Higher education already has a format to teach students in complex and meaningful ways: Courses. Through regular quarter or semester long courses, universities can offer students the opportunity to read multiple texts that demonstrate the range of knowledge and disagreements in the field. This setting could provide students with opportunities to deeply engage with the issues.
The impact that one event versus a course can have is enormous in changing student thinking and behavior. Why not use courses to engage students to confront sexual assault on campus?
Some schools already have courses on sexual assault. I have taught them at two schools — the University of California, Santa Barbara and Bowdoin College. There are enough qualified people like me available to teach them at just about every college and university across the United States and with investment, there could be even more.
Imagine if colleges and universities starting investing in professors working on sexual assault. Imagine if they funded students studying the topic and providing research grants for faculty. Imagine if a campus created a research institute on sexual assault and provided funding for research-based initiatives. Imagine if, instead of bringing in experts, campuses nurtured their own experts.
I’m not suggesting that campuses stop having one-time events on sexual assault. Instead, I argue that investments be made in courses to make sexual assault prevention more effective. Let’s invite students to be a part of a larger dialogue about how to reduce sexual assault on campus. Students need to understand that sexual assault is a part of a continuum of gender-based violence. Students should be taught to understand how gender-based violence intersects with racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and ableism. Students should learn about the impact of sexual assault on victims and how to support survivors. Students can critique the current prevention methods and be a part of designing effective initiatives on their own campuses when they are given the tools to do so.
Here’s an example that I created of a syllabus on sexual violence:
There are multiple approaches that scholars studying sexual violence take, and the field is more complex than being presented to students in these one-time events. College is set up for providing students with deep and meaningful educational experiences, so why not utilize the strength of our institutions?
Debra Guckenheimer is a lecturer at California State University, East Bay, a diversity and inclusion specialist, and a dissertation coach. She is also a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity.
