Surviving Sexual Asault

"I am a survivor of sexual assault." Since I was a kid, perhaps the only thing more difficult than hearing these words is hearing them coming from my own lips. This truth has been with me for a long time and I have never spoken up. I have never reached out. So many acts of sexual assault go unrecognized and unacknowledged on this campus. It is time for all of us to speak up and reach out. I am a survivor of sexual assault.

Indeed, these words are difficult to hear, but for that reason all the more important to say. According to a soon-to-be-released University Health Services (UHS) survey on undergraduate life at Harvard, nearly 1 percent of respondents claimed that they had experienced "sexual penetration against their will" in the last academic year.

Assuming the sample was representative of the undergraduate population of 6500, that means that approximately 52 of your classmates have been raped in the past year. More than 2 percent had experienced "attempted sexual penetration against their will." Approximately 143 of your classmates have been sexually assaulted in the past year. Before UHS released its findings, a University official told me that as far as the administration knew, there had been only four cases of sexual assault in that same year. Clearly, the University does not want to hear these words either.

The disgracefully low estimate given by the University indicates the number of cases that had been reported to certified representatives of the college, including the Assistant Dean of Co-Education, the Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment (SASH) advisers in the houses, and senior tutors.

The clear disparity in these statistics leaves University officials little choice. They must take the responsibility for making existing resources better through mandatory training, and more accessible by increasing publicity to first-years and especially upper-class students, who are deprived of any sort of education on the issue. However, the University's failure to successfully address the issue of rape and sexual assault goes even deeper than low rates of student reporting.

The University believes that Harvard is immune to rape and sexual assault. This "it could never happen to me" attitude is apparent in Harvard's abysmally sub-par rape prevention and rape survivor services. No women's center. No mandatory orientation for first-year or upper-class students on sexual assault. No victim's advocacy program. No guarantee of seeing a trained rape counselor or psychologist regularly after experiencing rape. No rape prevention/counseling center. No full-time employee of the College whose job is to raise awareness and decrease occurrence of rape. No professional speaker or workshop during first-year orientation week. One will find these resources all over the country and throughout the Ivy League. But not at Harvard.

This culture of ignorance is pervasive in the student body, as well. I have had long debates with a good friend and blockmate (a self-proclaimed liberal) who shrugs at claims that rape really happens here. Like the administration, he sees occurrences of rape and sexual assault as an unfortunate anomaly rather than a problem with a solution. And he is no exception. Now in my first semester as a peer educator with Peer Relations and Date Rape Education (PRDRE), it has become clear that the shady character stereotype prevails in a very real and insidious way. Though many students can talk the talk of cultural sensitivity on the issue, the underlying belief held by most people I have worked with remains: "Harvard students are too smart to commit rape or to be victims of rape."

The release of the UHS statistics ushers in a crucial time for the student body and the administration to make a choice. We can choose to question the validity of the statistics. We can pat ourselves on the back for having fewer rapes that some other schools. We can ignore the fact that each of us probably knows at least two or three students who have been the victim of sexual assault in the last year.

Or, we can choose to admit our mistakes and our failures. We can work with campus organizations like the Coalition Against Sexual Violence, Response and PRDRE, which represent different yet complementary approaches to the problem of rape and sexual assault at Harvard. We can make phone calls and write letters to our deans, senior tutors and SASH advisers. And, perhaps the easiest and most effective thing we can do is talk with each other openly. Even if we are not "too smart" to experience rape--as the statistics reveal--my hope is that we will be smart enough to realize our error in judgment and begin to make amends.

Fifty-two undergraduates were raped at Harvard last year. And that is just in the last year. Sexual assault happens here with survivors knowing their attackers. It happens in dorm rooms and at parties. It happens to people you know. Do not be so afraid to hear these words that you dismiss them.

"I am a survivor of sexual assault."

Stephen N. Smith '02 is a sociology concentrator in Adams House. He is a peer educator with Peer Relations and Date Rape Education and a member of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence.