A reminder of UNT’s ongoing problem with sexual assault
When parents drop their college freshman off at their too-small residence halls, students expect their parents to leave some microwavable food or a going-away-to-college gift before their melancholy drive home.
My parents did leave those things behind, but instead of a sweet, going-to-college gift, they left me a pink canister of pepper spray with a note that read ‘For protection’ instead.
This gift wasn’t meant to scare me, but rather wake me up to the reality I was going to face for the rest of my college experience; one in five women are sexually assaulted while in college and more than 90% of sexual assaults on college campuses are unreported.
This statistic from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center rings in every female college student’s head, especially after recent sexual assault allegations and mishandlings at high profile universities such as Stanford, Yale, and Michigan State University.
No university is immune to this statistic, so it comes as no surprise that UNT has become embroiled various sexual assault and harrassment allegations over the years.
In 2018 alone, 20 instances of sexual offences occurred on UNT’s campus, according to the university’s annual crime statistics. As recent as Sep. 2019, two students were sexually assaulted at West Hall by a man not affiliated with the university. A WFAA investigation found that UNT had made efforts to cover up an alleged sexual assault and prostitution investigation surrounding three former UNT basketball players in 2017. According to the WFAA report, UNT failed to speak to suspects for weeks, secure evidence, and publicly disclose a member of the coaching staff.
These investigations have made little progress since their original reporting and the initial feelings of disgust from the community have faded into the background. After the WFAA investigation revealed UNT’s mishandling, little has been done by the university to make reparations for their actions.
How can students feel safe on a campus that actively covers up brutal sexual assault investigations? How can survivors of sexual assault bring their stories to light when a university and campus police department make minimal steps in punishing assailants?
After years of federal pressure to clamp down on the problem, universities across the nation now offer alternative processes to reporting sexual assault incidents to the police.
“Instead, students can file complaints with the schools, go through much faster trial-like processes, and receive a ruling that may make their assailants disappear from campus,” according to a Business Insider report.
Universities have a lower standard of proof than criminal courts and don’t have the power to send assailants to jail, since the ruling only holds over the campus. According to the UNT Dean of Students, if the office finds that a student committed misconduct, the Dean of Students “will impose sanctions, up to and including possible suspension and expulsion.”
The accused can be suspended from the university for a few semesters or expelled, but many assailants are allowed back on campus and do not face criminal charges.
The UNT student sexually assaulted by the three basketball players was allegedly pressured by a UNT official to only speak to university police, not to Denton police. Circumventing the possibility of local police conducting an investigation allows the university to keep investigations and trial proceedings secret, as well as controlling the media attention on the university.
Why protect the university’s image when students live in fear that they will be part of a statistic? Why protect the accused and claim in official statements that UNT considers the “safety of the university community” while silencing these survivors?
There is no simple answer to this nation-wide problem, but UNT’s track record with sexual assault allegations doesn’t give me much hope for further reparations.
It has been three years since my parents gave me my pepper spray. For three years, it has sat -- thankfully -- unused on my keychain. But this bittersweet victory doesn’t stop my father from asking me everytime I attend parties, concerts, or campus events whether or not something malicious occurred.
It doesn’t stop him from reminding me to keep an eye on my drink throughout the night, to always be aware of my surroundings, and to never leave my pepper spray behind.
It doesn’t stop him from warning me everytime UNT is embroiled with sexual assault allegations to never trust the interests of a multi-billion dollar business only out to protect themselves from the fallout.
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