Boston University was consistently in news headlines for alleged instances of sexual assault and hazing this year. As the negative publicity spread, students, faculty and those in the surrounding community were eager to see how BU would respond to rectify these issues.
There was the introduction of a task force, which was designed to observe the BU men’s hockey team and develop constructive solutions for how the community should combat a potential rape culture from consuming our campus.
As the semester comes to a close, a message from BU President Robert Brown announced the creation of a center designed to prevent and raise awareness about sexual assault, as well as to serve as a support system for victims of assault and hazing incidents. Furthermore, President Brown advocates “bystander education” for officers of student organizations to increase general awareness.
This is definitely a positive step toward change, and the recipients of this email will find the outlining of these plans encouraging. However, as with many fledgling ventures, how the center and the education programs are organized will be incredibly important.
In order for the center to work, there will have to be a defined balance between treating victims with the utmost sensitivity and ensuring that training is well planned and executed.
Furthermore, the “bystander education” venture would need to be educationally aggressive. According to Brown’s statement, this endeavor was instituted during the summer of 2011. The administration is right to bring awareness on how to intervene in difficult situations as a responsible member of the BU community. If students were better versed on how to prevent potential cases of assault when faced with them, this education could start a positive trend of the BU community actively condemning sexual assault or inappropriate conduct.
As summer approaches, there is ample opportunity for the administration and the community as a whole to take a step back and assess where BU can progress in a meaningful manner.
While these recent developments are gratifying, how they manifest themselves in reality will ultimately determine their validity as solutions.
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