Two years of scrutiny have given college presidents many opportunities to offer the reassurance that they take sexual assault seriously. But they might think twice before phrasing it that way again.
The Hunting Ground, a new documentary about campus sexual assault, excoriates colleges in a montage of clips of leaders claiming to take the issue "very seriously." All evidence the film presents is to the contrary. It largely omits administrators’ perspectives, going "straight to the heart," itadvertises, "of a shocking epidemic of violence and institutional cover-ups sweeping college campuses across America."
Each class arrives full of potential. "To our new, treasured students: This is your moment," a nameless dean declares as the film begins. But when afifth of young women experience sexual assault, and one after another turns to her college for help, the institutions don’t treasure them at all, but discredit and forsake them. According to the film’s experts, colleges care more about keeping their crime statistics low and their applications high, about not challenging powerful interests like fraternities and athletics.
Students, parents, faculty, and alumni must "help stop this epidemic,"The Hunting Ground implores. Administrators, apparently, are beyond hope. Online the filmmakers have posted a pledge: "Commit to holding your college accountable."
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Charges-of-Sexual-Assault/228321