Letters: An epidemic of sex abuse on college campuses

ISSUE | SEXUAL ABUSE

College epidemic

On campus, sexuality is viewed as recreation, without commitment. The expectation is that students will make their bodies available to casual acquaintances. Divorcing sex from love is one thing. Now we are divorcing sex from feeling.

Add excessive drinking, and we have an epidemic of sexual assault on campus ("Campuses can be safer," Monday).

Safeguards that helped young people navigate these waters have been removed. Coed dorms, coed bathrooms, even coed bedrooms, and no stigma to casual sex with multiple partners, are the norm. Such a campus environment puts students at risk of sexual assault.

How do college administrators respond? They authorize surveys and polls and expand their bulging antirape/sexual assault bureaucracies. A growing industry provides canned awareness campaigns that are Title IX compliant. These campaigns shift the focus from perpetrators and victims to bystander reporting.

Who is going to ask students to consider the wisdom of putting themselves in a situation where sexual assault is likely to occur? Who is going to talk about the dignity of sexuality in a more fundamental way? Until someone has the courage to do these things, the problem will continue to get worse.

|Lisa O'Brien, Swarthmore, lisaob@comcast.net