Sexual Crime Audit: Bad Rap for Schools Involved?

            The results of the audit that is currently being done on UC-Berkley, UCLA, Chico State, and San Diego State will no doubt affect the future of these institutions. However, it is important to point out that the result of the audit itself is not the only thing that will impact these four schools from here on out. 
         
          This is an examination of the immediate affects the state's audit will have on the four campuses being investigated. Whether or not the schools being audited will benefit from the audit, and its result once it becomes public. 

           

What does the audit do to the reputation of the schools involved?

             If you are a student attending one of the schools being audited, how does it make you feel that your school is under investigation on their sexual crime procedures?
            
            Or better yet, if you were looking for a college institution to attend, would you pick a school currently being examined by the government for their sexual assault procedures?

Sexual harassment is a crime that is often overlooked, especially in a college. Statistics gathered by Robin Hattersly Gray for campussafetymagazine.com states that: Between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career and more than half of raped college women tell no one of their victimization.

Being a student in one of the schools being audited, I have yet to talk to any of my fellow students who are familiar with the current investigation that is going on. Majority of the student population in Chico State knows nothing of the audit, because it is not a highly publicized topic, and even if it was, students tend to focus more of their attention on other issues. 

             It is important not to overlook the campuses involved however, because despite the audit lacking publicity, there has been effort on the part of the journalists attending Chico State to cover this topic. However, as I have mentioned, students who read the school paper, tend to overlook issues such as this. 

               But, when this story do become public, how will the results of the audit affect recruitment, and the current population of the schools involved? Will it make future students and their parents question as to why these four schools were chosen for the audit.

Why were these four schools chosen?

     Articles about the topic states that the schools currently being audited were chosen by the Auditor's Office from the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in August. 


             

The Joint Legislative Audit Committee unanimously approved the review, and requested the Auditor's Office to look into the universities' policies.




There are numerous factors why the audit itself was initiated. One reason stems from a federal complaint filed against UC Berkeley in May. Allegedly, the school mishandled a numerous investigations of sexual assault incidents that were reported to them. According to reports, the school violated federal law from the war they handled the incidents. 




Because UC Berkley is one of the schools currently being audited, it raises up a question as to how the other three schools were chosen for the audit.




It is unclear how San Diego and Chico State became part of the audit, but there are some components that one could look at, and be able to make an assumption as to why. 

  Both campuses are known for being party schools. Could these schools' reputations serve as a reason as to why they were picked for the audit?

The secrecy and anonymity of the auditors presents a unfavorable predicament for the campuses involved. What purpose does it serve the auditors to keep this information to the public? It seems like the deeper this investigation gets, more questions are being brought up. Like: "Isn't this audit suppose to help the schools and not hinder them?" 

Investigating Sexual Assault in Colleges Across California

             If you are currently in college, odds are at one point you have gotten an e-mail alert from your school about a sexual assault that happened involving a student who goes to your university. I know this, because as a college student myself, I have received my share of e-mails from my school about this particular issue.

            E-mail blasts from universities is a procedure that schools often have when a crime happens in campus so they can inform students to be more cautious.

            Besides the e-mail sent out by school administrators, there are other preventative measures that schools have to keep their students safe, and these protocols varies in every campus.

Some campuses deal with sexual assault better than others, and because of this, an audit was issued by the state of California to four of its schools to investigate preventative measures and protocols on sexual abuse that these chosen campuses have.

The four schools chosen by the state auditor to investigate are: Chico State, UCLA, UC Berkley and San Diego State.

The audit was issued last November, and the results will be available this April.

This blog will serve as a guide and an examination of the current audit, and will have updates throughout the ongoing investigation. I will also put up the result of the audits as soon as it becomes available in August.

In the mean time... 

To get a better grasp of how serious sexual assaults are in college universities, here is a link to an article by Robin Hattersly Gray, from campussafetymagazine.com that gives sexual assault statistics on college communities:

http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/article/Sexual-Assault-Statistics-and-Myths

To learn more about the current audit, here is a link to an article written by Bill Hall, from The Orion (Chico State College’s student paper):

 http://theorion.com/blog/2013/12/03/chico-states-sexual-assault-reporting-practices-to-be-audited/

The following chart shows data about sexual assault (forcible & non forcible) in Chico State College from the Clery Report. The Clery Report is an annual security report. The data represented on this chart are from 2010-2012. It shows records of reported crimes to school administration by the students. However, the data does not reflect the actual number of sexual crimes committed against students, as reports will show, most of the students who are victims of sexual abuse do not always report the crime committed against them.