In 2005, however, congressional legislation made changes to the Violence Against Women Act, which defines the parameters of the Campus Grant. This forced the OVW to shift the Campus Grant from a two-year funding period to a three-year one. The grant now allots a larger amount of money to a smaller number of schools for a longer period of time. In other words, there is now more money, but for fewer programs. This adjustment will allow grant recipients to develop more comprehensive programming, but it has affected the three Boston-area recipients — albeit to different degrees.
Tufts, which was originally awarded the Campus Grant nine years ago and was re-funded three times (though awarded exponentially diminished amounts of money every two years, when the funding was renewed) decided not to apply for re-funding this year, and was able to shuffle numbers around, ultimately absorbing programming costs into the university's Department of Health Education. MIT, awarded the grant in 2005 and, like Northeastern, denied re-funding, was frugal enough with its grant money that, three years later, it still has some to spend, though the costs of its blossoming prevention-and-response programming has been absorbed, as at Tufts, into other internal-campus budgets.
This shift will likely make its biggest impact on Northeastern, however, where Harwell's Campus Center programming was just getting off the ground; now its financial future is uncertain. (Additionally, Harwell just handed in her resignation, though she says that she had discussed it with the school over the summer, and that the timing is pure coincidence.) At this time, it is unclear who, if anyone, will succeed her.
FALSE BELIEFS: Contrary to popular misconception, most sexual assaults do not involve a stranger jumping from the shadows in the middle of the night. |
Unrecognized assault
The reality of most sexual assaults is a far cry from its portrayal on the small screen, especially in the college realm, where the lines between frat-house culture, drunken flirting, and non-consensual sex can be fuzzy. Television shows that glamorize sexual crimes — like the Law & Order and CSI trifectas — have helped to create a cinematic stereotype of rape: a strange man, wearing black-leather gloves and yielding a serrated knife, emerges from the shadows and violently attacks a woman from behind while she's at the ATM or a gas station.
Because many incidents of sexual assault don't fit the aforementioned stereotype, many victims don't recognize their experience as sexual assault. "We have so many false beliefs about how sexual assault happens," says Harwell. "When the offender is someone who's known, when there's no injury, when there's no screaming or fighting back, none of that scenario fits with what is out there in pop culture as the image of what sexual assault looks like. We're expecting a stranger, injuries, a weapon. And when none of that happens, it's difficult to define the experience."
New prevention and response programs look to broaden the definition of sexual assault for students, as well as to make it easier for victims to identify their treatment options and, if they choose, navigate the formal reporting process. By filing a formal report with campus authorities, sexual-assault survivors agree to have their assault tallied as part of the campus-crime statistics made available to the public.
