About 5 percent of women on college campuses will face rape or attempted rape while in school, according to advocacy group One in Four. That means, statistically, 790 women at LSU were survivors of sexual assault last year.
Despite these stats, only 14 cases of forcible sex offenses were reported to LSUPD in 2013.
This does not mean that LSU is an exceptionally safe school, where so few people are at risk of facing sexual assault crimes that it defies all statistical studies.
This means that, statistically, there are 776 women who did not report their assaults to LSU.
The low rate of sexual assault points to a hesitancy to come forward among LSU students. There is a perception among students that reporting their sexual assaults would lead to more harm than it’s worth.
LSU is not the only campus that faces this issue — universities around the country are discovering the barriers to reporting sexual assault are forcing students to under-report these crimes.
The Louisiana Legislature has recognized this problem and is attempting to remove those barriers in all public college campuses in the state.
State Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, who created a panel to address campus sexual assault last year, introduced two bills that focus on improving the Louisiana’s current campus laws. These bills would mandate that Louisiana colleges do more to evaluate the rates of sex crimes on campus and set up new provisions to make it easier for students to report those crimes.
These bills are vital. By not dealing with the issues surrounding underreporting, LSU leaves all students vulnerable to having to deal with these crimes on their own — a devastating possibility.
Senate Bill 255 mandates that schools conduct voluntary sexual assault climate surveys each year and report those findings to the legislature and the governor. It also requires that all universities appoint a number of confidential liaisons who are required to inform students of their options for both criminal prosecution and interdisciplinary actions, and who will act as mediaries between students, campus officials and possibly police officers.
This bill also sets up a new framework through which local police can contact schools when informed of a crime. As of right now, the Baton Rouge Police Department is not required to report sexual crimes that involve LSU students to the school faculty.
Additionally, it will grant immunity to students who either witnessed or are survivors of these crimes, yet may be reluctant to come forward because they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the assault.
Because the majority of college students are underage, this provision is incredibly important; students who may have kept information secret due to fear of facing disciplinary action for being drunk or doing drugs would know they would not be punished for coming forward, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the crime.
The second bill, SB 214, would set up a taskforce to investigate and address issues of sexual assault on all Louisiana universities. This taskforce will be made up of both lawmakers and campus officials, including students, and will study the trends of sexual assault in depth, making reports to the Senate Committee on Education and the Board of Regents.
This taskforce will generate important information regarding sexual assault cases and how they should be handled in order to make sure all universities have the proper provisions in place. It will also suggest new laws based on the problems identified.
Opponents of these bills claim that universities are under too much pressure from budget cuts to begin setting up new positions and investigating crimes that — as far as they’re concerned — are not happening at a rate that dictates such attention.
However, the implementation of these bills is necessary to protect and inform students on how to deal with sex crimes. Campuses that do not put their student’s best interests at heart are failing as universities; even in the face of budget cuts, student safety must always be the top priority for faculty members.
There are a lot of different factors that contribute to campus sexual assault and its rates of underreporting; these bills only address the tip of the campus sexual assault iceberg.
But these are steps in the right direction. With the help of these bills, and similar bills in the future more students will feel comfortable reporting their sexual assaults to campus officials. At that point, we can begin to get to the root of this deep and troubling problem.
Logan Anderson is mass communication senior from Houston, Texas. You can reach her on Twitter @LoganD_Anderson.