As of March 4, there are 106 cases of sexual violence that are under investigation at 101 colleges and universities, according to Tyler Kingkade, a senior editor at the Huffington Post. Clearly, sexual violence and discrimination are still issues that are prevalent in our nation and are issues colleges are still trying to learn how to handle effectively.
While it is a leap forward at the end of last school year that Augustana created a sexual assault taskforce, consisting of over 15 students, staff and faculty members. One of the branches of the sexual assault taskforce created three Title IX coordinator positions to enforce Title IX, which states that no person shall face discrimination on the basis of sex under any educational system.
Still, the creation of the taskforce is not enough. According to campus incident reports sent out through Augustana’s email system, there have been reports of two alleged sexual assaults this year, one alleged attempted sexual assault and one alleged sexual assault that occurred during last school year that was reported this year.
Even though the college has provided opportunities for students to discuss sexual assault, through Symposium Day sessions and  on-campus discussions, as someone who has attended the Symposium Day discussion and has had discussions about Title IX, I did not fully grasp the policy until a little over a week ago. This was only because I am taking COMM 410, a class focusing on creating a sexual assault prevention health campaign for the college.
If understanding Title IX took me, a Women’s and Gender Studies major, having to read the entire policy for class and then have the Title IX coordinators come in and answer all of my questions about the policy, what does that say for the rest of the students in the college that do not get this exposure?
In regards to COMM 410, the idea of students getting involved is a great start. They understand the campus climate in a way that faculty cannot, but everyone involved with sexual assault prevention at Augustana understands that just one ten week course is not enough.
The real problem is a lack of priority, and I do not mean with the coordinators themselves. The three Title IX Coordinators (Dean Mark Anderson, Associate Dean Wendy Hilton-Morrow and Laura Ford, director of human resources) have full-time jobs and then are expected to serve as head coordinators for Title IX. Along with that, the college only has three counselors to serve a student body of 2,500, yet we have a staff of 12 that solely focuses on student career development within the college that has two floors of Olin to themselves.
Career development is extremely important, and it is great that our college wants us to succeed after life at Augustana. What we need now is more people who have the time to put all their energy into sexual assault prevention to change Augustana’s cultural practices regarding sexual violence and discrimination in the way that CORE has with the cultural practices surrounding career development.