It was a typical Saturday night. We left our dorm and walked past the Scott dining hall and towards the Oval to meet friends. We were ready to take on the night and giggling amongst ourselves when three men were coming to pass us on the sidewalk. They shouted a few questions at us, which we didn’t understand but nodded politely (something women are used to feeling like they need to do), expecting them to pass us and to never worry about them again. Instead, the man in the middle of the group turned around and threw his entire large McDonald’s beverage on my friend’s back. We all gasped and turned to look around, disgusted, only for the men to walk away without any real reaction.
This incident is only a minor one on a college campus, where harassment (specifically, sexual harassment) towards women is the social norm. Cat calls and remarks are thrown at women, who are expected to walk away suppressed and compliant. Campus safety is something most colleges claim to support with upmost importance, but many women question whether the system created to deal with women’s safety is effective.
Campus safety is an issue that concerns every university in the United States. The U.S. Department of Education considered all Big Ten Schools, including The Ohio State University, in a report depicting the reported cases of sexual harassment and overall campus safety at each school.
This report uses cases of fondling, which is defined as any unwanted touching of another person.
Universities that had 1 to 10 instances of fondling in 2015 are Michigan State University (6)*, Northwestern University (2), University of Nebraska (4), University of Illinois (1), Purdue University (9), and Ohio University (10). Universities that had 11 to 20 instances are Ohio State University (15), University of Michigan (19), Pennsylvania State University (11), University of Maryland (14), University of Minnesota (15), Indiana University (16), and Rutgers University (15).
(* the number in parentheses indicating the exact number of cases)
The University of Iowa had a staggering 111 cases of fondling in 2015.
These numbers could potentially be higher as many who are sexually harassed may not have the support they need to come forward.
In the 2016 Ohio State crime report, the number of reported sexual harassment cases increased from previous years. Administrators argue that with programs such as Buckeyes ACT, students feel more comfortable to report incidents to administrators. Although one could blindly look at these statistics and be shocked, Ohio State administrators are glad more students feel they can come forward and report unacceptable incidents. Ohio State’s potential ability to improve campus safety for women is hopeful and one can only hope that other colleges are taking the initiative to improve the safety of their campuses for their female students.
By: Sammy Peters and Izzy McCale