Dear Survivors of Sexual Assault,
Recently, I watched the documentary The Hunting Ground, and it infuriated me. For those of you who have never seen it, The Hunting Ground focuses on the alarming presence of sexual assault on college campuses, and the lack of support universities give to the victims. In fact, many of the schools highlighted in the documentary did nothing to help the victims at all and focused more on their reputation as a school and, sometimes, even protecting their males student-especially if they were student athletes.
I watched The Hunting Ground almost two weeks ago and my blood is still boiling. Throughout the entire thing I couldn’t help but think that about how this doesn’t happen at Gonzaga. But let’s be honest. For those of us who aren’t the ones actually experiencing this nightmare, of course we’re not going to realize that the lack of support for sexual assault victims is a very real issue, even at Gonzaga. We just wouldn’t know it if we weren’t actually experiencing ourselves.
After being informed of the social injustices sexual assault survivors experience, I want to become more aware of how Gonzaga handles such cases here on our campus. Maybe it’s better than what I think, maybe it’s worse. If you’re willing, I would love to speak with you and listen to your story. I want to know what you have to say. Please reach out either through the comments below or feel free to email us at GUHC at gonzaga@hercampus.com.
Thank you for your bravery. We hope to hear from you soon.
Katie Kales and the entire team at Her Campus Gonzaga