Often precipitated by the consumption of alcohol, attempted or completed sexual assaults directly affect about 14 percent of all female students on the campuses of historically Black colleges and universities, but the attacks often go unreported due to shame, guilt or fear.
Such were among the key findings of a newly released report titled “The Historically Black College and University Campus Sexual Assault Study.”
Prepared by the Research Triangle International for the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice, the report provides a detailed statistical look at HBCU sexual assaults and offers insights on how students can more effectively curtail the problem.
Dr. Boyce Williams, senior vice president and chief operating officer at the the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher education, says the study underscores the need for HBCU administrators to be proactive about confronting sexual assaults on campus.
“We need to make sure that when we hire and when we have people in residence life and student life and even when we elect our student government, these are areas that we either ask them to be cognizant or offer training in … because it is a crisis,” says Williams.
She says silence and fear are among the biggest enemies.
Amelia J. Cobb, the director of Ending Violence Against Women: The HBCU Project, voiced similar concerns with commenting directly on the report. The Washington, D.C.-based initiative has sites at half a dozen HBCUs.
