Kate Haas

Media Writing Dr. M

12/2/20
Stay in the Dorms Does Not Mean Safe in the Dorms

Cases of sexual assault on college campuses, specifically in the residence halls, have
dramatically increased over the past four months and on-campus students at Virginia Tech feel
abandoned by their administrators.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions set by the Virginia Tech administration in August, on-
campus students are spending more time in residence halls than off-campus gatherings. As a
result, the number of cases of sexual assault in the dorms have rapidly spiked and the University
is failing to combat this disturbing issue. On-campus residences not only fear for their safety but
fear the University won’t protect them if they become a statistic.

“Because I wasn’t conscious enough to figure out who drugged me, I knew if I tried to
report it to the University or police, it would be a long fight I wouldn’t win,” said a Virginia
Tech student who is a victim of sexual assault. The student asked to remain anonymous due to
fear of retribution.

Virginia Tech is not alone in the fight against the increase of sexual assault in residence
halls. Three other Virginia schools, University of Virginia, James Madison University, and
Virginia Commonwealth University reported in their 2020 Clery Act Report a noticeable
increase of 27% of sexual violence on campus compared to the Fall of 2019. According to the
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, more than 50% of college sexual assaults occur in
either August, September, October, or November. Having students isolated into small areas on
campus due to COVID-19 guidelines, forces that percentage to grow.

Gender based violence and domestic violence has become an alarming issue amid the
widespread of COVID-19. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center states that rates of
sexual violence increase during states of emergency, like a global pandemic. College campuses
are one of the many high-risk areas for sexual violence. Students who returned to campus for the
Fall 2020 semester soon realized that abiding by the University’s guidelines put them at risk for
an even more frightening matter: sexual violence.

Being a survivor of sexual violence is a disturbing reality for many on-campus students.
One Virginia Tech student said she believes the school hasn't done enough to help survivors
receive justice. This student was roofied at an off-campus fraternity party and was sexually
assaulted.

“Within 15-30 minutes, I went from being completely coherent and barely feeling under
any influence of alcohol, to incoherent, falling over, and lost,” she said, as she revealed the last
memory she remembers of her darkest night.

The first person the student went to for guidance on her situation was her therapist, whom
she trusted more than an unfamiliar Virginia Tech administrator. The survivor’s therapist, a
former Cook Counseling employee, informed the student that her previous clients had been
through very similar situations and none of them received the justice they deserved. The survivor
was told because she was at an off-campus fraternity not recognized by the University, they
wouldn’t take responsibility for the situation. Also, because the survivor wasn’t responsive
enough to know who drugged her or took advantage of her, the University would declare her
case unfounded. This case, like countless others that occur on the Virginia Tech campus, was not
reported due to lack of confidence in the system.

“In the weeks after the incident, I walked around campus with my head down because I
was terrified to run into a person who might have been the perpetrator of what happened to me,”
she said, while her hands and body shivered. “I know that person gave me that drug with a
specific, very bad intention in mind”.

The Virginia Tech Police Department is fully aware of the rapid increase of sexual
violence on campus. Under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus
Crime Statistics Act, the VTPD is required by law to report all incidents of sexual violence on
campus to the student body. According to the Virginia Tech 2019 Clery Act Report, there were
ten total reported cases of rape and fondling on campus in 2019. So far this semester, there have
been ten recorded sexual offense cases on campus, which is the highest number of cases of
sexual violence in one term in the past 20 years. Tony Haga, the Deputy Chief and Assistant
Director of Security of VTPD, shared two possible explanations for the surge in reported cases.

“Our on-campus residential students are not going off campus as much as they had in the
past and that’s due to COVID-19 restrictions,” said Haga, who is currently serving his 16th year
with the VTPD. “Our off-campus students are not hosting as many events which reduces the
possible locations for these cases to occur”.

Haga also explained how delayed reporting has been more common than ever this year.
Delayed reporting is when the survivor reports an incident to the police long after the assault
took place. This form of reporting is common for individuals who experienced a traumatic event.

“These reports could be one survivor who was in a relationship with someone, who
reports several different incidents that occurred in years prior, but now that we are hearing about
it, we are required to put the report in our statistical data for this year,” said Haga, who leads a
Threat Assessment Team composed of the Cook Counseling Center and other representatives of
the University community to spread awareness around the warning signs of threatening
situations.

One organization that is working to combat the recent surge in sexual assault cases is the
Virginia Tech Women’s Center. Their mission is to serve as a resource to survivors of gender-
based violence within the Virginia Tech community. Katie Mey, the Assistant Director of
Gender Based Violence Prevention, has been exploring the idea of how proximity and distrust in
the residence halls has triggered an increase of sexual violence.

“People are most likely to experience violence by someone they are associated with and
be attacked near their residence or the residence of the perpetrator,” said Mey, who leads several
educational programs at Virginia Tech on gender-based violence, such as the Sexual Assault and
Violence Education by Students.

The Women’s Center is a survivor driven resource, meaning whether the student chooses
to report or not, they will still receive the necessary support. This semester, Mey explained how
they saw countless survivors seeking support who felt their case wouldn’t be real enough for the
police.

“There is a long history of survivors not being believed by law enforcement” said Mey,
who is currently developing, Sex’d in the Dark, a program that anonymously answers students’
questions about sexual assault during a global pandemic. “When you have that long history when
it comes to reporting to police, it’s not because survivors don’t want justice, it’s the services and
help they are most likely to trust aren’t necessarily associated with law enforcement”.

The University is lacking to develop programs on sexual violence during a global

pandemic in response to this uproar. Survivors of sexual violence aren’t provided with enough
reason to trust universities in providing them security and justice. Virginia Tech and universities
across the globe need to figure out a system that makes survivors more comfortable coming
forward and reporting the incident.

“That lack of knowledge of knowing who did this to me and that I wouldn’t get the
justice I deserve, haunted me for a long time”.