University of New Hampshire to Help White House Craft Universal Sexual Assault Policy Recommendations
ByThe University of New Hampshire (UNH) is going to play an integral role in helping the White House craft its sexual assault policy recommendations, thanks to the school's sterling example.
Jane Stapleton was a graduate student in 1987 when three students gang raped an 18-year-old freshman. Since then, Stapleton has helped UNH set a national example of how to prevent sexual assault on campus, Reuters reported.
The school will be one of three that will assist the White House in creating policy recommendations that could be spread nationally by 2016. President Obama formed the task force responsible for making these recommendations in Jan. and the White House released its report last week.
"Instead of pointing fingers at women as victims or potential victims or men as perpetrators or potential perpetrators, it says everybody has a role to play here," Stapleton, co-director of the Prevention Innovations initiative at UNH, told Reuters.
The school's program, known as SHARPP, focuses on educating the entire community on how to respond should an individual witness an act of sexual misconduct. Campus workshops are held to teach preventative measures such as keeping the lights on at all times at parties and grouping around intoxicated people at bars to ward off unwanted attention.
The U.S. Education Department officially released a list of 55 schools under investigation for its policies and practices in relation to sexual assault complaints. Beforehand, the Huffington Post had complied a list based on its own reporting.
On average, one in five females experiences some form of sexual assault in college, but only 12 percent report the incident. Federal investigations start when a student files a complaint alleging the school did not perform an adequate investigation into their sexual assault report.
Said Stapleton,"If we are going to stop this behavior, we need to create a community that says this behavior is unacceptable."