Many of you will have seen the story about the freshman at Stanford University who was found guilty of rape this week. The furor that has ensued is attributable to a combination of elements including the national narrative that already exists about bad behavior on college campuses, the short sentence imposed by the judge, the victim’s compelling statement that was published on BuzzFeed, the statement by the student’s father who referred to the incident as his son’s 20 minutes of “action”, the judge being a Stanford alumnus and former athlete and the perpetrator’s utter lack of contrition. Vice President Joe Biden even weighed in on the subject yesterday morning with an open letter to the victim in which he comforted her while lambasting the culture that enables this kind of assault.
The fact is that this can happen at any university at any time and unfortunately this type of behavior is becoming more common and frequent. But why?
Having worked on crisis programs for a number of universities I question whether universities are doing enough about drinking and the cult of excess. There is an open door policy at Stanford, which means that you can drink in your room but you have to keep the door ajar. Is that advisable? Would it not be better to have drinking at the fraternities or sororities but to monitor consumption? How about a wristband that has holes that you can have punched by a bartender each time a student gets a drink, with a limit of four or five? Why not have a few adults at the events who can be monitors of behavior?
As a father whose daughter is attending Stanford I’ve been watching the coverage closely. My daughter, Amanda, is vice president of her class at the university and was on CNN yesterday discussing the matter. I agree with her that prevention is the best approach.
Stanford takes this seriously, with mandatory discussions for all freshman on Yes Means Yes and simulations. The matter of athlete entitlement is dealt with in an intelligent way by the school by creating a video called “It’s On Us” featuring stars from various sports. I recently attended an event with David Demarest, VP for Public Affairs at Stanford, and he passed along these three documents including the University’s statement on the case, its statement on the actions it has taken to combat sexual violence and actions it’s taken on sexual assault.
My own views on the subject are a mix of deep emotion and strict code instilled by my parents on how to treat the opposite sex. I have three daughters, two of whom have graduated and one who is still in school.
I worked on a speech for a university president a few years ago. His best line, “Fun has been hijacked by excessive behavior.” It is our shared responsibility to intervene at all levels, by speaking early and often to our children on how to behave and what to expect of the opposite sex, and by demanding justice when evil is committed.
Richard Edelman is president and CEO.