in 500 words

Received this email today.

Dear IU Student,

Earlier this month Provost Robel sent you a survey link you can use to share your perspective on how sexual assault affects our campus. As the Dean of Students at Indiana University, Bloomington, I wrote a week later to encourage your participation. I write now with a final request, to encourage you to help us eliminate the serious issue of sexual assault from our campus by clicking on the link below and completing this confidential survey. This survey will close on Tuesday, December 2.

The more input that we have from students, the better informed that we will be about creating a safe and caring environment on campus.   We need everyone’s response.  It all starts with you. …

….

Question 50:

In your own words, please tell us what you perceive to be the challenges in eliminating sexual misconduct at Indiana University: (Maximum of 500 words)


There are a broad range of bureaucratic systems in place that make the University a timely, efficient machine. Strict schedules & deadlines, separate & specialized departments, al a cart course offerings, to name a few. Students move through the system by paying for access and accruing grades for various courses. Many people within the University rationalize these mechanics—used to organize and represent what students are and are capable of—as “levelers,” as in, they level the playing field for students. They provide faculty and administrators with verifiable insight into the capabilities of every student. Herein, then, manifests the problem: The University is systematically designed to participate in an economic industry that would normally *discard defective products;* the University is designed neither to account for sexually active students, nor support traumatized students in the event of sexual misconduct. Read the rest of this entry »