Your federal goverment has just handed a small university in Pennsylvania hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight a rape problem there is no evidence exists.
The money was paid courtesy of a democractic senator whose relationship with women voters is tenuous because he identifies as pro-life. This story is a tiny microcosm of how the sexual grievance industry works.
In Erie, Pennsylvania, Ted Marnen, the director of Gannon University's office of campus police and safety, says there is no evidence that the university has a problem with sexual violence. He said that the university, with an enrollment of about 4,200 students, averages 1.66 rapes on campus per year. (One rape is one rape too many, so it isn't fair to say there is "no" problem. It is fair to say it is not a widespread or significant problem.)
But wouldn't Gannon's figures be underreported? Mr. Marnen isn't ready to buy into that. "It's difficult to tell," he said.
Nevertheless, little Gannon University has just been awarded $298,638 from the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce violence against women on the university's campus. The grant will fund anti-violence programs for students for the next three years. With the money, the school will get a new violence-prevention coordinator, develop a community response to violence, offer mandatory anti-violence programs for students and develop new crime-response policies.
The funding was procured by pro-life Senator Bob Casey. “Every student deserves to study in an environment where they feel physically and emotionally secure. This funding will help Gannon accomplish this goal,” said Senator Casey. Casey provided no support for the premise that Gannon women do not already feel physically and emotionally secure.
Can anyone name a single program that has ever been hailed a success to reduce the rape "epidemic"? There have been billions of dollars spent to wage the war on rape over the past 30 years, and
yet we are told that under-reporting is still 95 percent on campus, higher than ever. The more money spent, the more people hired with it, the worse the problem supposedly gets. Instead of asking what's really going on here, the only "solution" pursued is to keep doing more of the same.
Heather MacDonald once famously wrote: "It’s a lonely job, working the phones at a college rape crisis center. Day after day, you wait for the casualties to show up from the alleged campus rape epidemic—but no one calls." Ms. MacDonald thinks the rape "epidemic" on campus is rubbish.
At Gannon, Mr. Marnen said "it will be hard to judge if" the funding is successful. "If we see an increase in assaults, does that mean more women are reporting, or there is an increase in sexual violence?" Marnen said. "It's very difficult to measure."
Earlier this year, Senator Casey introduced the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SaVE Act), which, among other things, would do legislatively what the Department of Education has already improperly done by executive branch fiat: mandate that colleges use the "preponderance of the evidence" standard of proof for sexual assault cases.
In other words, if your son is accused of sexual assault at college, Senator Casey thinks its fine to expel him even if the hearing tribunal believes there is a 49.9999% chance he didn't do it.
Sources:
-News story regarding Gannon: http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110929/NEWS02/309289865/-1/newssitemap
-Sexual assault reporting stats are available on line: http://ope.ed.gov/security/InstList.aspx)
-Bob Casey announcement: http://casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=aec5071e-1b92-42c8-a3a0-a88c504b451e
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