On April 1, The Daily Tar Heel printed a front page editorial with a scarlet headline spanning half the page that read, "Rape is a Violent Crime."
This was not an April Fool's Day joke.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill newspaper dared to start a conversation about rape on its campus and on campuses across the country on A1. In more scarlet lettering the staff ignited the contradiction that on many college campuses rape is "treated as an infraction" rather than as a violent crime.
DePauw is one of many campuses where this scarlet contradiction rings true. Though our campus has begun having conversations about sexual assault and rape, boasts a strong culture of reporting cases to Public Safety and provides support to survivors in many ways shapes and forms this, according to The Daily Tar Heel, may not be enough.
Campaigns like Code Teal have brought sexual assault to the forefront, to the discontent of some. A crime like rape that is so clearly wrong outside a college campus seems to become murkier when alcohol gets involved. In many cases rape truly is a violent crime. But what are we to make of the cases where drunken actions are misunderstood? Clearly a wrong may have occurred, but who is at fault, if anyone?
We support The Daily Tar Heel, but to a greater degree we support conversation about these issues on our campus.
On East College lawn rows of crosses deemed the "Cemetery of the Innocent" mark one group's opinion on abortion. Whether or not one agrees with this, it is commendable that DePauw's community creates a space where we can openly communicate about what abortion means to each of us. The same is true about openly talking about sexual assault.
So we pose a question to this open campus that The Daily Tar Heel put forth: is the way our community deals with sexual assault the right one? Is it enough to report a sexual assault and allow the university to carry out its own process rather than consistently taking these cases to the police and before a judge?
Part of DePauw's high figures in reporting sexual assault are more than likely due to the victim's ability to remain anonymous and to proceed with a case however he or she may choose. But is this always right?
April is sexual assault awareness month. Our editorial board supports The Daily Tar Heel and we hope our campus can have educated discussions about the scarlet contradictions on our campus.