Sexual harassment affects a third of US college students 1/25/2006 1:17:00 PM
New York, Jan 25 (IANS) Nearly two-thirds of college students in American campuses - where Indians account for the largest number of foreign admissions - have experienced sexual harassment, ranging from receiving pornography via
e-mail to groping, says a new study.
A whopping 41 percent of those surveyed admitted to sexually harassing other students, and a common reason was that they thought it was 'funny'.
The American Association of University Women Tuesday said most college students experienced non-contact forms of harassment -- jokes, gestures or offensive remarks.
But a third were physically intimidated -- with abuse ranging from being touched inappropriately to being forced to perform sexual favours.
'Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment On Campus', a representative survey of 2,036 undergraduates in US colleges and universities, was based on confidential interviews with students, some of whom reported instances of being whistled at or catcalled on campus grounds, while others spoke of members of the opposite sex flashing at them, people spreading rumours about their sex life and in one case strewing condoms in a dorm room.
Men and women are equally prone to harassment. But the impact on women is different.
'Female students are more likely to take measures to avoid their harasser (48 percent versus 26 percent), to stay away from particular buildings or places on campus (27 percent versus 11 percent), to find it hard to study or pay attention in class...,' says Elena Silva, director of research at the institute.
Foreign students, who are often not aware of the cultural norms of this country, may have a particularly rough time dealing with harassment on campus.
At present, India accounts for the largest number of foreign undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in American universities - 80,000, according to the New York-based Institute of International Education.
Though several colleges hold orientation sessions for foreign students that explain the norms of dating and tell students about help-lines to report sexual harassment, many students find they prefer to ignore the incident or resolve issues themselves instead of taking the problem to campus officials.
Surabhi Tomar, a 2005 graduate from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, recalls one particular incident of sexual harassment during her freshman year.
'I was the only woman on the night shift with about eight guys. In a sort of 'guy's party mood,' they started out by making sexual jokes and then proceeded to ask me inappropriate questions such as 'Have you ever showered naked with a guy?'' she recalls. But once she told them she was uncomfortable with the conversation, they stopped. And she didn't report it.
But not all students are able to respond to harassment the way Surabhi did. Some of those surveyed said it made them lose their confidence and ruined their college experience.
Sexual harassment is not confined to any single place on campus, Silva said in a press statement. More than a third of students harassed are targeted in the dorms or student housing, while a third face intimidation on campus grounds. And lest you believe lecture halls are a place of sexual sanctuary, a fifth of students reported harassment there.
Compared to India especially, American universities have a sizeable population of openly gay and lesbian students. The research found they were more vulnerable to harassment than heterosexual students -- 71 percent to 63 percent -- and were also more likely to be embarrassed, angry, afraid and disappointed in their college experience because of it.
One way to mitigate the problem may be to make the reporting experience easier for those harassed. Over half the students surveyed -- 57 percent -- said they would like their college or university to offer a web-based confidential method for reporting sexual harassment.
bbrigante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 22:32:47 -0000
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM bonds -- Now Nutcases
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM bonds -- Now Nutcases
Prior to Sem, MUM regularly called the cops to haul off crazy students and staff, dozens of whom ended up in the mental hospital in Mt. Pleasant, or the psych ward of the Univ of Iowa hospital. Just a few weeks after I started working at MIU in 1974, a kitchen worker ran through a plate glass window in Annapurna, and the cops came and got him and put him in the Mt. Pleasant institution -- shortly thereafter, the Director of the Mental Health Institute, a TMer, committed suicide.
However, since MUM is required to report incidents on its web site ( http://www.mum.edu/safety/bulletin ), it was an embarrassment to the school to have to list the fact that another crazy student was hauled off by the cops (or the incident was handled by MUM security, and entered in the security log, which also needs to bereported by MUM under Federal law governing educational institutions).
So when Sem stabbed a student in the face with a pen, without provocation, clearly a psychotic episode, MUM security was not called, which would have been entered in the security log as an assault, but an attempt was made to call James Bedinger, who did not respond because he was busy with other duties as Facilities Manager. This failure to control an obviously dangerous student led to the fatal stabbing in the MUM dining hall, and it was facilitated by MUM's desire to avoid bad publicity:
http://geocities.com/bbrigante/index.html#murder
However, since MUM is required to report incidents on its web site ( http://www.mum.edu/safety/bulletin ), it was an embarrassment to the school to have to list the fact that another crazy student was hauled off by the cops (or the incident was handled by MUM security, and entered in the security log, which also needs to bereported by MUM under Federal law governing educational institutions).
So when Sem stabbed a student in the face with a pen, without provocation, clearly a psychotic episode, MUM security was not called, which would have been entered in the security log as an assault, but an attempt was made to call James Bedinger, who did not respond because he was busy with other duties as Facilities Manager. This failure to control an obviously dangerous student led to the fatal stabbing in the MUM dining hall, and it was facilitated by MUM's desire to avoid bad publicity:
http://geocities.com/bbrigante/index.html#murder
Do you Yahoo!?
With a free 1 GB, there's more in store with Yahoo! Mail.
To subscribe, send a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Or go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/
and click 'Join This Group!'
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
