Dear Future President of the United States,

I'm writing this letter to call to attention the issue of safety on college campuses. I would like to outline a few reasons as to why this is an issue of concern that should be addressed.

Colby Bruna, managing attorney at Boston’s Victim Rights Law Center, said, “I don’t understand in what crazy universe rape or sexual assault doesn’t warrant expulsion.” The fact that colleges rarely expel students who commit sexual assault is astonishing. While schools have come a long way in improving safety, campus crime is, unfortunately, inevitable. Even Ivy League schools, have struggled with this problem. This shows how it doesn't matter how elite they are, they can still be dangerous. Examples include Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, and recently, University of Wisconsin, Madison. What are Colleges willing to do for a safer campus?

On January 18, 2015, after a party, “Emily Doe,” as she came to be called, had been sexually assaulted by a freshman at Stanford. She was sexually assaulted while unconscious behind a dumpster on the campus of Stanford University. Emily had spoken in court and directly addressed him saying, “...I don’t want my body anymore. I was terrified of it, I didn’t know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it. I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else.” The victim was visiting campus to attend a fraternity party. Last week, the perpetrator, Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation. The lenient sentencing of the star athlete has provoked public outrage on the Stanford campus and nationwide. Crime can not be stopped but we can take actions to try to prevent it from happening. Many students don't understand how truly dangerous it can be when you are alone because they haven't experienced it yet since moving to college. One thing that everyone knows about college is that there are parties and big events for students. Which aren't always a bad thing but it takes seconds to go down hill. Maybe your solution is no alcohol or drugs on campus, or maybe it's getting more campus security. I just wanted get new ideas flowing of ways we can benefit and create a safer campus.

An analysis published June 7 by The Washington Post shows that nearly 100 colleges and universities reported at least 10 cases of rape on their campuses in 2014. After a rape case at Lehigh University, which currently a family friend of mine attends, the Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education created the Jeanne Clery Act, passed in 1990. It requires all colleges and Universities who receive federal funding to share information about crime on campus and their efforts to improve campus safety as well as inform the public of crime in or around campus. We should be able to think of ways we can try to prevent, or at least decrease the amount of crime on campus.

Sincerely,

Skyler (a student from Minnetonka, Minnesota)