Sexual Assaults and rapes at Rice University
TheMathWiz
0 replies1 threads New Member
I do not know why the original threads were removed.
Bright students interested in Rice University need to know about this.
I myself had Rice as one of the schools I would be highly interested in going.
However, the following article from their own student newspaper has put me off considerably:
https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2019/10/in-their-own-words
If you read some of the student accounts, they are horrifying. So many rapes and sexual assaults have taken place in just couple of years. The victims are crying out for help and support.
Shouldn't the University call in the Houston police to take action? How is the university admin allowing this to take place at the campus which is a small one?
Can current Rice students share a light on this article.
I will try to share this further and tell those who I know to refrain from applying there if this is what the situation is at Rice.
7 replies Bright students interested in Rice University need to know about this.
I myself had Rice as one of the schools I would be highly interested in going.
However, the following article from their own student newspaper has put me off considerably:
https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2019/10/in-their-own-words
If you read some of the student accounts, they are horrifying. So many rapes and sexual assaults have taken place in just couple of years. The victims are crying out for help and support.
Shouldn't the University call in the Houston police to take action? How is the university admin allowing this to take place at the campus which is a small one?
Can current Rice students share a light on this article.
I will try to share this further and tell those who I know to refrain from applying there if this is what the situation is at Rice.
Replies to: Sexual Assaults and rapes at Rice University
Because you spammed them over multiple forums - none of them the correct one. I've moved this iteration into the correct forum
If you have followed the situation at Rice you know that this started from an opinion piece in the paper from a victim who was upset that the person who assaulted her was allowed to graduate after being suspended. I believe he found a loophole since he had enough credits to graduate before his suspension went into effect. The newspaper then asked students and alums who had been assulted to share their stories which then resulted in the article you referenced. Rice’s President and the Dean of Students have both responded to the concerns that have been raised and say they are looking at how to better handle these situations in the future. I guess we’ll see how that plays out.
As a parent of a Rice student I have been following these articles closely these last couple of weeks and speaking with my daughter about this topic. As i’ve said, I don’t think these issues are unique to Rice and any student going to college needs to be aware of issues surrounding consent and how to keep themselves and others safe. The freshman students at Rice just finished a mandatory 5 week “Critical Thinking in Sexuality” class where a lot of topics related to these issues were covered. I don’t feel my child is unsafe at Rice and there are many things about the community there that makes me feel more comfortable about her safety there than I would be a at other schools. However, I would be naive to believe these things do not happen.
I would recommend you visit any school that you are seriously interested in and if you have the opportunity ask the students about issues such as these.
In my opinion, excess consumption of alcohol also needs to be addressed as part of the problem.
It's also greatly discouraging to hear that the support system is so lacking currently. Rice tries extremely hard to depict itself as a safe campus, but you can't prevent people from making bad decisions. Additionally, if the people of authority here - the people you're supposed to be able to trust the most - are unwilling or unable to help, then how can you tout the safety of the campus? In some ways, it's as if Rice wants its students to believe that the occurrence of sexual assault on this particular campus is a myth. I think Rice has to present the reality that no matter how good Rice students may be, sexual assault does happen on campus, and that it is not always a violent act, but that seemingly small, subtle behaviors can still cause discomfort and be seen as sexual assault. Such behaviors can be caused by a brief moment of poor decision and not just by a mentality or personality that took years to develop. Therefore, such behaviors can occur at any place, even at an institution as reputable as Rice.
On the bright side, it does appear that Rice will act in response to the Thresher article, including the possibility of revising policies. One has to hope such that actions are performed to genuinely protect victims, and not just to protect Rice's image in light of the backlash.
https://ricethresher.atavist.com/pay-attention-thresher-opinion-prompts-apology?fbclid=IwAR1ldZEqMAl2hUAbfNHkoaIFcgjPGxOf4v8FDN0nxnYBKrOTRfSLG9BLehY
In the end, it's true that these issues are not exclusive to Rice, but that shouldn't extenuate the circumstances. The unfortunate reality is that, no institution, no top 25 private, no top 50 public, no community college, and so forth, is immune to these problems, nor should we pretend that they are. We have to protect ourselves and others with that in mind.