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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW SOU newspaper The Siskiyou to continue ... SOU begins new tradition with alumni breakfast ... SOU’s 90th commencement Saturday ... SOU newspaper The Siskiyou to continue ... SOU begins new tradition with alumni breakfast ... SOU’s 90th commencement Saturday ... COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: Shame at Stanford University Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jun. 10, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Jun. 10, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News Here we are in 2016. It's been many years since the incidence of sexual violence against women on college campuses has been settled. The consensus figure, based on reporting — and therefore, probably quite conservative, since many women do not go to the trouble of reporting sexual assault, the shaming and vitriol that accompanies a formal complaint often being seen as worse than the actual attack — is that between one in four and one in five college women are survivors of sexual assault during their time at school. Enter Brock Turner, the most recent star athlete to whom media attention has viscerally turned due to a sexual assault conviction leveled at him in early 2015, the result of being caught red-handed whilst on top of an unconscious, 22-year-old female student, behind a Dumpster at his fraternity. Two fellow students caught Turner, who then ran away and was tackled to the ground by one of the guardian angels. Nothing suspicious there, right? Just a young man out on the town, or so the assailant's father, Dan Turner, would have you believe. In an open letter to the judge who sentenced Brock, his father pleaded for leniency, arguing that "20 minutes of action" should not affect the outcome of his son's future. The judge, a Stanford graduate himself, as well as a former lacrosse coach, apparently empathized with Turner's peculiar worldview, sentencing Brock Turner to six months in county jail, with additional probation. Such appalling leniency in cases such as these continues to perpetuate a culture of sexual entitlement among college males that — while receiving special attention of late thanks to input from figures as diverse as Vice President Joe Biden and celebrity activist Emma Watson — has essentially continued to grow unchecked. The conspiracy of silence around campus rape has little to do with the protection of the young victims who are in the charge of the colleges and much to do with, you guessed it, the desire of colleges nationwide not to see their brand tarnished by some icky political entanglement as a result of a statistical spike in rapes on campus. As such, schools nationwide have been shown to keep many formal complaints or accusations of sexual assault as an "in-house" problem. Put another way, any media scrutiny is to be avoided like the plague, even if that means additional and pervasive scrutiny for the alleged victims. All anyone needs to do is look at the number of reported sexual assaults vs. the number of prosecutions and/or expulsions to see a clear pattern of avoidance when it comes to institutions taking real responsibility for the actions of their more predatory male students. There is also the question of money; in many of the studies regarding campus sexual deviance, the demographics seem to skew toward star athletes. College athletics are big business. That fact, combined with the alumni financial support that often comes to schools when their teams are performing well at a national level, means that the expulsion of a star competitor, combined with the scrutiny of any given school that might find itself in such a position, would cost the institution dearly. It's time to obliterate the pervasiveness of rape culture on college campuses, regardless of the repercussions to the finances and status of any given institution. Misogyny and bro-culture must die out, but that won't happen on its own. Academic leaders, provosts and college boards must implement more severe and transparent penalties into their charters; if they don't, then men like Brock Turner will continue to exploit the loopholes, at the expense of young people everywhere. Ashland resident Jeffrey Gillespie is a Daily Tidings columnist, arts reviewer and freelance writer. Email him at gillespie.jeffrey @gmail.com. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jun. 10, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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