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GUEST ROOM | Siobhan Brandman
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I recently received a check up at Gannett. The counselor went through every box on the routine survey, and right before I was about to exit the room and head to my 10:10 a.m. class, she goes, “Oh by the way, I see you checked the box for ‘non-consensual sex.’ Do you want to talk about it?” She had said it so casually — almost forgotten the question even, that I was in no way enticed to rehash stale memories with this women, who didn’t seem to care, as this was objective and procedural for her. A week later and I’m still thinking about that same question and I still don’t want to answer it. I’m not interested in using this piece as a place to talk about any of my personal experiences with sexual assault, but rather, as a platform to critique Cornell’s lax policy towards reported sexual assault cases on campus, as well as the internalized misogyny that surfaces when our legal system handles rape cases, particularly when women are the victims. Sexual assault cases fall under Title IX and Cornell now has more open active Title IX investigations than any other university. In fact, it is alleged that Cornell is not even bothering to investigate these cases and students are filing complaints.