Lecture defines sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is happening everywhere such as dorms, classrooms, campus grounds and school sponsored events, said
David Ottley, co-director of the Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Office during a lecture Wednesday.
On campuses nationwide, 62 percent of students are the recipients of sexual behavior he said.
“Harassers tend to think that their behavior is funny,” Ottley said.
Other reasons people harass those around them is because it’s part of their lives, they want a date, they gave into peer pressure or they think the victims like it, according to a 2005 survey conducted by Harris Interactive Inc., of more than 2,000 college students ranging from ages 18 to 24, Ottley said.
The survey’s definition of sexual assault is unwanted and unwelcome sexual behavior that interferes with your life.
“I don’t like the definition, it is too broad,” Ottley said. “It is too easy for people to use the term.”
Students that took the survey said sexual harassment is part of college life and that ‘s just the way it is.
Ottley said 5 to 20 percent of victims never tell anyone because sexual harassment destroys people’s confidence and they become afraid and worried.
“Communication is very important in avoiding sexual assault,” he said.
The embarrassment of women when sexually assault is 60 percent compared to men’s which is 30 percent and has a big impact on women, Ottley said.
Men and women are effected differently with the way people process things.
There are two kinds of sexual assault, Ottley said.
The first is “Quid Quo Pro” meaning for example that if a student doesn’t do something for his or her professor, he will fail that person in class. The second kind is “Informal Power,” meaning someone convinces a person they have power over them through blackmail.
The lecture was part of Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information Week sponsored by SAAVI.
-danimdome@cc.usu.edu