A Rape on Campus

Mary Buchanan

Key Terms


The ability to understand and share the feelings of another

Sociological Imagination-



Jackie, a freshman at UVA, started out college just like any other eager eighteen year old. However, within the first few weeks of school, her life changed dramatically because she decided to attend her first frat party. This is where she was brutally raped by not one, but seven people at the same time. After this night, Jackie was never the same.

Did she take action?

At first, Jackie wanted nothing to do with anybody or anything. She refused to tell the officials about what she was put through because she did not want to be targeted by the men who attacked her. Therefore, Jackie spent the rest of her semester in bed, skipping classes, and eventually failing three of them. Over time, however, she began to open up to the idea of going to the school officials and reporting what happened. Eventually she told them her story; however, they did not do anything about it. Jackie was definitely not the first victim to be sexually assaulted at this college, and certainly will not be the last. This opens up many broader issues that come along with the violent crime of rape.

"Jackie says when she asked why UVA's rape stats were hard to find, the dean said "Because nobody wants to send their daughter to a rape school.""

Broader issues

When reading this article, it raised many questions in my mind. Some included: Why does it reflects badly on the girl if she is raped and why don't universities do anything about the raping on their campuses. To further answer the first question, Jackie did not want to tell people about her incident at the Phi Kappa Psi House because it would affect how people thought of her. She would not be invited to anything anymore, she would be looked down upon as dirty, and many other reasons. This crime is a hateful act AGAINST Jackie. The people who should be shamed are the people behind the actual raping. When Jackie finally told people about her attack, nothing was done about it. The University of Virginia did not want to bring attention to the crimes on their campus because it could affect the amount of admissions that are sent in for each year. To repeat the quote seen above by the dean, "Nobody wants to send their daughter to a rape school". This just shows that people's morals are completely twisted. They are more worried about the money they will make than the safety of young women who attend their college. This contributes to the reason why rape is still an enormous issue in our country. If nobody stops these disgusting acts of injustice, then nothing will change. People complain about how some men are disgusting and have no morals; however, these are the same people who sit around and do nothing about it. Some day, priorities of these people may change, but for now, our society needs to learn how to deal with it because these actions are not going to go away.