Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence.

More than half of sexual assaults among college students occur in the fall. Resources, survivor stories and investigation into what’s being done to protect those at risk in the Pittsburgh area. Explore the series.

Assaulted by a friend or a crush. Coerced with alcohol or manipulated with persistent advances. Left confused and ashamed.

College students in Pittsburgh have experienced a spectrum of sexual violence.

While processing trauma, students are faced with decisions and logistics. Do they report or not? Can they continue their studies? How can they avoid the person who violated them?

Seven people shared their recent and ongoing experiences of sexual violence or consent violations and the aftermath with PublicSource. One reported to a Title IX office but felt confused and traumatized by the process. Another is only beginning to process the consent violations they experienced as a freshman. A third is in a better place now but is “nowhere near being healed.”

Their stories — most of which are shared publicly here for the first time — illustrate the challenges in awareness among college-age peers and within higher education institutions as well as the barriers to support and healing.

Nearly all of the students featured in this story attend the University of Pittsburgh. Of the nine colleges and universities included in the project, Pitt’s student body on its Pittsburgh campus accounted for about 41% of the overall student population as of fall 2021. 

PublicSource spoke with and sought survivors who represent other institutions as well, and we’d still like to hear from you. 

If you are a survivor of sexual violence and would like to share your story, please contact yourstory@publicsource.org or fill out this online form. We’re also available through the Signal app at 412-432-9669.

Survivor stories

• When friendship turned into sexual assault, the survivor had her ‘head on a swivel’
• Is it OK to change your mind? Consent violations and ‘the tease’ label
• Closure or dead end? Reporting assault as an imperfect victim
• The shame and guilt that leads survivors to question their experiences
• After her assailant lawyered up, the Title IX process slowed to a crawl for Pitt student
• Struggles with getting university support, accessing Title IX
• Where Title IX fell short, university counseling ‘might have saved my life’

Editor’s note: Our staff took care to report thoroughly and accurately while minimizing harm to the people sharing their stories. Read more about the ethical framework we brought to the work below.

When friendship turned into sexual assault, the survivor had her ‘head on a swivel’

The two had spent nearly every day studying in the library after class and would hang out on the weekends. She had always made it clear that she saw him as just her friend. Then, last winter, he assaulted her at a party.

“I just felt very, extremely betrayed by this person, and I also felt kind of scared,” said the University of Pittsburgh student, who asked to remain anonymous. “I was kind of sketched out by the way that he treated and acted around other girls, but I didn’t realize that this could potentially harm someone, until now.”

After her experience, she tried to tell all of his female friends what had happened to her. She doesn’t regret sharing her experience, despite how difficult it was to recount — but she didn’t get the response she expected. The friends she knew independently of the student supported her, but those she had met through him continued to spend time with him, she said. 

“It was kind of just tough that it didn’t seem to make much difference,” she said.

She also chose to report to the Title IX office in January. Though the subsequent investigation has been uncomfortable, she said the investigators have taken her experience seriously and handled it professionally. She’s had the final opportunity to review and submit evidence — and now, she’s waiting for the outcome. 

Justice, in the short term, would look like the student facing consequences for his actions, she said. But overall, she’d like sexual assault to no longer be a survivor’s burden to bear.

Though she had a no-contact order, she felt unsafe at her university for months — “I would spend so much time with my head on a swivel,” she said — and she was afraid to run into the student or his friends. 

“Justice would be after something like that happens, people like me feeling safe being here and feeling supported being here.”

In her view, though, he was able to continue his life and education as normal. 

“That’s not justice. That is what it is not,” she said. “Justice would be after something like that happens, people like me feeling safe being here and feeling supported being here.” 

As time has passed, she doesn’t feel like she has to be as vigilant on campus anymore, but she’s still processing her experience and working toward healing. 

Parties have been a source of discomfort because of how some of her peers treat each other. And she still struggles with unease and uncertainty over how her male classmates view her. Do they truly respect and see her as a friend or do they only see her as a potential sexual partner?

Though universities should play a role in educating students, she said, the majority of the responsibility falls on students to treat each other with respect. She’d like her peers to learn from her experience that, while anyone can become a survivor of sexual violence, anyone can be a rapist, too. 

“I think people should be less afraid of that word and more aware that they can make that mistake,” she said. “People just need to be really aware of their actions, how they affect the people around them, how they’re making the other people around them feel.”

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Is it OK to change your mind? Consent violations and ‘the tease’ label

As Mayka Chaves has gotten older, she’s realized that some of the sexual experiences she’s had in college may have been violating. 

After her very first relationship ended — a person from high school whom she thought she’d marry — she found herself as a freshman at Pitt in a campus culture of casual sex, unprepared to navigate it. “Open season, if you will.”

“It’s very, like, ‘Who can have more sex than another person?’” said Chaves, who is now a fourth-year student. “When I then started to engage in that, being so naive, I was really kind of swayed by anything that I thought that a person that I could trust would tell me.”

That year, she experienced consent violations with a male student she was seeing. When she’d express her discomfort, he’d sometimes become upset and question why she’d come over. In college, Chaves said, men often expect women to have sex with them if they’ve previously expressed interest, even if they change their minds.

“Sometimes when I get there, I’m very, very anxious. It’s very hard for me to actually want to do it and sometimes I don’t want to. And I feel like there’s a very generalized, like, ‘Ugh, you’re a tease,’ like, ‘Ugh, here it is again, of course,’” she said. “There’s a very base level of coercion that I feel that exists.”

“I was really kind of swayed by anything that I thought that a person that I could trust would tell me.”

At the time, she didn’t view her relationship with the student as abusive or disrespectful. She recalled that a resident assistant she trusted, then a senior at Pitt, told Chaves that what she had experienced was wrong. Chaves brushed off the entire conversation, she said. It wasn’t until she got older and started going to therapy that she began to think differently. 

Chaves believes that college students face a culture that’s unlike anything they have or will ever experience again. She isn’t sure what the university could do to better educate students on consent, sexual assault and the Title IX process, but she said that resident assistants in the dorms could facilitate conversations and relate to students better than university authority figures. 

During Welcome Week — the period leading up to the fall semester where new students get acclimated to campus — resident assistants discuss Title IX and sexual misconduct with students at residence hall floor meetings, a Pitt spokesperson said.

“In college, people experience often a lot of sexual encounters that they were just never prepared for experiencing before coming in,” Chaves said. “I feel that a majority of my friends have experienced some sort of sexual harassment or violence. 

“This is sad, but it’s almost like a rite of passage.”

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Closure or dead end? Reporting assault as an imperfect victim

Stickers around Chatham University’s campus pronouncing “I love consent” looked especially jarring to Katherine after she was assaulted in a dorm there during her freshman year. She knew the perpetrator. She liked him even and thought that he liked her, too. 

For two years, she didn’t report what happened. She treated it as a fluke: “It sucks that it happened, but I pretended like it didn’t happen.”

The other reason she couldn’t exactly reconcile her experience with the context of sexual violence was because she wasn’t “a perfect victim,” as she put it. She wasn’t drugged or assaulted at a party or attacked on the street. She felt like it was her fault. Katherine went to her perpetrator’s place. 

Afterward, she was silenced by a lot of shame. 

“And even more shame because I continued to speak with him afterwards,” said Katherine, who asked PublicSource to conceal her identity. “They tell you — I basically did the opposite of what you’re supposed to do in a situation like that because I thought that if I pretend like nothing happened, and if I pretend like it’s my fault, then I’m in control of the narrative.”

Later, she started hearing stories from other survivors of sexual violence. It wasn’t just her; there were other people at Chatham who were assaulted, harassed, stalked — from misogynistic comments all the way to rape. 

“We were basically victims of sexual violence of varying degrees,” she said. And in that light, some of the anti-sexual violence campaigns looked performative to Katherine because they didn’t target the perpetrators. It felt like it was all on the survivor. 

It was no longer abstract for her. Sexual violence really happened at Chatham. 

Katherine grew up in Pittsburgh and chose to go to Chatham because its community feel resonated with her. Students seemed to form real relationships with their classmates and faculty. Here, she would be more than just a number in a lecture hall. 

Chatham’s dean of student affairs, Chris Purcell, said the university’s job is to inform students about sexual violence and prevent it to the extent possible. The data reported to the feds shows seven incidents of rape at Chatham from 2018 to 2020. “We want folks to report so we can get them the support, resources and interim accommodations they need,” Purcell said.

Katherine remembers how explicitly university officials said, in orientation, that they support sexual assault victims. They talked about Title IX extensively, and she felt safe. She even kept the Title IX booklet they gave out during orientation and found it helpful when she decided to report two years after she was assaulted.

She thought reporting what happened to the Title IX office would help her find closure. But although everything was “very professional” and the coordinator was kind, she didn’t feel better. 

She sought academic accommodations and received them, such as extensions on a couple of assignments, because she was having flashbacks and difficulty sleeping or focusing. 

That was the extent of it, she said, and the case closed. The Title IX process ultimately felt like a dead end to Katherine. She said she would have appreciated check-ins or support groups to join after reporting.  

“I don’t know what happens to that report now … it’s probably still in the records or something, but I wish it wasn’t,” Katherine said. “It was like, I talked about something very embarrassing and then it was never spoken of again.”

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The shame and guilt that leads survivors to question their experiences

At first, Pitt sophomore Mia Larkin questioned whether it was sexual assault. Was it my fault? It seemed to have happened too easily, they said. And, the assault wasn’t violent as it’s often portrayed. 

“I’m like, ‘I am wrong. I’m in the wrong for this. This was my fault for letting him in,’” they said.

In December, a student Larkin matched with on a dating app came over to their dorm to study. Larkin was reluctant to invite him, they said — there was a physics final in the morning. As the student made escalating sexual advances, Larkin felt “very uncomfortable.” They asked the student to leave multiple times, but Larkin ultimately felt that they had to continue for him to leave. 

“It was just very manipulative,” they said.

The student eventually left. Larkin removed the sheets from their bed and slept on the mattress with a blanket. They took their final the next morning.

As Larkin processed what had happened, they came to understand their experience as assault. They shared their experience with friends, who were supportive. Then, in January, they posted about their assault on Instagram. 

“I feel like I’m trapped and I wanna do something about this, but I’m not sure where to start,” they wrote.

“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t crazy or anything, just saying, ‘Hey, this happened to me. If anyone needs help, reach out to me.’ And we could, not go through this together, but be each other’s support system,” Larkin said. 

The post received about 60 comments, affirming Larkin and their experience.

“Mia, you are so brave for sharing your story and raising awareness on matters like these. Sending you unconditional love and support.”

“Thank you so much for sharing your story. I hear you and believe you. Sending so much love and strength.”

“If anything, the Title IX office will give you accommodations with school. Push for them to give you them, it’ll help with the sleepless nights and the brain fog …”

Larkin filed a report with the Title IX office early in the spring semester, and their case is ongoing. They had declined a no-contact order as of February, but the university later issued one in August. 

Larkin has since begun seeing a therapist to deal with their experience and other personal matters. They’ve come to terms with realizing that it was wrong. 

“I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t think it’ll happen to me.’ But then it happened to me, and I know a few people that it did happen to, so I think it’s pretty common,” they said. “I feel like most people on Pitt’s campus are sweet, but then you never really know until you know.”

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After her assailant lawyered up, the Title IX process slowed to a crawl for Pitt student

The University of Pittsburgh told Beth they would get her an adviser to navigate through her Title IX case. She was told the case would take 60 days overall. But delays, broken promises and inconsistent communication turned her into a pessimist. 

She filed her assault complaint in early 2022. After the drawn-out process, which Beth called “retraumatizing,” her assailant was found responsible earlier this month. 

Beth was assaulted on Pitt’s campus at the end of 2021. In February, she went to the Title IX office to file a complaint. 

The person she met there “said all the right things” — that they believed her, made sure she was physically OK, and it all sounded “very caring.” She was concerned about moving forward with the case if she didn’t have an adviser or access to legal help. She couldn’t afford a lawyer.

The person she talked to assured her: Pitt would provide an adviser for her.

Beth, who asked PublicSource to conceal her identity, gave her testimony and began the wait — what she was told would be about two months. It would be almost eight months.

“…I hope I can finally come out of my shell that I went into this past year.”

Early in the process, Beth kept contacting the Title IX office to get an update. There was no adviser available, she was told. 

Pitt does not comment on past or current Title IX cases. 

Katie Pope, the Associate Vice Chancellor of Civil Rights and Title IX at Pitt, talked broadly about the timeline saying that, according to the 2011 federal guidelines, universities were expected to aim to investigate cases within 60 days, but it’s no longer the case. Trump’s 2020 guidelines are vague about it, and a number of things can affect the timeline. 

Notably, finding an adviser can be challenging and can cause delays, she said. Pitt has worked with volunteer advisers from the Allegheny Bar Association and an on-campus group, and has started conversations with some of its professional schools that may provide graduate students to serve in that role, she said.

“We cannot make a promise as to how long the investigative process is going to take,” she added.

Beth said that at one point, the contact officer told her the person who assaulted her had a lawyer and that she should probably get someone with law experience if she can. 

Her assailant’s graduation was fast approaching.

Beth started scrambling, asking friends who studied law, searching online, even though she knew that under Title IX, Pitt had to provide her an adviser if she didn’t have anyone. 

Thirty days after she filed, she still didn’t have an adviser. The investigation by a Pitt investigator at that point was complete.

On an acquaintance’s suggestion, she connected with the Marsh Law Firm. Pitt agreed to cover their services initially at a reduced fee. 

“I thought the university would protect me, because that’s the language they use, and that they would have an adviser for me. And I thought that it would all be kind of under control,” Beth said.

The Marsh Law Firm lawyers reached out to Pitt several times. They asked if the perpetrator’s degree was going to be withheld until the process was complete, or if Pitt could put a notation on the transcript that a disciplinary proceeding was pending. They never received a response. 

Beth followed up with her own email to Pitt, copying her lawyers. All they got in response was Pitt’s Student Code of Conduct in a PDF document that had no information relevant to her case. 

She still wanted to push forward. Pitt sent her lawyers a request to sign an engagement contract because the university was covering the legal fees. 

The conditions in the letter required Beth and her lawyers to share all of their communications with the university. The contract barred Beth and her lawyers, as Pitt contractors, from speaking publicly about the matter.

“I don’t know many survivors that would be willing to come forward … if they knew that every single thing that they said would be subject to the university’s control and that the adviser would be basically required to sign a gag order,” said Katie Shipp, Beth’s attorney at the Marsh Law Firm.

The lawyers decided to work with Beth pro bono.

To Shipp, this case presented a stark inequity. “So really, the only difference is somebody who’s able to afford an attorney is guaranteed a private communication with their adviser,” she said.

Weeks passed after her assailant’s graduation. Another school year was about to start. Beth’s lawyers kept asking for an update on the case. 

The hearing took place on Aug. 10. Beth’s semester started Aug. 29. The decision by a third party in her Title IX case was issued Sept. 6.

The defendant was found responsible for rape. The disciplinary action: He is not allowed to enter university property without expressed written permission. A few days later, Beth’s assailant appealed the decision. Beth is not sure how long the process is going to take now. 

“Once the appeal is done, I hope I can finally come out of my shell that I went into this past year,” she said.

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Struggles with getting university support, accessing Title IX

Alysia C. feels as though she’s taken about “three steps forward” in processing her experience of sexual assault. But she thinks she should be further along on her healing journey than she is. She attributes part of that to inconsistent help and support from the University of Pittsburgh. 

“I was like, ‘I don’t have time to sit here and cry about it like I want to.’ So I just never did,” said Alysia, a Pitt senior. PublicSource is not using Alysia’s full name to protect her identity. “I really didn’t start dealing with it until April of this year. And I’ve still barely spoken about it.”

During her sophomore year, Alysia was assaulted by a non-student on Pitt’s campus. The person coerced her, she said, and sought to get her drunk. 

What followed, Alysia said, was an “awful” week of trying to receive support from the university. For about two to three days immediately following her assault, Alysia was unable to reach the Title IX office by phone or in person, she said. Then, she emailed the Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion — which oversees the Title IX office — about extensions in class through Title IX and interim supportive measures. 

Meanwhile, she contacted her professors directly to share that she was struggling to complete her coursework.

“I wanted to tell them, ‘I literally can’t get anything done right now,’” Alysia said. “‘I’m quite literally going through one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I can’t focus on school. I can’t even focus on getting out of bed.’” 

Not all of her professors were as understanding as she’d like. When she asked one professor for additional time to finish her coursework due to “recent traumatic events,” he asked her to elaborate on the challenges that were preventing her from completing her assignments, emails show. She explained: “Something happened that’s essentially left me bedridden … I lack concentration, motivation, and energy to complete my assignments. I’ve been unable to get in contact with any resources on campus.” The professor offered an extension on a paper and shared information on campus resources.

Alysia heard back from an official with Title IX three days after her initial outreach, and they scheduled a one-on-one meeting for a few days later. By that point, Alysia said, she had already figured out her accommodations by herself.  

“I’m quite literally going through one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I can’t focus on school. I can’t even focus on getting out of bed.”

The next academic year, Alysia heard from the Title IX office again. The email came after she had visited the university’s Disability Resources and Services department to request accommodations for the PTSD she now experiences. 

Alysia replied to the email. She told the office to never contact her again. 

“I did not interact with them because that week was so awful for me,” Alysia said. “I was calling everyone, like I called almost every department in my school, to try to figure out how to fix this.” 

Katie Pope, associate vice chancellor for civil rights and Title IX at Pitt, said it’s difficult to hear that a student faced challenges in getting in touch with the office. The office is working to improve its visibility and has moved three times, most recently to the Cathedral of Learning in November, she said. But she added that the office is still figuring out how to ensure the information students receive about Title IX stays with them beyond freshman orientation.

“We never want someone to be in that situation where they’re dealing with trauma and trying to navigate all those pieces on their own,” Pope said. “I’m sorry to hear that that was an experience that someone had shared.”

The move to the Cathedral of Learning has allowed an advocate with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape [PAAR] to come to the office and speak with students confidentially, Pope said. 

Alysia gives herself credit for the progress she’s made. She’s told her therapist about her assault — “It only took me a year,” she said — and she’s seeking a support group that she hopes will help her heal and connect her with people who understand her experience. She recognizes, however, that she hasn’t fully processed her trauma.

“Because of everything that happened after the fact,” she said, “I’m where I am.”

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Where Title IX fell short, university counseling ‘might have saved my life’

In seeking therapy, Alyssa Beley found validation and vital support at Pitt. In seeking recourse under Title IX, she found a “brutal” process of reliving her trauma. 

Beley was assaulted by an acquaintance at Pitt during her freshman year in spring 2019. In the weeks that followed, she realized she wasn’t doing well and was struggling in her classes. She sought support at the University Counseling Center.

She believes that the counselor “might have saved my life.” 

“I was 18, so it kind of shattered me, and I definitely started losing sight, or my grip, on life in a way,” she said of her assault. “But going to those resources and just hearing someone believes in you and that you’re strong, I don’t know, that really saved me.”

When she first began to see the counselor, Beley was struggling with confusion, shame and guilt. The counselor helped her work through those feelings and validated her experience, Beley said. 

“One of the things that always stuck with me was just, in moments when I was really stressed or upset, just going through the phrase of, ‘It’s OK, I’m safe now,’” she said. “That was always something that was super helpful.”

Beley saw the counselor for about a year. 

At the time she sought counseling, Beley was on the pre-medicine track at Pitt but doubted if that career path was right for her. After her counseling experience at Pitt — which was the first time she had gone to therapy — she knew what she wanted to do. She’s now a first-year graduate student in the clinical mental health counseling program at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she’s studying to be a trauma therapist to help survivors.

“It’s not a silver lining experience, but sometimes that’s the only way I can really look at it to get through it,” Beley said. “It was a terrible experience that I wish I never had to go through. But, I don’t know, I think it led me to my life passion.”

Overall, she views her experience with Pitt’s counseling services positively. There were aspects of the intake that she felt weren’t trauma-informed, and she had to wait for a first appointment with her counselor despite being in crisis. But ultimately she received counseling, which is crucial for survivors throughout their healing journey, she said. 

“It can feel like you’re alone. There were many instances where I just remember keeping a lot to myself and not talking about it,” she said. “When it came to going to therapy, I finally had a platform to be heard, and it just felt freeing in a way.” 

Along with providing counseling, the university issued a no-contact order and allowed Beley to receive academic accommodations. She reported her assault to Pitt’s Title IX office toward the end of her freshman year.

While those supports were helpful, the investigative process that came after she reported to the Title IX office “was really hard,” she said. She had to retell the details of her assault multiple times and answer uncomfortable questions, such as: “How much did you drink?” At one point, the investigator informed her that the assailant had denied everything, Beley recalled. 

“That kind of hurt. And like that made me really not want to go back,” Beley said. “It kind of felt like, ‘Are you telling the truth?’”

Beley had mentally prepared herself for the process to last two or three months. At the time she reported, universities aimed to complete investigations within 60 days, though there’s no longer a set time limit under the Trump administration’s guidelines implemented in 2020. 

Toward the end of the spring semester, she was told that the investigation would pick up again in the fall. She decided to drop the case, partly because she didn’t want to continue thinking about her experience and she wasn’t sure she’d receive the outcome she wanted.

Beley is content with her decision not to move forward with the investigation. In choosing to do what was best for her, she found justice, she said.

“Justice is realizing that you have the power to decide how you want to handle the situation and that it’s OK if you don’t want to go the legal route, you don’t want to go the reporting route,” she said. “That’s kind of how I visualize justice — kind of gaining back that autonomy over yourself.”

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Illustrations by Andrea Shockling.

Emma Folts covers higher education at PublicSource, in partnership with Open Campus. She can be reached at emma@publicsource.org.

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.

The post They are Pittsburgh college students and survivors of sexual violence. Here, they share their stories. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence.

Dear parents, 

One day your child will grow up. They may choose to go to college. Everyone hopes that your child is safe and happy there. 

But while in college, your child will face new experiences and risks that will inevitably be unexpected, uncomfortable or even traumatic. You may never learn about it. Still you can do things to prepare your offspring even before they move on to pursue a college education. 

First, you should know that 13% of college and graduate students overall reported being raped or sexually assaulted through physical force, violence or incapacitation in a 2019 Association of American Universities encompassing 182,000 students from 33 schools, the most comprehensive data available. The majority of sexual assaults and harassment incidents are not reported to the authorities.  

Among all undergraduate students, 26% of women, 23% of college students who identified as transgender, gender questioning or nonbinary and 7% of men experienced non-consensual sexual contact. The first semester can be especially vulnerable: More than half of sexual assaults happen in “The Red Zone,” between the start of the fall semester and the Thanksgiving break.

Because of the prevalence of sexual violence on U.S. campuses, one day your college-aged child may call you and start a conversation with: “There is something I need to tell you” and then break the news that they have been assaulted.  

In hopes of mitigating trauma and raising awareness, PublicSource spoke with experts from Pittsburgh Action Against Rape [PAAR], scholars, universities and healthcare professionals and compiled some tips for caregivers and parents sending their children to colleges, especially in Pittsburgh but elsewhere as well.  

How do you respond? 

Susan B. Sorenson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a book for parents whose children experienced sexual violence to explore that exact question. She’s talked to many parents who got that phone call. 

“They simply weren’t sure what to do, didn’t know what to do. And they mostly didn’t want to do anything to make it worse. And so they were sometimes stuck,” Sorenson said. 

First and foremost, “they need to be the best parent that they can be,” she said. And, it’s important for parents to know that even if well-intended, mistakes will be made. But you need to keep going.

And there are many ways to prepare your child so that even if they never experience sexual violence, their response to a friend or roommate who has could be informed and life-changing.

Sex education is important.

As a parent, you have quite a bit of influence over how your children view and, ultimately, lead their sex lives as young adults, said Susie Balcom​​, a former PAAR victims advocate.

More than half of sexual assaults among college students occur in the fall. Resources, survivor stories and investigation into what’s being done to protect those at risk in the Pittsburgh area. Explore the series.

Start talking about consent and body autonomy early. Prevention education and conversations around body boundaries can start as early as elementary school. 

“It’s about understanding your greetings and when do you want to take that hand, do you want to wave hello, to hug them — giving people really autonomy over their own body and how they’re engaging in their relationships,” Balcom said. 

If you have a son, have a conversation with them. “Parents often feel like they need to talk to their daughters about it and they think that should be enough. And the boys are central in this,” Sorenson said. 

“So, talk to them about dignity. Talk to them about consent. Consent has been the primary basis for the definition of sexual assault for over a decade.” 

Make sure they know that no means no from an early age, a key tenet of consent.

When children are older, PAAR works with them on understanding consent in the context of sexual activity. It starts with the basic understanding that they’re in charge of their bodies and have power to voice what they’re OK with and what they’re not — especially considering peer pressures or that some youth are exposed to online pornography.

While your child is in high school, ask their high school — health teachers, the principal — what students are learning and ask your high schooler what they know about sex. Parents and trusted adults can also provide context to what is being taught at school and share what it means to be in healthy relationships.

“We’re all past the age — if there ever was even an age —  in which we can trust our public schools to provide our kids with sex education and consent education like that. It’s not the case. And so parents really need to work like years before college to start on that,” Balcom said. 

Advocate for sexual violence prevention and mitigation of its effects at your student’s college. 

Parents should ask college administrators what is being done to prevent harassment and sexual assault, what education efforts are being taken to combat rape culture and sexual violence, and what precautionary and support services are available, Sorenson said. If the school has an orientation for parents, that might be an opportune time to ask these questions. 

“Because if you’ve got a place that’s sort of weasely about it, and they don’t want to answer questions and they want to avoid it, they get noticeably uncomfortable, imagine what it’d be like for somebody going in for help,” she said.

To Sorenson, it means that the university has not fully acknowledged and “is not ready to deal in a major way with the reality of college campuses.”

Most higher education institutions in the United States provide an orientation session on sexual violence and harassment and explain how to report it and the essence of the federal Title IX law. 

At Chatham, for example, before undergraduate and graduate students start their first semester, Chatham sends them an online sexual assault prevention module. Several weeks later, they get a second module to assess what they learned. Undergraduates at Chatham also receive an alcohol education module. The NCAA also has a mandate for universities to provide programming initiatives specifically for athletes.

It helps to know that danger can come from people you know. 

Most student survivors of sexual violence and harassment know the person who assaulted and harassed them, campus surveys show. So conveying that to your child is important. 

“Oftentimes our parents and our systems are set up to teach people about the danger that exists from strangers,” instead of talking about “other dangers that exist in our own relationships with people that we trust,” Balcom said. 

Your child needs to know before anything happens that it’s OK for them to tell you. 

As a college professor, Sorenson has had many students who confided in her.

“Students would talk to me about being sexually assaulted and about their decision whether to tell a parent and how hard it was and how they could approach a parent.

“And if they should even tell the parent, whether the parent would want to know,“ she said. 

Balcom said most college students, in her experience, didn’t think they could tell their parents. So, she says, parents need to prepare themselves and their children in advance. 

“Before you even think that your kids might experience sexual violence, and I think most parents imagine that it won’t happen to their kids, right? So, they don’t even prepare themselves or prepare the relationships in case this happens,” Balcom said.

How you talk about sex assault survivors and sexual violence matters. 

That extends to conversations about celebrity survivors or expressing views about sexual violence. 

“Hopefully, ideally, those views are, ‘It is never the victim’s fault,’” Balcom said, adding that it’s productive to connect the topic with your family’s cultural and religious norms.

It matters when the children have seen and heard their parents victim blaming through the years, Balcom said, watching their parents consume social media and the news and dropping judgments. 

And then, when it happens to their children, they may wonder, “Well, why would my parents feel any differently about this for me?”

When your college child wants to tell you something, listen to the end. Do not interrupt. 

Sexual trauma is rooted in shame and self-blame, experts say. And often as disclosure happens, victims and survivors tend to shut down because parents, at times unintentionally, are enforcing that underlying shame or the blame that survivors will bring against themselves. 

“And a lot of parents react in a way that long term is not very helpful. Like: ‘Wait a minute. What happened? Where were you? What were you doing?’ So they’ll ask a lot of questions,” Sorenson said. 

Those questions can be interpreted as questioning the person’s judgment and sometimes blaming as well, she said. So, the best approach is to listen, not to interrupt. “I am here for you” is the best response. 

And lastly, dear parents, please seek help. If your child or someone you know experiences sexual violence, resources are available locally and nationally for you and your child. Seek a community. Connect your child with the groups that can support them. Do not sit in pain alone. 

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.

The post Dear parents: Sexual violence is a reality on college campuses. Here’s what you should know and how you can respond. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence.

Jane was a student at Duquesne University in recent years when she was sexually assaulted by another student, whom she had been dating for about a month. 

More than half of sexual assaults among college students occur in the fall. Resources, survivor stories and investigation into what’s being done to protect those at risk in the Pittsburgh area. Explore the series.

After the assault, she cut ties with him and blocked him on social media. Jane tried to avoid any chance encounters on campus, too. 

She coped with her trauma by trying to forget it. The thought of reporting to authorities was overwhelming to Jane. So, similarly to many people who experience sexual violence, she didn’t report it. 

But over time, what happened to her became harder to ignore. She filed a Title IX complaint months after the assault. Even after going through the university’s judicial procedures, Jane’s assailant seemed to continue to follow her around campus for months without repercussion, underscoring what experts see as limitations to what colleges can do to rein in sexual violence and harassment. 

In Jane’s case, Duquesne University followed the Title IX protocol; they considered her report seriously; they conducted an investigation and held a hearing. But after the Title IX process was complete with a final ruling and disciplinary measures against her assailant, Jane still felt stalked. 

Jane asked PublicSource to shield her identity because she doesn’t want the experience to harm her any further. Duquesne University declined to comment, citing the need to maintain student confidentiality, and did not make anyone from its Title IX office available for an interview.

Jane’s story raises questions and concerns about what happens after the Title IX process is technically complete. What happens after the final ruling? How does the enforcement work and, if a no-contact order is issued, what are the mechanisms to prevent stalking? 

When Jane returned to campus the semester after the assault, she believes her perpetrator began stalking her. Under the overwhelming load of stress, Jane started having sleeping problems, migraines, extreme fatigue and anxiety. 

She went to Duquesne counseling services and showed the psychiatrist all of her evidence of  stalking: text messages, social media accounts he used to reach her and his efforts to befriend Jane’s friends. Because she only talked about stalking at that point, the psychiatrist told her to go to Duquesne campus police. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines stalking as “a pattern of harassing or threatening tactics that are both unwanted and cause fear or safety concerns in a victim.” 

Approximately 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men in the United States experience stalking at some point in their lives. According to the latest data from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey from 2016-17, more than half of female stalking victims experience stalking for the first time before they turn 25 years old. 

The campus-specific results of a 2019 survey from the Association of American Universities provide a window into the prevalence of stalking among Pittsburgh college students. Duquesne University did not participate in the survey, but the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University did. 

About 19% of Pitt students and 12% of CMU students reported that they had experienced at least one type of stalking behavior since coming to campus. Women and transgender, gender nonconforming and questioning students at both universities reported higher rates of stalking victimization than their male peers. 

When she felt followed…

Jane says after her psychologist told her to, she went to Duquesne police to tell them about stalking and harassment. A detective she met listened to her. He said they could try to scare the student away if they went with Jane to a club meeting, one she said her assailant had started to attend. 

The detective had asked Jane if the student who stalked her had ever hurt her physically. 

“And I kind of just sat there for at least like 20 or 30 seconds, like a significant amount of time … Because in my head, I was just like, ‘I can’t report this now’ … It overwhelmed me, when he asked me that question. 

“And the next thing that the detective said at that point was: ‘If you tell me he physically hurt you, I’ll go arrest him, like right now.’ And so that was obviously horrifying. So clearly, I wasn’t going to say anything.”

After the conversation with the detective, Jane received an email from the Title IX office; they introduced themselves and asked her if she needed anything. But Jane wasn’t clear about her options. 

Her health quickly deteriorated, and she left school mid-semester. She stayed home for almost a year before returning to school. 

The CDC data shows that stalking can have long-lasting psychological trauma. “Most female victims (90.7%) felt fearful, threatened or concerned for their safety due to the behaviors of the perpetrator, and 68.5% were threatened with physical harm.”

Moving forward with Title IX 

Jane didn’t find peace while on leave. During her absence, her assailant made a post on social media that was public to some Duquesne students. She learned of it from a friend. The post didn’t name her explicitly but it was clear from the post he meant her; the bold letters accused her of being disrespectful and of reporting him to Title IX.   

“So when that happened that day, that was like my breaking point…”

She called Duquesne police that night to report the sexual assault. 

And the response on the other end of the line was: “Why didn’t you report this earlier?” Jane recalled.

She didn’t know how to respond. She told the voice that she wasn’t ready back then. The voice said: “Well, I can’t do anything now. You’re going to have to talk to Title IX.”

Shortly after that conversation, Jane got an email from the Title IX office and from that point, she began the fact-gathering process to support her claims of rape, sexual assault and stalking. 

The process felt long to Jane. She filed the official complaint the following semester, and the hearing was scheduled a couple months later. 

The challenge of stalking allegations

Unlike Jane, people who experience stalking may not report to their universities or the police for several reasons, said Christina Dardis, a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at Towson University. 

They may not yet understand that the stalking behavior isn’t normal, she said. They may fear repercussions or struggle to recognize that their stalker — often a person they know or have been romantically involved with — is trying to harm them. They may not know how to report or if doing so will help.

University officials should clearly explain to students what happens after reports of stalking and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence are made and how they will be supported throughout the process, Dardis said. She also said officials should make the consequences of violence known on campus and consistently apply them in adjudicated cases. 

“It is only when survivors have confidence that their reports will be responded to with care, compassion, and action that they will feel empowered to come forward to the university,” Dardis said in a follow-up email. “That trust must be earned through the institution’s actions.”

After Jane reported that she felt stalked, according to emails, the Title IX office reached out to her to meet, share the administrative policies regarding sexual misconduct and share a “Here to Help” card with university and community resources she may find useful.

In an emailed statement, university spokesperson Gabriel Welsch wrote: “The University dedicates numerous resources to support an environment free of all forms of misconduct, and responds swiftly and appropriately to reported violations.” Duquesne’s Title IX office coordinates education, prevention and response efforts, the spokesperson wrote.

Where is the enforcement?

The trial-like hearing over Zoom, in Jane’s words, was “horrific.” She wasn’t allowed to finish her opening statement because they said they needed to give her and the accused equal amount of time.

All she remembers him saying is ‘I plead not guilty.’

The hearing lasted for two days, with a week in between. 

Jane received the final ruling about a week later. Her assailant was found guilty of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and dating violence. He was found not guilty of stalking, domestic violence and retaliation. 

“They had basically dismissed the stalking,” Jane said, “I guess he didn’t physically, like, break into my apartment or something like that. They had mentioned it would have to be like a more severe form of stalking. They didn’t really care about the emotional stress of the stalking that occurred.”

His sanction included a no-contact order, and it said he couldn’t live in on-campus housing throughout the duration of his academic career at Duquesne. 

The no-contact order included “direct or indirect contact via phone, email, text, fax, other methods of telecommunications, social media, or third parties.” It wasn’t specific about physical contact.

It didn’t cover the parameters of Jane and her assailant being in the same place on campus, and there was no repercussion for her perpetrator staying in the same physical space.

To Amy Mathieu, Jane’s lawyer at the Marsh Law Firm, Jane’s case demonstrates a certain degree of uselessness in the Title IX process. 

“What’s the purpose of going through this whole endeavor? It’s traumatizing for victims to sit through a hearing and talk about what happened. And to what end? [Jane] thought she reached justice only to find out that the no-contact order was a piece of paper that did nothing for her in the long run,” she said.

T.K. Logan, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine whose research focuses on stalking, trauma and partner abuse, makes a careful distinction between a no-contact order and a protective order. A university may issue no-contact orders at the beginning of the Title IX process or at the end of it. 

“An order at a university is not a protective order, it does not come with consequences,” she said. “When you get a protective order … there are very different consequences for breaking that. 

“Protective orders out in the community or given by a court often are accompanied by footage. So this perpetrator cannot be within 100 feet, 300 feet, 500 feet. So that often helps with, ‘OK, it doesn’t matter if it’s a public place, but when he sees her, he is required to leave.’”

Protective orders can be helpful, Logan said. She co-authored several studies that have found that women who were being stalked by their abusive intimate partner and were able to get a protective order felt safer. A number of the stalkers did stop because there is a real deterrent.

It felt like nothing would keep him away

The college campus can create challenges for students who are experiencing stalking, as there is often predictability to their schedules and sometimes a finite number of places to spend time on campus, said Dardis, the psychologist and professor. 

“It certainly makes it easier to ascertain what the victim or target’s schedule is going to be and how you might be able to run into them, and maybe even make it seem like you’re just running into them,” Dardis said.

For Jane, the stalking seemed to continue until her assailant graduated. From her perspective, he too often ended up being at the same place, same time, especially if his friends saw her, Jane said. She recalled him sitting behind her in a study area once and followed her around a gym another time. 

Every time Jane moved from one area or one machine to another, she said he would follow her and use a machine that was directly behind the one she was on. Jane’s friends witnessed it. She also has a video from the campus security camera that was in the gym. She even has a picture she took of him sitting behind her while she was on a treadmill.

Jane collected evidence for the Title IX office to investigate. She got the video from the gym submitted to the Title IX office.  As part of the investigation, the university said they reviewed surveillance footage from the gym and the Student Union and reviewed swipe-in logs for Jane and the respondent. After the review, they concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” to find that the respondent had violated his sanctions. They said there would be no additional sanctions imposed but that the sanctions imposed on him after the Title IX hearing remained until his graduation.

Jane was left wondering if the only way she could prove stalking occurred was to have “taken a selfie with my rapist/stalker.”

Jane believes she went above and beyond to advocate for herself and other students and she felt disregarded. “[Duquesne] claim[s] to uphold such high moral standards like written in their mission statement. But clearly, they don’t because they say they have strict no-tolerance policies, but clearly they do tolerate it and they allowed everything to continue for me.” 

Brittany Conkle, legal director of the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, has worked with Pitt and CMU students who’ve experienced stalking from non-students. She said the universities banned their stalkers from entering campus and helped survivors get protection-from-abuse orders, which were helpful measures. 

“That’s what you want to see from the universities and colleges,” she said.

Lorraine Bittner, chief legal officer of the center and shelter, said it’s simpler for a court to prohibit a non-student from entering campus under a protection from abuse order than it is for a student. While the orders can prohibit non-students from entering campus at all, when the stalker is a student, the court may have to specify areas on campus they’re not allowed to go to.

Universities, judges and police should all view stalking as behavior that could become deadly, Bittner said. In 76% of completed intimate partner femicides and 85% of those attempted, stalking occurred in the year prior to the attack, according to the Stalking Prevention, Awareness and Resource Center.

“When people study domestic violence, homicides, frequently, stalking was present. And people didn’t always appreciate that it was a sign of lethality,” Bittner said. “I just think we all have to take it very seriously.”

Jane ultimately chose to graduate earlier than planned to leave campus as quickly as possible. She struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and feels like her educational experience was destroyed by what she experienced.

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

Emma Folts contributed reporting.

This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.

The post She still felt stalked. A sex assault survivor at Duquesne University blames the toothless no-contact order. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence.

He was a popular senior. Katie was a freshman at Point Park University. He hosted a big party at his house in Oakland. 

More than half of sexual assaults among college students occur in the fall. Resources, survivor stories and investigation into what’s being done to protect those at risk in the Pittsburgh area. Explore the series.

Katie’s friends and classmates, who had also stayed behind for spring break in Pittsburgh, headed there. She drank a little bit too much, too quickly. A bunch of the seniors put her to bed on a futon upstairs in one of the empty bedrooms. 

She told PublicSource in a September interview that she woke up in the dark to the host of the party trying to get in bed with her. He was naked. Still feeling intoxicated, Katie heard him say: “You were flirting with me all night. You want this.”

She felt him trying to hold her down and get on top of her. Katie pushed and screamed and kicked her way out. 

It was spring 2008. Following the assault, Katie didn’t know where to go to receive resources at Point Park; it was before the university had a dedicated Title IX officer. She wonders what would have been different if there had been more resources for her back then. PublicSource is not using Katie’s full name to protect her identity. 

Title IX — a federal law that protects people from discrimination based on sex in federally funded education programs and schools— was more than three decades old in 2008. But it was still three years before federal guidance expanded the scope of the law to cover sexual harassment and violence. 

In the past decade, the federal government has expected universities to prevent and mitigate sexual violence and harassment while being fair to all parties through a complicated process. The process can be traumatic and drawn out, but there are positive trends. Title IX offices are more visible and active in sexual misconduct cases and, in some Pittsburgh-area universities, students are more knowledgeable about how to report sexual misconduct and what resources may be available to them.  

Challenges remain. From prevention to addressing effects of sexual violence, about 50 students, advocates and administrators interviewed for this series identified successes, gaps and nodes of discontent. 

Looking back, Katie said she tried to do what she could on her own, including telling a few friends and classmates about her experience to make sure what happened to her didn’t happen to others. 

A decade of seesaw changes

Since Katie’s assault, a lot has changed in how universities in the Pittsburgh area talk about sexual violence, try to prevent it, adjudicate it and address its effects. Title IX has been the biggest driver of that change. Though the federal civil rights law passed in 1972, many of the changes started in 2011.

President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden led a major shift through the Department of Education by issuing a “Dear Colleague” letter, which held the schools accountable, for the first time, to their enforcement of Title IX as it pertains to sexual violence and harassment. 

In response, universities created and beefed up Title IX offices. They increased staffing specifically around compliance and in offices related to equity, diversity and inclusion. They invested in education and prevention programming. 

Public and private universities now facilitate peer education efforts, bystander intervention training and discussions about consent and partner violence. They distribute stickers, booklets, T-shirts and pens. Some facilitate student surveys. There are special committees, tabling events and Title IX online modules. 

However, the Trump administration in 2020 overhauled the Title IX rules. It changed the process and limited the scope of what can be considered harassment and what sexual violence cases could be investigated. The Biden administration’s guidelines for Title IX are expected to come out soon.   

A few administrators acknowledged challenges with the current Trump-era Title IX guidelines, and many are bracing for change. 

Just two years out from implementing the changes under the Trump administration, universities are waiting “to hear from reputable sources of what changes are likely to be happening,” said Jacqueline Smith, the Title IX coordinator at Carlow University. “We’ll be preparing for those all the way through.”

After sexual violence happens: Gaps and what works

The Title IX changes ushered in after the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter have helped, advocates said. But right now, in spite of formalized procedures and protocols, some Pittsburgh-area students say higher education institutions struggle to hold rapists and other assailants accountable and mitigate the effects of sexual violence on campus. 

Some students who reported sexual violence to universities said they felt alone and not supported by their institution. They said the university presented itself as a neutral party, even though they emphasize support for survivors in public messaging. 

Universities, on the other hand, say they need to presume innocence and be fair to all parties.

“We have to make sure that we’re giving each person all the rights that are afforded to them,” said Vanessa Love, Point Park University’s assistant vice president of compliance and integrity and its Title IX coordinator. 

Smith, of Carlow, agreed. 

“The intent is that objectivity that allows for a fundamental fairness until there is an investigation completed and a finding that happens. … We are still believing first, but we have a responsibility to the whole community to be as objective as possible.”

Sharing the details despite doubts

Some survivors believe their universities have taken their experiences seriously and have handled their cases well.

Those who choose to file a Title IX complaint are sometimes frustrated at the lack of clarity about the timeline or even worried how the university will respond after they file a report. 

One survivor, who asked PublicSource to conceal her identity, filed a Title IX complaint at Pitt but then had to wait for months for progress on her case. She said she felt like they took something from her.

“I gave them quite a testimony. Like it took a lot for me to do that,” she said. “And then when it came down to it, they kind of just took all that information and didn’t do anything to help me.”

And some survivors say the hearing for Title IX, which is similar to a court procedure, can be retraumatizing. 

The hearing process can also manifest inequities, according to Katie Shipp, law partner at the Marsh Law Firm. While some students’ families can afford elite legal representation, others cannot. The university would have to provide them with an adviser, but they wouldn’t have to be a lawyer. 

As a result, those who can afford legal representation are more protected than those who cannot. 

Often, universities bring in an investigator and independent decision-maker on the cases to ensure fairness. But some survivors feel that the burden of reporting and providing evidence and testimony is mostly on them. If the complaint moves forward, there is cross-examination, which Smith at Carlow has seen as a challenge. 

“We found that it isn’t that people don’t want to tell their story. It’s how many times and how many ways they’re made to tell their story if they go to a full hearing,” Smith said. “When you ask them to make a formal complaint, which is the thing that triggers an investigation, when they learn about what that can mean, they don’t want to do that.” 

Gray areas and disappearing Snaps

Beyond the investigatory challenges, universities also encounter obstacles in enforcing protections. 

If the Title IX investigation finds the perpetrator guilty, a disciplinary party issues a no-contact order. Enforcement of that order, though, is complicated. Two survivors told PublicSource that no-contact orders were violated in their cases. 

Retribution for that is unclear, according to legal sources. The violation of no-contact orders is often handled by the student conduct office. But one survivor, a former student at Duquesne University, told PublicSource that her no-contact order was not specific enough and didn’t extend to the physical stalking she experienced.   

Also vague: The geographic reach of Title IX. Under Trump’s guidance for Title IX, universities can choose not to pursue cases of off-campus sexual violence even if it’s among students.

Often, students just want to switch dorms and not take the same classes with their assailants. Verbose and confusing instructions about the process may turn some students away from reporting.  

Online harassment is another gray area. What if stalking or psychological abuse happens on Instagram or Snapchat, where messages automatically disappear? 

Most universities say they care deeply about addressing stalking and misogynistic behaviors on social media. 

Katie Pope, an associate vice chancellor of Civil Rights and Title IX at Pitt, said “harassment is harassment regardless of the medium.” The online communication leaves a trail in some cases, Pope said, and that can help with the investigation. She said the university sometimes connects victims of online harassment to police. 

How do higher ed institutions prevent sexual violence?

Students from traditionally marginalized groups, such as LGBTQ+ students and students with disabilities, are disproportionately affected by sexual violence on campus, according to a 2019 Association of American Universities [AAU] survey of campus climate. Many international students come from cultures where talking about sex is taboo. There are students of all backgrounds who never had sex education in high school.

“Every year we hear about students who come to our mandatory prevention programs, and it’s maybe the first time that they’ve ever had a conversation about sexual violence or even consent,” said Carrie Benson, Pitt’s senior manager for prevention and education.  

How can universities address those gaps?

Tailored sexual education would meet students of different backgrounds where they are, but today, the online instruction is largely the same for everyone. That’s something that Benson wants to change.

Some students raised concerns about how prevention-based education still mostly focuses on bystanders and potential victims, not on potential perpetrators. PublicSource heard from multiple students who said it should be more focused on the latter. 

Carlow and Chatham are programming initiatives specifically tailored for athletes to prevent and address sexual violence.

At Pitt, Benson’s office does NCAA-mandated training with athletic teams. 

Divyansh Kaushik, a Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University and president of the Graduate Student Assembly, is concerned about what he sees as a lack of practical action and education to address and discuss sexual harassment, prevention and sexual violence at CMU. 

Kaushik also believes there’s a problem in how and when students are presented with the information. Students get a Title IX orientation when they arrive at CMU. But that happens when they are being bombarded by new information and are often acclimating to a new place in a new town. 

“Some of these students are coming from abstinence-only districts,” he said. “For some of them, this is not even something you talk about.”

Involving faculty and staff is key, but Kaushik said it’s unclear what kind of continuing education they get. 

Some universities, like Chatham, have standing committees and faculty involvement. 

At Pitt, Benson said she believes that sexual assault prevention goes even beyond universities. 

“We have to stop thinking about this as a women’s issue and that it’s up to women to address and instead recognize that all communities are affected by sexual violence,” she said. 

Measuring success

Tracking the scale of sexual violence on Pittsburgh-area campuses remains tricky. 

Universities are required to collect on-campus and certain non-campus crime data, including sexual violence, through the Clery Act — a federal statute that applies to all colleges and universities that receive federal funding — but the data is often limited due to the underreported nature of these crimes. Pitt, for example, has a total student population of 28,234 and reported 42 cases of rape between 2016 and 2020. According to Clery data, one case was reported in 2020 when there was limited activity on campus during the pandemic. 

During the Sept. 23 meeting of the Board of Trustees, Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher reported the increased number of reports of all types to the Title IX office across all campuses as a sign of trust. The number of reports doubled in 2022 compared to the prior year. 

Caption: Number of Title IX complaints across Pitt’s campuses, including those related to sexual violance and harassment.

With a total student population of 15,818, CMU reported 39 cases of rape from 2016 to 2020, with three cases reported in 2020, according to its Clery data. 

The 2019 AAU survey of campus climate across 33 research universities, including Pitt and CMU, provides a fuller picture. According to the survey, 26.9% of Pitt’s undergraduate women experienced penetration or sexual touching involving physical force and/or inability to consent or stop what was happening since entering college. 

In the CMU-specific survey, almost 24% of undergraduate women said they experienced nonconsensual sexual contact, compared to 9% of graduate women. Of the graduate students surveyed, about 40% were familiar with the Title IX office compared to 82% of undergraduate students. 

The survey was sobering for CMU, Kaushik said. 

“We held two town hall meetings after the 2019 AAU report came out — nothing after that,” he said. “Not a single mention, not a single town hall, not a single email talking about Title IX, about our commitment to preventing sexual misconduct on campus.” 

CMU, in a statement emailed by its spokesman, said that in the beginning of the pandemic, the office created student-focused online programming “about new policies and how to intervene in unsafe situations.” The university also cited an August 2020 email from the provost about the updated sexual misconduct policy in response to the new federal Title IX guidelines.  

Carlow University provided PublicSource with information on its Title IX caseload. Between August 2017 and August 2022, there were a total of 12 cases reported to the Title IX office, and some of the complaints included multiple forms of sexual violence. 

Other universities in the region didn’t provide any Title IX caseload-specific data. Some referred PublicSource to the Clery Act data.

Chris Purcell, Chatham’s vice president of student affairs and dean of students, said higher numbers of Title IX complaints and incidents of sexual harassment and violence may, counterintuitively, signal improved trust in the institutions and process. 

“Lower numbers of people reporting might mean that your systems, your reporting structures aren’t adequate enough for students to know about them,” he said. “So often, campuses that do a better job at getting their resources out there, their Clery reports and their other reports will indicate larger numbers of sexual harassment and assault.”

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

Emma Folts contributed to this story.

This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.

The post Drawn-out investigations, education gaps and federal whiplash: These are the challenges students and universities face in addressing sexual violence appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence.

​​Pittsburgh universities have made significant investments to prevent and investigate sexual violence on their campuses, but the experiences of survivors reveal gaps and flaws in those efforts.

More than half of sexual assaults among college students occur in the fall. Resources, survivor stories and investigation into what’s being done to protect those at risk in the Pittsburgh area. Explore the series.

How do university administrators respond?

PublicSource spoke with university officials across the Pittsburgh region who are involved in Title IX compliance. Out of nine Pittsburgh-area institutions, seven made their administrators available. Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities provided statements. 

Several administrators spoke candidly about the challenges they’ve encountered, from finding advisers for students who report to ensuring international students understand their protections under the federal civil rights law. The officials also detailed the work their institutions have undertaken to address sexual violence. 

Here’s a breakdown:

• University of Pittsburgh
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Duquesne University
• Carlow University
• Chatham University
• Point Park University
• Robert Morris University
• La Roche University
• Community College of Allegheny County 

University of Pittsburgh 

Katie Pope, the associate vice chancellor for civil rights and Title IX at Pitt, identified communication as one of the top challenges for the office she leads. She said the university has worked over the years on a “multi-layered” communications plan.

It’s important, she said, that when someone is coming to the Title IX office after a potential trauma, they get immediate help, necessary accommodations and clear expectations for the process. 

Several variables make it hard for the Title IX office to control the timeline, Pope said. In the past, the target was 60 days to complete the investigation. But under the Trump administration’s guidelines implemented in 2020, there is no set limit.

The number of witnesses or evidence may affect the pace of the investigation, Pope said. She gave an example of someone having 12 witnesses. “That investigative process is going to look very different than a case that may have one witness simply because you’ve got 12 people to talk to,” she said. 

A thorough review of the documents may also slow down the process. “You don’t want to get 200 pages of texts and say, ‘Oh, yeah, I read those.’ And then come to find out later that on page 189 was something that would have made a difference potentially in how a decision was made.” 

Advisers present another point of confusion, Pope said. The university has to provide trained advisers if a complainant or respondent doesn’t have one. 

Some students confuse a support person with an adviser. They can be the same person but not always. “Your roommate who has helped you to get through all these interviews may not be the person that you want to have to go to a hearing with,” she said, noting that an adviser cross-examines the other party. 

Finding qualified advisers has been hard. Pitt worked with the Allegheny Bar Association to find pro bono advisers. But volunteer systems are not always reliable. 

Pope’s office is now working with an on-campus group trained in the adjudication process and starting conversations with professional schools on campus that may have graduate-level students willing to serve as advisers.

Pope acknowledged that going through the Title IX process may be difficult for some people, and said feedback from Pitt’s community is important. She cited the recent relocation of the Title IX office to the Cathedral of Learning as a way to make the office more visible and accessible.

“We do get situations where folks get frustrated,” she said, but it’s rare. Ultimately, she said: “We’re happy to have tough conversations if you had a difficult experience with some of the services. That’s what we need to know to make sure that we’re improving, to make it better.”

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Carnegie Mellon University

CMU did not make any officials involved in Title IX available for an interview, but a spokesperson provided a statement in response to a PublicSource inquiry. 

The university voluntarily participated in a 2019 climate survey from the Association of American Universities to “inform the programs, support services and resources offered on campus,” according to the statement. CMU’s Office of Title IX Initiatives held town hall meetings following the survey’s release to educate the campus community. 

The university provides yearly communications to students, faculty and staff about Title IX developments and informational sessions and prevention training to incoming students and members of Greek life, among other groups. The Title IX office also became a part of the Vice Provost’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2021 to centralize support and education, according to the statement.

“Preventing sexual misconduct and addressing its impact is an issue colleges and universities around the country take seriously just as we do at Carnegie Mellon,” the statement reads. “We are committed to hearing from our students and learning how we can best support them based upon their experiences.”

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Duquesne University

Duquesne did not make its Title IX coordinator available for an interview, but provided a statement emphasizing that it “takes sexual, gender and domestic violence very seriously.

“Sexual misconduct is a persistent issue in our society and our top priority is to prevent such violence. We are committed to providing a variety of responsive measures to help meet the needs of those people who experience such violence,” the statement reads. 

The university’s Title IX team has prioritized sharing information about policies and resources through in-person engagements to increase the campus community’s awareness, according to the statement. The university’s website includes reporting mechanisms and “extensive detail” about policies and procedures, per the statement. 

“We are committed to preventing sexual misconduct, providing campus safety education, and responding promptly and equitably to reports.”

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Carlow University

At Carlow, a small, private Catholic university, Jacqueline Smith serves as the director of Disability Services and Title IX coordinator. She conducts training with student leaders, including resident assistants, resident directors and on-campus tutors. 

Collaboration between her office and other groups at Carlow, such as Project SAFE, has helped Carlow to provide “a real wraparound service,” she said. 

Project SAFE is an advocacy effort funded through a grant from the Department of Justice for work in preventing violence against women. Smith has been collaborating with Project SAFE Director Erin Tunney on training, events and other programming.

“We are consulting with external trauma-informed organizations to make sure that we’re not retraumatizing someone who’s reporting and that we’re using resources that are affordable and available to students regularly,” Smith said.

Carlow administrators continue training with external organizations including the Association of Title IX Administrators.   

And, like other universities in the Pittsburgh area, Carlow has also been working with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape [PAAR] and Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh to offer services to survivors.

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Chatham University

“The challenges of addressing sexual violence on campus mirror the challenges of addressing sexual violence in society as a whole,” said Chris Purcell, vice president of student affairs and dean of students at Chatham.

The law and required procedures make it difficult to report and to get fast action, he said. It is even more complicated for more marginalized communities, which more frequently experience sexual violence but may also feel as though the university has not listened to them appropriately, Purcell said. 

Before undergraduate and graduate students start their first semester, Chatham sends them an online Sexual Assault Prevention module, he said. Several weeks later, they get a second module to assess what they learned. “Undergraduates also receive an alcohol education module, which we know is important because of the role alcohol and other drugs play in sexual assault prevention,” Purcell said.

Purcell said that even though it’s going to be difficult to get every survivor of sexual violence to report, his goal is “to try to infuse violence prevention in as many different spaces as possible.”

This work is never-ending and ever-evolving, he said. “We can’t assume that a message we sent last year is going to resonate this year.” 

Purcell advises a group called the Sexual Respect Committee at Chatham, which creates and hosts programming. Some highlights from last year, he said, include sex education bingo, a “Me Too” healing space and trauma-informed yoga.

Chatham, a private university, has a history around issues of gender. Up until 2015, it was an all-women college. “We’ve always been a place where gender has been at the forefront. It is still a place where gender is discussed.”

Purcell said many faculty study gender-based violence. “So we’re lucky to have a lot of centers and faculty and academic programs that put on additional programming and have additional initiatives on the faculty side that help with education, but also the intellectual engagement around these topics.”

Still, universities are not always able to control how their messages land. When Purcell gives Title IX-related presentations, he provides a content warning beforehand. 

“I give those presentations in order for folks to have the information they need to report and get the support they need,” he said. “But I’ve seen the faces of some of the students that are deeply impacted by the words that are coming out of my mouth. Because they have experienced those issues, most likely.”

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Point Park University

In the past two years, Point Park University students have been spreading awareness on social media about sexual violence and harassment they have experienced during their time at the university. In their stories, the survivors warned of the rampant rape culture and in some cases named their abusers in hopes of seeking justice. The university said it takes the students’ feedback seriously and encouraged the students to file Title IX complaints. 

In a statement to PublicSource, the university’s spokesperson Lou Corsaro wrote: “Sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking are not tolerated at Point Park University. We have a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that adhere to all federal Title IX requirements and are designed to protect our students.” 

Vanessa Love, Point Park’s assistant vice president of Compliance & Integrity and its Title IX coordinator, said student involvement has been an important driver of change. She noticed over the years that more students are coming to her to suggest programming around bystander intervention. The university has been able to apply for grants to fund those efforts. 

Making the Title IX process more transparent and understandable is one of the goals for Love’s office. 

“We’ve had a lot of forums where I think everyone was very transparent about what the process looks like, what the procedures look like, and I think that has been helpful to students. But overall, it’s a traumatic process to go through,” she said.

Love said the university is not a final decision-maker after the hearings in the Title IX cases. The decision-maker is not the same person as the investigator or the Title IX coordinator. The university’s role is to make sure everyone complies with the guidelines. 

“Generally, no party is happy at the end of that process, no matter the outcome,” she said. “So even if the complainant wanted the person to be found responsible and they were found responsible, they might not feel like the sanction was what they wanted the sanction to be.”

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Robert Morris University

The Title IX office at Robert Morris tries to connect with students as early and as often as possible, said Lisa Hernandez, Title IX coordinator and chief human resources officer. The office provides information about Title IX to all new and transfer students through a mandatory online program and has partnered with Greek life and the THRIVE Program on campus, she said. 

A few years ago, the office identified a challenge: Some international students did not completely understand Title IX and its protections — or that they had experienced misconduct.

“We would reach out to those students, and we would have to do a lot of education to try and explain to them why the behavior that they had experienced was not OK and what recourse they had,” she said. 

Hernandez said the reports she has dealt with involving international students, though infrequent, have come exclusively from faculty or staff members. “If left to their own devices, I don’t think the international students would self-report as much,” she said.

Though that education gap remains a challenge today, RMU has taken steps to close it. The university has purchased additional training software, which Hernandez and the deputy Title IX coordinator have used at a seminar for international students. 

Hernandez said the Title IX office is a neutral party that’s meant to ensure compliance with the law, but she doesn’t believe the office’s required objectivity is at odds with supporting survivors. The office has “a long list” of resources that it provides survivors and has worked closely with PAAR, she said.

“We extend supportive measures and resources to complainants as well as respondents,” Hernandez said. “As long as someone is a student here, we are going to ensure that they have the supports that they need or we will at least offer them.”

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La Roche University

At La Roche, Colleen Ruefle said social media brings educational benefits and potential investigatory challenges. The university can share tips on healthy relationships and sexual awareness in a way that is more attractive to students, said Ruefle, the Title IX coordinator, vice president for student life and dean of students. 

One drawback, however, is the occasional “drama,” Ruefle said. 

“If we do a no-contact order, if we call somebody in to have a conversation to get their side of the story, we have to be very clear to say: ‘You cannot put this on social media,’” she said.

Social media may prevent the university from receiving complaint-related evidence in its complete context, Ruefle said. For instance, most Snapchat messages automatically disappear.

The university conducts climate surveys each year that assess, in part, whether students believe La Roche would take a report of misconduct seriously. The university consistently receives positive responses, Ruefle said.

La Roche educates students on healthy relationships, consent and the Title IX process. The university’s programming on consent has evolved over the years as younger students frequently have questions about it, she said. 

She used to believe that the fewer reports of sexual misconduct the university received, the better. But a lack of reports may signal that students aren’t comfortable reporting, she said.

“I can only respond to what is being reported to me,” she said. “I think it’s important to create a climate where people are comfortable reporting something.” 

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Community College of Allegheny County [CCAC]

Ketwana Schoos’ long title — CCAC’s civil rights compliance officer and Title IX & ADA/504 coordinator — conveys the range of responsibilities and challenges she has at the college.  Her team is small: Schoos and one other person, a civil rights investigator.

The student demographics of CCAC affect the types of concerns that Schoos deals with. Many students at CCAC are part time, and some may be starting families and require pregnancy accommodations. 

CCAC does not have a residential campus setting, so the nature of complaints is different from a traditional four-year institution with dorms. Since the onset of the pandemic, Schoos saw an uptick in domestic violence and intimate partner violence cases among students. 

CCAC makes up for modest staffing through “a robust network of community partners, the higher education institutions and regional agencies,” Schoos said. For example, one of the doctoral level interns from Pitt’s School of Education was helping with a grant application to focus on support for survivors of domestic violence. 

CCAC does not have peer educators who do on-the-ground programming. Schoos’s office has brought in interns from Pitt to conduct a sexual assault awareness program. It’s a self-paced class for the CCAC community.

More resources would be helpful, Schoos acknowledged, so that CCAC is able to provide in-house support instead of through referrals. 

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Emma Folts covers higher education at PublicSource, in partnership with Open Campus. She can be reached at emma@publicsource.org.

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.

The post We asked Pittsburgh higher ed institutions what they are doing to address sexual violence. This is what they said. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence.

What happened to Melissa Ferraro 30 years ago fuels her purpose today. 

More than half of sexual assaults among college students occur in the fall. Resources, survivor stories and investigation into what’s being done to protect those at risk in the Pittsburgh area. Explore the series.

She was a freshman when she was raped on campus at Penn State Altoona. She didn’t report it at the time. In fact, she didn’t immediately process exactly what had happened to her. But shortly after the assault, she couldn’t go on with her studies. 

She felt depressed and began scratching her skin until she bled. That was her way of coping with these unfamiliar feelings. She had no support.

Not quite herself, she returned home to Pittsburgh. Her grandmother encouraged her to seek professional help. Grandma called what Melissa experienced “melancholy.” Melissa followed the advice; she says therapy “saved” her. 

A native of Pittsburgh, she tells her story here because she wants it to interrupt the cycle of secrecy and guilt that many sexual assault survivors experience. She knows it well — from what she lived through and what she heard from others in her work. 

In the beginning of her career, she worked at the Center for Victims in Pittsburgh. It troubled her to see many mothers bring in their children who had been assaulted and then reveal, for the first time in their lives, that they were survivors, too. Almost always they had not reported what happened and continued living with trauma. That’s what Melissa, now a mom herself, wants to change so that everyone has a chance to heal and have access to available resources. 

Elizabeth, a 25-year-old, was also a freshman when she was assaulted. Like Melissa, she didn’t report what happened to authorities at the time. Yet she was knowledgeable about available resources. 

Her friend worked with the Title IX office so she was familiar with the process and protections the federal civil rights law promises. Yet Elizabeth, who asked PublicSource to shield their identity, decided not to report what happened. 

“I wasn’t ready to deal with that and then a friend who knew the guy and his girlfriend at the time said, ‘Don’t make this a big thing. I’m worried about negativity. This guy’s going to get kicked out of the fraternity’” that he was rushing. “And that threw me off so hard. I was just really confused at that reaction, and it made me second guess myself quite a bit.”

Data on the extent of sexual violence on Pittsburgh-area campuses and campuses across the country is hard to pin down. No one knows for sure how underreported it is. Some estimates say that 1 in 4 female undergraduates experience sexual violence during college. Among the student population surveyed in 2019 by the Association of American Universities, 13% experienced nonconsensual sexual contact by physical force or inability to consent. 

Although more than 20 years separate the violent experiences Melissa and Elizabeth went through as college freshmen, similarities in their stories shed light on trauma, stigma and the importance of support and awareness in healing. Their stories also suggest that in spite of protections and efforts by higher ed institutions to learn about preventing sexual misconduct, victim blaming, guilt and secrecy remain powerful forces that make it even more challenging for survivors of sexual violence on Pittsburgh campuses and beyond to report and heal.  

PublicSource publishes selected extracts of their stories, in their own words, here.  

Melissa 

It happened some time ago, I was 18. This year I am turning 48. I was attending Penn State Altoona and I was under the influence of alcohol at the time. The offender was known to me, but we were not in a romantic relationship. I knew his girlfriend. I was intoxicated to the point of not being able to give consent. And the offender lured me to a secluded location under the pretense of talking to me about something that was troubling him. I can’t recall what it was. He took me to a laundry room in the male side of the dormitory and then raped me without my consent. 

I wasn’t sure, even later that evening, how to identify what happened. I tried to talk to a friend. But she didn’t respond in a way that made me feel like something bad had happened. I was so drunk I vomited, and I was not completely conscious. And that’s what happened in 1993.

I didn’t report it, not because I didn’t remember what happened. I remembered vividly what had happened, but there was no one around to really believe me or support me and help me to understand what had happened.

Elizabeth

It was during my freshman year. I was a Pitt student. And we made friends with some guys on the floor below us. They were “rushing” this frat. The frat house was just outside of the campus and was not owned by the university. And I guess, they weren’t an official frat, but they brought everyone, you know, all the girls over there. I don’t remember anything. I’m not a big drinker in the first place, but I remember having one of the drinks that they had and totally nothing else after that. And I just remember waking up the next morning with someone behind me, and it actually turned out to be the boyfriend of this girl who lived next to me. But I wasn’t really quite sure what happened. 

I didn’t want to think about it. I kind of wanted to just be like, “OK, well, that was done, you know, whatever.” But it impacted me more than I thought at the time. I think that was probably the last time I actively tried to be around men. Actually, I had been assaulted in high school as well. So, that didn’t help. Now I know I’m gay. But that was so solidifying that I became kind of scared of guys. And still, to some degree, I’m not necessarily scared anymore, but mistrustful. I just don’t trust men.

Melissa 

I remember later that year scratching my arm for a long time until I bled. I can see scars from that even now, but faintly, only because I know what I’m looking for. I didn’t know about self-injurious behavior at that time. 

I took a class later that year to become a resident assistant in the dorms, and we were educated about rape. And that’s when I realized what had happened, that I was not able or I was not conscious enough to give consent. And then, again, I talked to a friend about what had happened and labeled it as what I thought was: “acquaintance rape.” She said that that wasn’t what it was. And so, it made me question myself even more. 

I began to abuse alcohol and became so depressed and acted out. I never reported it to the authorities or to a college. And I ended up on academic probation from the school. 

I moved back home to Pittsburgh. My grandmother saw that my behavior had changed a lot. And she recommended that I go and see her doctor. And so when I went to see her doctor, I told her a little bit about what had happened to me. And she put me on an antidepressant, and she recommended that I go to Pittsburgh Action Against Rape [PAAR] to see one of their therapists there. And so I did. And I think that that was a game changer for me. I don’t think I would have been able to move forward in a more healthy manner without the support of the therapist there and without the help of the antidepressant.

Elizabeth

I think a lot of women experience this: not really knowing what constitutes an assault. I think we just get this image in our head of someone popping up from the bushes and like, you know, grabbing you. So, I wasn’t really quite sure what had happened. 

Again, there were girlfriends who were saying, “No, I think that was an assault.” But I don’t think I invited a lot of conversation about it because of the girl who lived next to me; the guy was her boyfriend. I was friends with her roommate. We were sexually intimate, actually. And that friend turned out to not be a good friend. After this incident, she was like, “I don’t want my roommate to be upset. I don’t want her and her boyfriend to get into a fight.” She was not worried about how this impacted me and what happened to me.

I never reported what had happened. I’m very much a compartmentalizer. If something happens, I can be OK and I will deal with it like six months from now, you know? 

Plus, I think reporting and trusting is a little difficult, especially with freshmen. It’s like you don’t have that solid of a friend group. My friend, the roommate of the girlfriend, was kind of my reference point for what was normal and what was not. I for sure wasn’t going to report after that. That was like a nail in the coffin. I’m not doing it. 

Melissa 

I was very alone. And I also felt out of my comfort zone and out of a culture that was familiar to me there. I was around people who were from a different social class than I was, and they did not have the kind of experiences in life that I had. So I had a really hard time identifying with them. And drinking was sort of an equalizer. 

I became a big party girl because it was really the only way I knew how to manage in that environment. And I did poorly at school. I didn’t even know how to study. I was completely unprepared. I was from a low-income background with no support. 

I was a good target. I don’t know how he decided or when he decided he was going to rape me, but I see now how I was vulnerable to having something like that happen. I was perfect in terms of not having support, being a loner and living a life that was sort of risqué. So if you are looking at it like a herd, in a way, I was that perfect animal in the herd to attack. 

I had a lot of guilt for a very long time. I felt this sense of comparison, comparing it to child sexual assault and, you know, serial offenders. Like, who has it worse, you know? I felt that I had culpability in what had happened. I was the kind of person and I behaved in the kind of way that I deserved something like that to happen to me. And because I put myself in that sort of a situation.

I have teenagers now. It’s very important to me that I educate my children about all sides of sexual assault and rape. 

Elizabeth

My parents divorced many years ago. I think my dad still carries some guilt about not being more of a father earlier. We have a good relationship now. But he’ll pull this just overprotective, like weird man stuff, where he’s like: “I’ll kill someone for you.” OK, so you have no idea what life is like. He just has no clue. And when you hear that, you realize he just doesn’t have any understanding of probably a lot of the women in his life, or about assault, that he wouldn’t just go out and kill every single one of their assailants. That’s not how that works. It’s not what your daughter needs. 

And it’s showing up in really weird places. Like one of the things I’m really struggling with now, and I don’t know if this is like due to the assaults or something else, but I am struggling with my sex life. I’m also struggling with even my gender identity, where it feels weird now. And I’m trying to talk to my therapist about it, wondering do I feel nonbinary or do I just not want to be looked at? And it’s tough. It’s becoming a really big kind of presence in my life. I can’t tell if it’s me fighting back against gender norms. Or is it me being really afraid to be looked at as a woman. Maybe I don’t want to be looked at as a potential target? 

Melissa 

Therapy helped me understand and define what had happened and recognize that I didn’t do anything to deserve what happened. That was huge. Because of the depression and the trauma, the place where I was living was very messy. I was still doing all sorts of self-destructive behaviors. I gained a lot of weight.

I can remember the therapist talking to me about how having that messy apartment, not doing the dishes and not having things organized, that when my environment was like that, I was going to feel like that in my head, how it was going to contribute to that out-of-control feeling. And so if I could keep it clean and keep up with the dishes and have things organized, that would help my brain to feel less anxiety, more in control. That was a small thing that I could do to feel more in control of things in my life.

I started exercising. I became healthier all around. At PAAR, they were very accepting of me. The organization and the therapist treated me with dignity, not blame, and gave me tools and ideas about how to move forward. 

And the other thing — they were never saying, “Well, why don’t you press charges? Or why were you drinking so much?” 

When I began to think about what pressing charges would be like, what that experience would be like for me, this was still at a time in history where there was — and there still is — a lot of victim-blaming. And I was sort of ripe for that kind of criticism. I honestly was also afraid that my dad would hurt, injure or kill the offender and that I would end up with my dad in jail. And I felt like the whole process would be awful. I didn’t think anybody would believe me.

Therapy was all about healing and recovery. They also explained to me about how when you have one trauma, that it can bring back memories or trigger other past traumas. It was one of the most important things I learned. It’s essential, you know, it’s like a vital service, helping people recover from a traumatic event like this.

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.

This project has been made possible with the support of the FISA Foundation.

The post These Pittsburgh women survived sexual assault on campus 20 years apart. Their experiences shed light on how little has changed. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence.

Every survivor of sexual violence embarks on their own journey of seeking healing and justice at some point. But oftentimes, they aren’t sure where to start. 

More than half of sexual assaults among college students occur in the fall. Resources, survivor stories and investigation into what’s being done to protect those at risk in the Pittsburgh area. Explore the series.

If you’re a college student who has experienced sexual violence, there are resources and options available to you in the Pittsburgh region and at your university. Advocates, university officials and legal and healthcare professionals who spoke with PublicSource encourage survivors to know their rights and choices and what to expect from the available options. 

Healthcare providers could assist with emergency care and evidence collection. Therapy could help with mental health. Community could translate into support and advocacy. Title IX, a federal law, could be your legal tool.

Justice could mean a lot of things: For some, it’s going through the criminal justice system, while for others, it’s following the Title IX process. Either way, it’s possible these paths may not end with the outcome you’re hoping for. No matter the institutional results, receiving early validation and support from others is frequently crucial, said Megan Schroeder, director of victim response at Pittsburgh Action Against Rape [PAAR].

“We have a lot of conversations with our clients around not holding on to that specific outcome, whatever it is,” Schroeder said. “We really want to think about, along the way, ‘How could we infuse that support or that validation for you so that you can really pull something that you need out of this process, regardless of how it turns out?’”

PAAR has provided counseling and support to survivors for 50 years. The organization operates a 24/7, confidential hotline at 1-866-363-7273, which may serve as a helpful starting point. When you call, counselors walk you through your options, provide support and help you access resources and services. 

PAAR’s website states that advocates can join you anytime at hospital emergency rooms and police stations in the county, explain your university’s policies and provide information on reporting to the police and moving forward with a civil case, among other options. You can find more information on PAAR’s services here.

As you begin your healing journey, here are additional resources and options that may help you.

Seeking medical care

Amanda Ringold, a nurse practitioner in UPMC Magee Womens Hospital’s Emergency Department, encourages students who believe they’ve experienced sexual violence to reach out to a healthcare provider even if they are not sure that they were assaulted. 

“It’s always better to be safe than sorry,” Ringold said. “People will come and say, ‘Well, I’m not even sure if anything happened. I was drinking and I fell asleep. And now my pants are on inside out.’” 

Receiving medical attention as soon as possible can help with evidence collection, if that is an option you’re seeking. UPMC recommends that survivors refrain from changing their clothes, eating, drinking, brushing their teeth or taking a shower until they’ve received care. If you’ve already done any of this, bring the clothes you were wearing with you — evidence can still be collected, according to PAAR.

At UPMC Magee, medical professionals talk to survivors about resources, offer a sexual assault exam or “rape kit” and connect them with therapy support through PAAR as soon as possible, Ringold said. The hospital calls a PAAR advocate immediately upon a survivor’s arrival.

In Allegheny County, nurses specifically trained in caring for survivors are listed as being available at UPMC Magee and UPMC Mercy.

“We have a specific room. It’s got a shower. It’s kind of back in the corner, a little quieter for them,” Ringold said of UPMC Magee. “In the room, [we] do a basic assessment, make sure they don’t have any immediate medical, emergency medical needs, and then we will talk to them about all their options, about getting evidence collection, talking to law enforcement.”

Hospitals are able to treat survivors and collect evidence even if the person has not reported or does not want to report to the police. The patient’s wishes are paramount, Ringold said, and if they choose, they can receive a sexual assault exam. This could include taking saliva and fingernail samples and providing medicine to prevent infections, according to UPMC. 

“We can medically screen them and make sure they’re physically OK and offer them any medication prophylaxis for STDs, pregnancies, HIV and let them go,” Ringold said.

You can contact UPMC Magee’s emergency services line at 412-641-4950. 

Reporting to your university

Filing a complaint through your university’s Title IX office may allow your university to conduct an investigation and will require the institution to provide you with supportive measures. Your university may be able to connect you with counseling, allow you to take a leave of absence or help you have a more manageable course load, among other forms of support. 

A support you may find valuable is a no-contact order, which universities can provide to prohibit you and the person who harmed you from directly contacting each other. You may also be able to request that your university change your campus housing or schedule. 

To receive these accommodations, you’ll need to file a confidential report or a formal complaint with your university, according to Know Your IX. 

Katie Shipp, a partner at Marsh Law Firm, advises students to find their university’s Title IX policy, identify the Title IX coordinator and report their assault. “That’s something that people should be looking into and exactly what they have to do in order to make a complaint that’s going to trigger an investigation.” 

PAAR can also inform survivors of their rights under Title IX, perhaps with a clearer and more trauma-informed approach than a university, said Susie Balcom, a PAAR advocate.

“Sometimes, there’s more trust between us and the students that do come because we’re not working for the university,” Balcom said. “We can answer more nuanced questions, like, ‘What does this legalese information mean?’ — where the Title IX office can’t really step into that space as much.”

Under Title IX, universities can consider evidence beyond what could be collected in a hospital. Journal entries, correspondence, text messages, photos and any witnesses willing to corroborate the report also matter. 

Because memory, especially at the time of trauma, can be vulnerable, legal experts recommend that students record everything they remember about the incident. 

If you pursue a formal complaint, Shipp said what follows is “a court-like proceeding.”

• Your Title IX office will interview you, and the perpetrator will get a summary of the allegations and have the ability to speak with counsel.
• The Title IX office will interview the perpetrator.
• The Title IX office will decide whether to start an investigation after which the university may bring in a third-party investigator.
• A hearing will take place at which each party is eligible to have an adviser, who can be an attorney. At this time, you may be subjected to cross-examination. 
• The university will issue a decision and provide an opportunity to appeal. If the perpetrator is found responsible, the university may impose sanctions like withholding of a degree, expulsion from school, a written apology letter or a suspension.

Under current Title IX guidelines, schools are not required to respond to complaints that occur outside of campus, Shipp said. There is also no time limit, so the Title IX process can be drawn out. The Biden administration recently proposed additional changes to how complaints are handled, which are currently under review. 

Seeking mental and emotional health support

Participating in therapy or counseling can help you begin to process your experience and heal. It’s common for survivors to feel a variety of emotions after their trauma or to experience anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. 

In the state of Pennsylvania, survivors of sexual abuse who are over the age of 18 can apply to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to receive up to $5,000 in counseling services — without having to report to the police. 

“For most people, it ends up being enough money for a year or more of therapy, which can just make all the difference,” Balcom said. “That can be really intensive trauma therapy, that can be something different.”

To apply, you’ll need to fill out this form. On the form, you’ll fill out some personal information, including your name, address and Social Security number as well as the approximate date and location of your assault. You’ll also need to provide contact information for your counseling provider.

PAAR’s professionally trained therapists also offer individual and group counseling for adults as well as support groups specifically for men, college students and members of the LGBTQ community. 

• Call 412-431-5665 for information on PAAR’s therapy offerings.
• You can find a full list of PAAR’s available support groups here.
• Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network [RAINN], a national anti-sexual violence organization, has also compiled resources for self-care after trauma, which you can find here, and information on finding a therapist, available here. 

Balcom, who works with PAAR’s Victim Response Team, describes the alternative paths survivors can take and the challenges they may face along each, likening it to a series of roads. Survivors can walk down “Criminal Justice Avenue,” for example, and that proverbial walk may take two years or more but then that road may be closed and you have to turn around and take other turns. 

“I like using the metaphor of the roads because there’s so many roads that we can take,” Balcom said. “Some of it looks like therapy, some of it looks like advocacy work of their own. I mean, you name it. And it can be a road toward healing.”  

More resources:

Although this article is specifically aimed at college students, all survivors may find resources here that may be useful to them and organizations like PAAR who serve populations beyond students. Here are even more resources to consider:

• Center for Victims offers therapy, legal help and other services. Details are available here.
• Sisters Place offers walk-in social services. For more information, visit here.
• Women’s Law Project is a nonprofit legal organization focused on women’s and LGBTQ rights. Visit here.
• Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape offers information, resources and advocacy here.
• Free 24-hour National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673

Illustrations by Andrea Shockling.

Emma Folts covers higher education at PublicSource, in partnership with Open Campus. She can be reached at emma@publicsource.org.

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

This story was fact-checked by Matt Maielli.

This project has been made possible with the support of the FISA Foundation.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has contributed funding to PublicSource’s healthcare reporting.

The post Pittsburgh college students: If you’ve experienced sexual violence, these local resources can help. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

At the Light of Life Rescue Mission, signs of crisis came early this year. 

Staff at Downtown Pittsburgh’s cold-weather shelter reached out in early January to ask Light of Life to help with the overflow of people experiencing homelessness. And they did, by opening extra beds. But the crisis has not abated. 

Light of Life continues operating at overflow capacity to this day, at a time of year when they would have expected the need to have dissipated. 

“We’re expecting this to be a long-term situation,” said Jerrel T. Gilliam, executive director of Light of Life. “It is time to raise the red flag and to say, ‘It’s all hands on deck.’ We have to get some solutions quickly before this crisis is much worse than it is.”

Some shelters serving people without housing in the Pittsburgh area report that they have either been operating at capacity since the beginning of the year or having a harder than usual time finding more permanent housing solutions. 

The strain is caused by what Shannon Shaffer, senior manager of operations at Bethlehem Haven, called “a perfect storm” of factors driven in part by more than two years of the pandemic.

• Providers face a changing mix of emergency needs like mental health challenges and substance/alcohol use. 
• Rents have been rising all across the United States, including Pittsburgh.
• The eviction moratorium expired in August, and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) phased out in May. 
• Waiting lists for stable housing solutions are getting longer. Extremely low-income households in the Pittsburgh metro area (a seven-county region) exceed the number of affordable and available rental units by nearly 43,000 homes, according to the Gap Report released in March by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.  

Social services have been strained beyond the norm, Shaffer said, and new populations require help.

“We have seen an increase in needs, trending among older individuals,” she said. “Older women are aging into homelessness and experiencing this sort of acute form of trauma for the first time.”

At the East End Cooperative Ministry [EECM], president and CEO Carole Bailey has seen a higher number of people seeking their services. 

“Pre-pandemic 2019 to 2020, we were at about 80% to 85%” of capacity, she said. In 2020, EECM had 50% to 60% of the beds full, with the dip likely due to support available through government programs and policies like the eviction moratorium. 

“We are now almost at 100% capacity all the time,” Bailey said. “We have a waiting list for both our recovery house and our emergency shelter.” 

Bethlehem Haven, an emergency shelter serving women, has also seen a change. “In recent months, the wait times have been longer for our guests. It’s taking longer to provide permanent housing. It’s almost like a stall,” said Kendra Toseki, the emergency shelter supervisor.   

A new state-of-the-art facility under construction promises to alleviate some of the strain. Second Avenue Commons is supposed to open in the fall. The facility will include a low-barrier shelter to serve people with various needs, including those who cannot be accommodated at other shelters for various reasons. But its rules of engagement with public safety agencies are still in the works.

Providers: Harder to serve

COVID has not only translated into economic insecurities. For some people, it also triggered mental health crises. Gilliam said COVID brought isolation, and isolation brought depression and self-medicating behaviors. “We’ve seen an increase of people on the street that have underlying mental health issues,” he said.

The available shelters in Allegheny County are not always able to provide the level of care people in mental health emergency need, Gilliam explained. They can’t always handle people who are suicidal, have schizophrenia, struggle with paranoid thoughts or threaten others. 

Shelter providers tried to convene a conversation earlier this spring about supporting people with severe mental health needs, according to Gilliam. But little came of it. They don’t have a solution yet to prevent people with urgent needs from hurting themselves or others. 

“We were trying to say to the county, we need to have an intervention with these people who have severe mental health [needs]. … We can’t help them,” he said. “They need a place to go to that has a higher level of care.”

Stigma and potential criminalization of mental health difficulties make it harder to find a lasting solution. According to Bailey at the EECM, it can be hard to convince people who have severe mental health issues or substance abuse issues to see health professionals. 

“Because one, everything is so backed up and there’s not enough mental health professionals,” Bailey said. “And two, because a mental health diagnosis may follow people around and make it harder to access jobs, housing and other services.” 

County: No recent change

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services [DHS] supports a range of services to prevent homelessness, and funds and works with a network of shelters. It tracks the number of available beds and shares the tally with the network of providers daily. It also conducts an annual one-day count of people experiencing homelessness. Since 2020, that has  resulted in tallies ranging from 692 to 887.

DHS acknowledges that some shelters are at capacity but says, overall, it’s business as usual.

“We have a process every day where we share out the number of available beds at the shelters with our provider network. Some shelters are full and some are not. I wouldn’t say that there has been a change recently with that,” said Andy Halfhill, administrator of homeless services at the DHS. 

The county engages with the service providers, the Homeless Advisory Board and various subcommittees to assess the ongoing need. It also says it responds to the Director’s Action Line to which people can submit concerns and problems they experience with homelessness services. 

Halfhill from the DHS acknowledges that there are unmet needs, especially among the unsheltered, and points to the Second Avenue Commons as a way to bridge the gap: “We know that that is going to be a great asset to the community that will add more capacity.”

New shelter: Walls built, rules still undone

Second Avenue Commons, slated to open mid-September, is designed to address some of the barriers for people experiencing homelessness in Allegheny County. With 95 year-round beds and an additional 40 available in the winter, it will expand shelter capacity. 

The five-story, 45,000-square-foot building will have four entities operating inside. As a low-barrier shelter, it will be able to accommodate people who have pets, partners and those who may be actively using drugs. 

The project was spearheaded by PNC Bank and the PNC Foundation three years ago with support from Highmark Health, UPMC and other funders. The City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority donated the lot for the property. The overall cost for the project is expected to be about $22 million, according to Linda Metropulos, the president of the board of nonprofit Second Avenue New Commons Inc. Additional funders include local foundations: the Hillman Foundation, R.K. Mellon Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation.*

The facility will have a day program operated by Pittsburgh Mercy. Pittsburgh Mercy was chosen as the operator out of four applications that the DHS received in response to a request for proposals. 

The Commons is expected to meet a variety of needs. People off the street will be able to come in, get mail or take a shower. The top two floors are planned for 43 units of single-room occupancy housing for which occupants will sign leases. 

UPMC made a 10-year commitment to run a medical and behavioral health clinic in the building. There will also be a food program in the facility. 

“It’s a much broader engagement with the corporate and medical community,” Metropulos said. “It’s just an amazing project that demonstrates the best of Pittsburgh, how these various groups are coming together to create something that’s new for the most fragile residents of our community.”

One of the biggest puzzles for the facility’s operations remains the policies and procedures for engagement with Emergency Medical Services [EMS], police and the jail. 

One of the goals for Second Avenue Commons, as Metropulos put it, is “to make sure people are not hurting themselves, not hurting other people, being proactive and able to de-escalate situations that might arise.”

A working group of stakeholders, including funders, has been meeting every Tuesday afternoon since April. Recently, they met with the city police and, separately, with EMS. But the exact working relationships have not been worked out.

“We haven’t codified anything. We haven’t finalized those discussions, but we have all the right people at the table,” Metropulos said.

Yet, it is exactly those procedures and policies that will guide the accessibility of Second Avenue Commons and determine whether it’s able to build trust with people who are experiencing homelessness. With the current shelter providers straining to address growing needs, that process could go a long way to deciding whether a challenging summer gives way to a better sheltered fall.

*PublicSource receives funding from the Hillman Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation.

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist based in Pittsburgh. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

This story was fact-checked by Terryaun Bell.

The post Shelter providers strain to meet demand in Allegheny County. Will a new facility address the homelessness crisis soon enough? appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Amazon has withdrawn its controversial plan to build a massive distribution center in Churchill three months after it received an approval from the borough council to move forward. 

A group of residents opposing the development filed an appeal in court in January, delaying the project further after almost two years of discussions with public officials, multiple impact studies and an extensive public hearing process. 

It’s that delay that may have killed the project in Churchill, according to Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald said in a phone conversation that he attributes Amazon’s decision to move on to uncertainty about how long the plans would be delayed in court. He noted how much Amazon is building in the region, citing developments in Findlay and North Versailles, and his guess is that they will build the distribution center somewhere else in the region. “The borough council voted to approve it but then a group of people who didn’t like the decision of their elected officials filed an appeal. This puts a lot of delay and again, the business plan for companies is that they need to move forward. They cannot be sitting around.”

In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Loni Monroe wrote: “It is common for us to explore multiple locations simultaneously and adjust based on our operational needs. While we have decided not to pursue the site in Churchill, PA, we are still committed to being a good neighbor, corporate citizen and community partner.”

Amazon also said that it employs over 4,000 people in the area and claims to have committed over $2 billion “in economic growth, infrastructure and employee compensation in the past decade” in the past decade. Supporters of the project, which included Fitzgerald, State Sen. Jay Costa and Congressman Mike Doyle, touted economic benefits to the community, tax revenue and jobs, between 1,000 and 1,500 of them. Based on the development’s projected value, Hillwood predicted that new annual tax revenue would be around $11.7 million.

Walking away from the former Westinghouse site

The Churchill proposal was billed as an estimated $300 million investment to build a 2.9-million-square-foot warehouse, with 1,794 parking spaces on the site of the former George Westinghouse Research and Technology Park that has been vacant for over 20 years.

Developer Hillwood and Amazon got an approval for the conditional-use application last December. Churchill Future, a group of residents who oppose the development, filed an appeal in the Court of Common Pleas in January challenging the 5-2 vote of Churchill borough council.

“I am disappointed for the kids coming out of the Woodland Hills School District who would have great opportunities for jobs in an area that hasn’t had a lot of development,” Fitzgerald said in an interview Friday. “They could use some job opportunities for some of the young people. I am disappointed that a small group of people just hurt their opportunity. They took it away from them. It’s been 20 years that this site has been sitting vacant and hopefully it does not sit vacant for another 20 years.”

Fitzgerald also said that it may be very difficult for anyone to want to spend a lot of time and effort to develop the site after witnessing Churchill Future’s impact. “These folks might have succeeded in killing off development in Churchill.”

Alex Graziani, Churchill’s borough manager, wrote in a Friday email to PublicSource that the borough “has not been apprised of any change in the status of the proposed Distribution Center development from the applicant, Churchill Creek Project.” He brought up the appeal that was filed to challenge the conditional use approval vote from December. “Should the status of that proceeding change, the Borough will be prepared to comment but until such a change occurs, the Borough is unable to comment further at this time,” he wrote. 

Churchill Future’s opposition

Residents opposing the development said that the application did not meet the requirements of the zoning code and that the proximity of the Amazon warehouse to homes would hurt the health of the residents, decrease property values and endanger kids living in the area. They were concerned that heavy traffic, which would include tractor-trailers flowing into the facility around the clock, would further pollute the area already located close to sources of industrial pollution. 

Cathy Bordner, a member of Churchill Future, said she was astounded by the news. Many residents who have been working to oppose this development have been texting and emailing after they heard about Amazon pulling it. She said people “are very relieved and they are just so elated.” Sandy Fox, another member of Churchill Future said before this news she started considering where else she could live. 

​​Kate Carrigan Hill, a Churchill Future member who lives on Beulah Road where the Amazon warehouse was proposed, wonders what made the difference in Amazon calling off its plans but regardless recognizes that what comes of this land will remain a concern for her and the community.  

“I don’t know if we’ll ever know whatever happened…” she said. “But we have to stay together because at this point we need to have our council work for us.”

Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a national policy resource center, said one can never tell what tipped the scale for Amazon. But he sees it as a sign that community organizing works. 

He said that this is at least the fourth Amazon massive warehouse plan he knows of that has been pulled back. The others include Grand Island, New York, in the summer of 2020; the Oceanside City case in California where the council rejected an Amazon warehouse last summer; and there was a case in San Diego where Amazon withdrew plans after officials wanted to improve worker conditions and pay.

Update (3/21/2022): This story was updated to include comment from Churchill’s borough manager.

Mila Sanina is an independent journalist based in Pittsburgh. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

The post Amazon nixes its plan to build a distribution center in Churchill appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

The Churchill Borough Council gave its blessing to a controversial plan from Hillwood Development to build a sprawling Amazon distribution center at the site of what used to be the George Westinghouse Research and Technology Park. 

Five members of the council voted in favor of the proposal and two, Norma Greco and Adam McDowell, voted against it.

A group of residents opposing the Amazon development said they would appeal the council’s decision in court. 

The distribution center — which Amazon calls “a robotics sortable fulfillment center” — would be a 2.9-million-square-foot warehouse, with 1,794 parking spaces. It’s an estimated $300 million investment, the largest development in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh in recent memory. The site has been vacant for over 20 years. 

During a council meeting Tuesday night hosted on Zoom, before the council’s vote, dozens of residents spoke in opposition to the Hillwood proposal and only one spoke in support. Almost 300 people joined the virtual meeting.

A few members of the seven-member council spoke before the roll call. McDowell stated that his concerns have been around the air quality and he does not believe that the applicant has put in an adequate effort to meet the criteria for the conditional use. Greco agreed with McDowell. Those who voted in support of Hillwood’s application said that within the framework of the law, the applicant has met the criteria but they have been frustrated by the “thresholds” set by the law. The approval comes with a number of conditions to mitigate the impact of the project.

One council member, Kevin Collins, noted the $15 to $20 million cost to clean up the site that the borough would not bear under this proposal and the tax revenue that the development would bring. “Churchill borough needs commercial tax revenue… there is a guarantee of a minimum property tax revenue of $2.4 million per year for 10 years,” he said.

The vote, which approved the conditional-use application by Hillwood Development, follows an extended public hearing process that stretched over 14 virtual meetings and concluded on Oct. 25. The borough council amended the zoning ordinance to allow for the warehouse use in fall of 2020. The next step is a separate land development approval process with the planning commission and council.

Immediately after the council meeting, a group of residents representing opposition group Churchill Future spoke during a press conference denouncing the council’s vote. The speakers expressed disappointment, sadness, a sense of “betrayal” and “disgust” over the decision by the council, which they said “caved to the greed” of Amazon against the interests of Churchill residents.

“We are going to take it to the appellate courts. We need funding to continue fighting this. We cannot let Amazon take over our town,” said resident Kate Carrigan Hill, who lives right across the street from the project site. 

Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly issued a statement thanking the borough council: “We appreciate the Churchill Borough Council voting to allow this project to move forward and we’re committed to being a good partner in the community. While additional steps remain, we’re looking forward to creating at least 1,000 family sustaining jobs with good benefits and flexible hours, and to working with local schools, residents, and community groups to make a lasting and positive impact in Churchill and the entire region.”

The development has garnered significant opposition from some residents of Churchill, a borough of about 3,000 people. They formed a grassroots group called Churchill Future, hired a lawyer and have been doing research, fundraising and raising awareness about the project leading up to the council vote. The members of Churchill Future believe that an Amazon warehouse of the size proposed by Hillwood does not belong in a residential area and does not meet the criteria set by the zoning ordinance. 

Supporters of the project tout economic benefits to the community, tax revenue and jobs, between 1,000 and 1,500 of them, according to an economic study. The study from Hillwood also estimates more than 2,000 construction-related jobs. Based on the development’s projected value, Hillwood predicts that new annual tax revenue would be around $11.7 million. Taxes owed would depend on the property’s assessed value and whether the assessment is appealed.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald thanked Churchill Borough Council in a statement, touting the benefits of the project. “This is going to be a substantial development, not just for Churchill, but also for the residents in all of our eastern suburbs. It’s particularly exciting for these communities that haven’t seen as much growth as other areas of our county.

“This site has sat vacant for two decades but is now being brought back with potentially thousands of jobs, particularly for Woodland Hills students, allowing residents throughout those communities the benefit of economic growth,” Fitzgerald said in the statement. 

Those opposing the development worry that the proximity of the Amazon warehouse to residents’ homes would hurt the health of the residents, decrease home property values and endanger kids living in the area. They are concerned that heavy traffic, which would include tractor-trailers flowing into the facility around the clock, would further pollute the area already located close to sources of industrial pollution. 

The Amazon site would be equivalent to 43 football fields and in close proximity to two schools. The members of Churchill Future are concerned that the development will destroy the existing ecosystem, kill 1,400 mature trees and create stormwater runoff issues. They also say that the construction may compromise the site spread across an abandoned coal mine and disrupt the land holding Parkway East. During the public hearings, some residents pointed out that the Amazon site would be adjacent to the property that holds the hot cell facility and the radioactive waste stored there.

To demonstrate that the development meets the requirements of the zoning law, Hillwood commissioned impact studies on traffic, pollution, noise, light and stormwater from Langan Engineering (Hillwood’s engineers) and Gateway Engineers (the borough’s engineers). 

Amazon has been expanding its footprint in Allegheny County. In October, Amazon bought the Eastland Mall site in North Versailles. The company has been pursuing a facility in Lawrenceville, in a former Sears outlet warehouse on 51st Street, and a sortation center in Findlay Township, west of Pittsburgh.

The facility in Churchill would be a distribution center feeding “last-mile” facilities in North Versailles and Lawrenceville.

Mila Sanina is a reporter in Pittsburgh and the former executive director of PublicSource. She can be reached at mila.sanina@gmail.com.

The post Churchill Borough gives Amazon OK for a warehouse on former Westinghouse site appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.