Dr. Nicole Bedera

And if we could change the powers at be, which is not an easy thing to do, but I think we could end sexual violence in our whole society within a generation.

I genuinely believe that.

And that gives me a lot of hope that even with all the barriers they're trying to put in our way, we ultimately will be the ones who can create a safe society.

I think it's a possible thing to have.

And I think it connects us more to our humanity when we move closer to that project.

When I'm feeling depressed about things, it makes me feel better that the people who are the freshest, their initial inclination is to be on the right side and that it takes learning to be on the wrong side.

Education is certainly power.

The number one thing that I think that everybody should do is think about the positions of power they hold and how they can leverage that power to help survivors.

When I say this, a lot of people, where their head goes to is how do I punish a perpetrator?

How do I exact accountability in some form on a perpetrator?

And that is not the same thing as helping survivors.

I heard a lot from survivors about the people who made them feel supported, the people who helped them stay in school and complete their educations, which is not a small task when you're experiencing institutional betrayal.

And they would talk about just the simplest of things that they needed from other people that sometimes they could get from other people.

And so what I would want all the listeners to do is to think of those types of things they could offer.

So these are things like when a student went to a professor because they were falling behind in class, because the traumatic impact of everything that was happening was too hard, and also because the Title IX process just interferes in your schooling.

They'll expect you to be there for an investigation during a final exam, and they will ask you to just miss out on your educational opportunities.

When that would happen to survivors and they would go to faculty, some of the professors would say things like, the thing you missed was a journal assignment.

It's worth less than 1% of your grade.

I'm going to waive that and I'm going to take that burden off of you.

as a form of essentially a reparation for the burden that the institution has put on you around this Title IX investigation.