S25 Ep4: Institutional Betrayal: How Title IX Fails Survivors with Dr. Nicole Bedera
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What is the significance of Title IX in addressing sexual violence on campus?
Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences and discusses topics that may be upsetting. This season discusses sexual, physical and psychological violence. Please consume the following episodes with care. For a full content warning, sources and resources for each individual episode, please visit the episode notes. Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Broken Cycle Media. The podcast and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. Thank you so much for listening.
You think you know me, you don't know me well at all. You don't know anybody till you talk to someone.
I am so excited to be speaking with Dr. Badera today, who received her PhD from the University of Michigan. She's the co-founder of the consulting practice Beyond Compliance, which works on anti-violence initiatives and supports organizations' efforts to respond to and prevent sexual violence. Over the last decade, she has researched sexual violence across various contexts, including college campuses and LGBTQ plus communities, exploring how institutional policies, cultural norms and organizational practices shape patterns of abuse and institutional betrayal.
How has the enforcement of Title IX changed over recent administrations?
Her research has been featured in major media outlets. including the New York Times, NPR, Time Magazine, Slate, and Teen Vogue. Dr. Badera, I'm honored to be speaking with you today and especially to discuss your book, On the Wrong Side, How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence. Thank you so much for speaking with me. Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to be here. What's it like to be in the New York Times? The first time I was in the New York Times, it was because I wrote an opinion piece about campus sexual violence. And it was in this moment, if you think about the recent history of Title IX, we have the Obama administration who comes in and basically says, we're going to enforce Title IX for really some of the first times ever in a really big way. There'd been all of these laws and regulations on the books that universities had been ignoring, and Obama said, we're going to do something about it. And so there was all of this renewed effort and excitement around Title IX. And then Trump took office. And one of Trump's big campaign promises was to reverse all of that and to say, we're going to go back to the way things were before or worse, where Title IX either will not be enforced or it will be used to punish survivors.
That was the moment when I wrote my opinion piece for The New York Times was after the Trump administration had taken power and they put out their draft of how they wanted to change the way sexual assault was handled on campus. It was a wild experience for so many reasons, including that at the time I was still a graduate student.
What are common misconceptions about university responses to sexual violence?
I was in my second year at the University of Michigan. I'd had my master's at that point. So I wasn't super, super fresh into grad school and research. But I think a lot of people thought I was too fresh to be able to talk about these types of things. And so that played a role. A lot of people who just thought, step to the side, you don't have a right to talk about this, which I thought was interesting, given that students are some of the primary victims of sexual violence on a college campus. In some ways, you'd think that would make me more credible. But I really saw the gamut of responses. I saw people who were worried about what was happening, who cared about it very much. It was a very widely shared piece.
That was one of my first forays into the type of harassment and hostility towards anybody who speaks about this too publicly and speaks about sexual violence too publicly. I got a series of emails from a sociology professor, of all people, who really wanted me to use my platform to defend perpetrators. Writing in the New York Times, it was sort of the first time I started hearing from perpetrators via email regularly, which has been a feature of my work ever since.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the significance of Title IX in addressing sexual violence on campus?
0:00–1:44
2
How has the enforcement of Title IX changed over recent administrations?
1:44–3:13
3
What are common misconceptions about university responses to sexual violence?
3:13–4:35
4
How does institutional betrayal affect survivors of sexual violence?
4:35–6:29
5
What indicators suggest a university may protect perpetrators?
6:29–8:13
6
How do faculty and staff contribute to the dynamics of sexual violence on campus?
8:13–9:32
7
What structural reforms could improve the Title IX process?
9:32–11:35
8
How can individuals advocate for survivors and contribute to change?
11:35–1:10:13