This Law Grad Gets Justice For Survivors Of Campus Sexual Violence

This is Mentoring Moments (#43), a series of WOW-you-need-to-know-these stories from successful women of multiple generations. Mentoring Moments is now a podcast. 

Like most college freshmen, Laura Dunn entered the University of Wisconsin eager to enjoy campus life and focus on her studies. It was supposed to be “the best time of her life.” Unfortunately, like too many college students across the country, sexual violence stole this experience from her.

At first Dunn remained silent, then one day a professor shared a life-changing statistic: 80% of campus rape victims remain silent. That gave her the courage to speak up and take action. Now Dunn is a nationally recognized victim-turned-victim’s rights attorney, published legal scholar in The Georgetown Journal of Gender and Law on the topic of campus sexual violence, Echoing Green Global Fellow, and the founder and Executive Director of the Washington D.C. based national not-for-profit organization SurvJustice, which increases the prospect of justice for survivors by holding perpetrators and enablers of campus sexual violence accountable. SurvJustice is the only national nonprofit providing survivors with attorneys in campus hearings across the country (hard to believe, but prior to 2013, survivors were not allowed to have an attorney present unless a college chose to provide such a right). This is Dunn’s Mentoring Moment, in her words:

In April 2004, two men on my crew team raped me. It was late at night and I was drunk, so I trusted these two men when they offered to walk me safely to another party. Instead, these men took advantage of me. They walked me to an off campus apartment and raped me as I passed in and out of consciousness. Like many victims, I did not know what to do or even what to call it. I knew it was wrong, I knew I didn’t want it, but I knew these men so didn’t think it could be called rape. They were not strangers who violently attacked me on the street. So I chose to stay silent, blame myself for being drunk, and tried to get on with my life.

The next semester, I heard a presentation on acquaintance rape and alcohol-facilitated sexual assault during a sociology course. I realized that what had happened could also be called rape, but I still chose to be silent. I blamed myself again, this time for not going to the police right away and for not getting a rape kit. Then one day my philosophy professor spoke about campus rape. I learned that over 80% of victims remain silent. That’s when I knew I couldn’t be part of this silent majority any longer. I had to speak out to stop rape from affecting others on campus.

After reporting my rape, I struggled for years through the campus, criminal and civil systems of justice. I faced hostility from campus officials, victim blaming from police, and had my civil case mismanaged by a local attorney who missed the statute of limitations on my claim. Despite this injustice, I refused to accept the silence and shame put upon survivors of sexual violence. Instead, I spoke out publicly to share my experience using my name and face so that the nation could have a personalized view of the people who are affected by campus sexual violence. I also filed a Title IX complaint against the University of Wisconsin.

In 2010, the Center for Public Integrity and NPR told my story of injustice and informed survivors about the right to file a Title IX complaint (like I had). From speaking out, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) invited me to meet with them and discuss how Title IX, a civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination, could better address the epidemic of sexual violence on campus. As a result of this meeting Vice President Biden released a new Title IX guidance in 2011, known as the “Dear Colleague Letter,” that explicitly required schools to address complaints of campus sexual violence. Today there are over 200 colleges and universities across the country under federal investigations for mishandling campus sexual violence under Title IX.

I continued my efforts for justice while in law school by working with national advocates to draft, lobby and successfully pass the Campus SaVE Act as part of the 2013 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. This Act provides survivors the right to an attorney as an advisor of choice within campus hearings on sexual assault, intimate partner violence and stalking. Prior to this, survivors were not allowed to have an attorney present unless a college chose to provide such a right.

Upon graduating law school, I founded SurvJustice, a national not-for-profit organization that increases the prospect of justice for all survivors through effective legal assistance, policy advocacy, and institutional training. As part of these efforts, we are working with the National Crime Victim’s Law Institute to provide trainings through the National Alliance of Victim Rights Attorneys & Advocates (NAVRA) on how to represent survivors in campus hearings to ensure their access to justice.

A few months ago, while attending the United State of Women Summit as a nominated changemaker, I heard Vice President Biden speak about the It’s On Us campaign and the role of young men to say, “it’s their responsibility. . . [w]e have to educate everyone on the importance of respect and mutual and affirmative consent. Consent isn’t, ‘Well, I didn’t hear no.’ Sex without consent is rape. It is full stop rape. And if you cannot consent because you are unconscious it is rape. It is rape. Period. ... Everyone has a responsibility to begin the change the culture of campuses.” These words ring true to my experience as a survivor. It is everyone’s responsibility to speak up as part of this waive of activism sweeping our nation to end sexual violence. Survivors deserve justice .