Combating Gender-Based Violence Student Toolkit
How Could GBV Affect Me and My Studies?
Any kind of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) can be traumatic. It can affect you, your studies, and your campus life.
Trauma is an event or set of circumstances resulting in physical, emotional, or life-threatening harm. Trauma can occur during a one-time event, or due to multiple or long-term repetitive events. Trauma resulting from GBV can have a significant and detrimental impact on the mental and physical health of the survivor.
Although trauma affects each individual differently, some common effects of trauma include:
- Emotional responses such as anger, fear, sadness, shame, or emotional numbness;
- Sleep problems;
- Physical pain or problems;
- Hypervigilance;
- Intrusive thoughts or memories;
- Disordered eating;
- Self-harm;
- Self-medication; or
- Academic challenges, including difficulty concentrating, attending class, or completing assignments.
Should I Report GBV? If So, How?
If you have experienced or are currently experiencing GBV, it is important to not place blame on yourself and to remember that you are not alone. Support is available for you when you are ready. Only you can decide whether to report GBV you have experienced.
This page provides information on how to report GBV to your school, to police, or to federal authorities. You can report to more than one of these places or make the choice to not report at all. It may be helpful to talk to an off-campus confidential victim advocacy service in your community to understand your options before you make a report.
All schools that receive federal financial assistance must designate a Title IX coordinator. Anyone who experiences sex-based harassment, including GBV, can ask for help from the school’s Title IX coordinator, including help in making a complaint of sex-based harassment. You can find the contact information for your school’s Title IX coordinator on your school’s website or in the student handbook.
The Title IX coordinator can give you information about your rights and your school’s obligations under Title IX. They also can provide information about supportive measures, resources, and services that may be available. If the GBV occurred on campus (or off campus, in certain circumstances), your school’s Title IX coordinator can also:
- Help you make a complaint;
- Provide information about the Title IX grievance procedures; and
- Provide information about other student misconduct policies that may also prohibit this conduct.
The Title IX coordinator can also explain other options the school may offer, such as informal resolution.
If you make a complaint about GBV that occurred on campus (or off campus, in certain circumstances), your school must follow its Title IX grievance procedures to investigate and resolve the complaint. You can find information about those procedures on the school’s website or obtain it from the Title IX coordinator. During the Title IX grievance process, you must have an equal opportunity to present witnesses and other evidence, and an equal opportunity to have an advisor of your choice help you through the process. The school also must notify the parties about the outcome of the complaint. For more information about the process and your rights, contact the Title IX coordinator at your school.
The Clery Act is a law that requires institutions to develop and implement policies, procedures, and programs to make campuses safer and to provide safety information to students, employees, parents, and others. It also requires institutions to publish crime statistics and policies and make them available for all students, prospective students, employees and prospective employees. This information enables campus community members to make informed decisions about where they will study, work, and live. If you report a crime to campus security officials, it should be included in your school’s crime statistics.
The Department of Education’s Clery Group reviews Clery Act complaints. If you file a Clery Act complaint, you must provide a statement of your concerns and attach any records or other information that you would like the Clery Group to consider. You can submit your complaint by email to CleryComplaints@ed.gov.
If you submit a complaint, a campus crime compliance specialist will assess your complaint. They may contact you during this process to request additional documents and information about the nature of the incident and your school’s response to it. The Clery Group may also contact your school. Once they have collected and analyzed the relevant information, the Clery Group will determine whether your school needs to change its security policies, practices or reports.
Campus Police or Public Safety Department
Campus police or public safety departments can typically provide students and others with assistance related to safety concerns on or near campus, including identifying and assisting noncitizen survivors. On some campuses, officers have the same type of authority as other police officers, including the ability to make arrests on campus. On other campuses, officers do not have that authority, but they may be able to assist students and others in contact with law enforcement. To find out how to contact your campus police or public safety department, consult your school’s website, confidential advocacy services provider, Title IX coordinator, or dean of students.
Local Police
Local or off-campus police include city, county, and state police. Local police departments are part of the local or state government. Their staff are not employed by colleges or universities. Local police investigate whether a crime has occurred under applicable law. For example, domestic assault is typically a crime that local police may investigate under state law. To contact local police, you can:
- Go to the local police station;
- Contact the police department’s non-emergency number; or
- Dial 911 in an emergency.
If you report to local police what happened to you and they determine a crime may have occurred under state law, they will send your report to the local prosecutor for the county or state where the possible crime occurred. Your school’s advocate or advocacy services may be able to give you more information concerning the local criminal process. Some local police departments also have their own policies for supporting survivor applications for T and U visas via a certification process.
Federal Law Enforcement
Federal law enforcement officers, including officers with DHS Homeland Security Investigations, are sworn officers who investigate violations of federal (U.S.) law, such as violations of federal human trafficking laws or FGM/C laws.
Victim Assistance Specialists and other Law Enforcement Agency Victim Advocates
Law enforcement agencies at all levels (local, state, and federal) commonly have victim assistance specialists to support and assist victims during a criminal investigation or prosecution. Victim assistance specialists assess a victim’s needs, find appropriate resources, and help ensure that the victim’s needs and priorities are considered and respected.
What Types of Support Services are Available on Campus and Off-Campus?
As a student experiencing GBV, you may be entitled to supportive measures under Title IX, also known as accommodations, to ensure that you can safely continue your education, even if you do not initiate Title IX grievance procedures.
Accommodations are intended to restore or preserve equal access to a school’s education program or activity. They may include measures to protect the safety of all parties or the school’s educational environment. If a school determines that an individual poses an immediate and serious threat to anyone’s health or safety, and that removing that person from its education program or activity is justified, the school may remove the individual on an emergency basis.
You also may request accommodations such as counseling, extended deadlines or other adjustments to course requirements, modified work or class schedules, campus safety escorts, restrictions on contact between you and your abuser, changes in where you live or work, leaves of absence, increased security, monitoring of certain areas of the campus, and other similar accommodations. Schools have discretion about what types of supportive measures to provide. Your school’s Title IX coordinator is responsible for coordinating support services and connecting you with school resources.
If you are considering asking for accommodations and you are attending school on a student visa, be aware of the unique issues that may arise. For example, certain student visas require a student to maintain a full-time course load. For more information, see the School Enrollment and Immigration Considerations page.
Many universities and colleges also offer confidential resources and confidential advocacy services on campus, though each school’s services, if available, may have a different name.
Confidential resources may include medical services, counseling, or chaplains and pastoral care. Some health centers on campuses may also have a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) who can provide physical examinations and evidence collection after a sexual assault. You can use the Get Help Off Campus section above to connect to confidential off-campus resources.
Confidential advocacy refers to advocacy services provided by professionals (sometimes called “victim advocates”) whose role is to assist individuals who have experienced GBV by discussing reporting options, available services, safety planning, help with getting a protective or restraining order against the person who harmed you, and other topics. A university or college may also contract with a victim advocacy service—which may or may not include a shelter that provides temporary housing—in the local community. You have the right to know, and may want to ask, what will happen to any information you provide to someone on your campus before reporting the violence you have experienced.
Contact your school’s health center, Title IX coordinator, or dean of students to learn where to find confidential advocacy services on or near your campus. The resources provided in this webpage can also help connect you to support in your community that is not affiliated with your campus.