NCAA guidance and federal regulations can be confusing, here are important items to consider during your collegiate athletic career and social life.
As a student-athlete, why is this important to you?
When you sign that Letter of Intent and step on your college or university campus for the first time, whether you like it or not, you become a leader and role-model on campus. Students who don’t have the privilege of playing college athletics are aware of who you are, regardless if your campus is huge with 30,000+ students or more intimate with less than 2,000 students. Additionally, the local media is familiar with you and will be putting your name and picture in the news with your achievements on the playing field, court, or surface.
More importantly for you to know, the media will have no problem putting your picture and name in the news in the event that an offense occurs off the field. This is something regular students do not have to worry about on the level that you do. If something inappropriate were to happen at a party, your name is first to go in the paper, right next to your university’s name. Just look at what happens when you Google “Stanford swimmer.” In the age of social media and instant news, word travels fast.
In other words, the spotlight is on you.
So how can you protect yourself?
The three most important things for student-athletes in preventing sexual violence:
Know your rights
Have a firm understanding of consent and bystander behavior
Recognize the example you set for the rest of the campus community
Whether you are a male or female athlete, you need to know your rights and protections under federal regulations such as Title IX and the Clery Act, in addition to guidance from the Department of Education.
Having a firm understanding of consent is the most important thing to keeping yourself and your teammates out of an inappropriate situation and out of the news. When in a sexual encounter, it is critical that each person understand and acknowledge the other person’s consent. As a bystander, you should be equipped with the skills and confidence necessary to intervene on someone’s behalf when they are in trouble.
The NCAA has released a sexual violence prevention toolkit, which calls for engagement and communication between university staff and student-athletes. It is vital to know who your Title IX Coordinator is, along with the Compliance staff within the athletic department. Getting to know these individuals will ease the process of reporting and asking questions.
This is a step in the right direction to giving student-athletes a voice on campus in the fight against sexual violence. As you now know, you are in the spotlight and it is important you recognize the potential for setting a positive example for the rest of the campus community. You can find the entire NCAA Sexual Violence Prevention Toolkit here.
Bottom line
There are many nuances to navigating the #MeToo era as a student-athlete and it is easy to become overwhelmed with the number of important things to keep in mind. It is important to remember:
The culture is shifting in a manner that states sexual violence WILL NOT be tolerated
There are resources, tools, and assistance available to create a safer campus community
Just like your sport, preventing sexual violence is a team effort between the university, athletic department, and student-athlete in order to succeed and create a safer campus community. It is important that each party be given a voice in order to achieve this goal.