title:  College Ad Welcomes New Students And Apologizes For Their Impending Rape
text: It doesn t matter how loudly Fox News protests, the fact is that there s an epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses all over America. Compounding and enabling the problem is the phenomenal resistance college administrations have to actually dealing with it. The preferred method is to intimidate the victim into silence and sweep the whole thing under the rug.But the Don t Accept Rape campaign has a much different idea:A print ad appearing in Harvard University s student newspaper on Saturday has a controversial message for students: The trauma of trying to get school administrators to take sexual assault seriously is becoming a routine part of the collegiate experience.The ad buy is timed to coincide with the school s accepted students weekend, when many high school seniors who are considering attending Harvard in the fall visit the campus. Styled like an acceptance letter that lets a prospective student know they ve been admitted, the ad makes the case that sexual assault may be one of the college memories in store for them.I imagine that Harvard s administration is none to happy about it but tough shit. If they d put more effort into treating rape victims like actual victims instead of potential embarrassments, this genius ad wouldn t be necessary:The Don t Accept Rape website also has several clever, if highly depressing, videos showing both male and female students reading their college acceptance letters explaining how they ll be sexually assaulted and then ignored or witness a rape and be pressured to keep quiet about it. I ve always been mystified by the impulse of colleges to cover up rapes on their campuses. I would think that making a huge stink about it and having law enforcement prosecute to the fullest extent of the law would be a selling point, not a potential public relations negative.But what do I know? I m just some guy on a computer and I m not being paid millions a year to protect the reputation of a school over the safety of my students.Featured image courtesy of dontacceptrape.com 