Student Rape Survivors Launch Much-Needed Know Your IX Campaign

Sorry, Detective Olivia Benson, but you can’t take any credit for propelling college rape culture into the limelight. That goes to the inconceivably energetic and supportive group of survivor-activists behind “Know Your IX,” a national movement and network that helps sexual assault survivors at colleges across the country file federal complaints against their universities and wage effective publicity campaigns. Now “Know Your IX” has a servicey website that aims to educate all college students in the U.S. about their rights. Bookmark it!

On Know Your IX, you’ll find detailed information on Title IX and the Clery Act, guidance on engaging in campus activism, emergency care hotlines, tips on supporting survivors, and personal advice. The team knows what it’s doing — the network successfully helped students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Occidental, UC Berkeley, Dartmouth, Swarthmore, and University of Colorado at Boulder file complaints this year.

From the site’s “Basics” tab:

Based on our own experiences we know that students’ knowledge of their rights to educations free from violence is an essential tool for ensuring justice both for individuals and on a systemic level. Survivor-activists who “know their IX” can advocate for themselves when reporting violence, demand that their schools live up to their legal responsibilities, and push for campus-wide change if students’ rights are not respected.

On this site you’ll find informational resources about dealing with and combating sexual assault, harassment, and abuse on college and university campuses. Our site will direct you to resources based on your goals, which we’ve divided into four general categories:

Reporting violence or harassment
Changing your school through Title IX, the Clery Act, and/or other activist strategies
Supporting a survivor
Spreading the word about the Know Your IX campaign

Just months ago, it was pretty much impossible for students (and reporters) to find straightforward answers to complicated questions like “Why do schools handle sexual violence cases at all?”, much less figure out how to take legal action. Now even more survivors can benefit from the “Know Your IX” group’s expertise.