In the corner of the first floor of McKinzie Hall, Sherita Nickerson sits across from people every day, trying to empower people who feel helpless. But not everyone who walks into her office has an ignited passion for justice. In fact, almost 90% look at her and say they just want it to go away. But Nickerson said sexual assault cannot just go away.
Nickerson works as the coordinator in the Title IX office, which serves as a resource for students and faculty who have experienced sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence and stalking. In April, the office recognized sexual assault awareness month and put up messages on campus to educate the community.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center designated April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month more than 20 years ago. President Barack Obama was the first president to recognize the month in 2009. The Title IX office is charged by law to handle cases of sexual assault, which it considers a year-round issue.
In the 2024 Clery Report from the ACU Police Department, an annual document required by the federal government detailing criminal activity on or near campus, sexual assault is defined as:
“An offense that meets the definition of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape as used in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system. Any sexual act directed against another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent.”
Lack of consent is at the core of its definition, but the ranges of assault still create some gray area for victims. Nickerson said one of the initial steps of a case can include simply validating the victim’s experience.
“People sometimes are not sure,” Nickerson said. “[They say] ‘Well, I don’t know. We were kissing or we were doing this that and the other, but I’m not really sure if I was sexually assaulted. But I know that I didn’t want this to happen.’ I’m able to help walk and talk them through, you know, well, ‘No, even that can be considered sexual assault.’”
Students and faculty can report sexual assault through the Title IX office by filling out an electronic form. The full details of the Title IX policy can be found on the university’s website.
Each case in the Title IX office goes through a process of discussing a victim’s rights and resources before connecting them to counseling or getting a sexual assault exam at the hospital. Whether the victim wants to file a report or not, Nickerson said she tries to encourage them to do something about it.
“You’re not just going to wake up one day and not remember it,” Nickerson said. “It’s actually going to be the opposite. You’re gonna wake up one day, you’ve got to remember it even more deeply, which is why we try to get people into counseling pretty quickly to be able to work through that and get some tools to be able to help you work through it.”
If a victim one day decides to file a report, Nickerson said the Title IX office is still available. In 2023, the Clery report shows a one on-campus report each for the offenses of rape, incest, statutory rape and dating violence. Two on-campus reports were shown for stalking.
How many cases of sexual assault go unreported?
According to RAINN.org, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, only 32 out of every 100 assaults are reported to the police, which means two out of three go unreported. The site continues to say that only 20% of female students report.
Those who do not report do so from feared retaliation, believing it was a personal matter and not wanting to get the perpetrator in trouble, according to RAINN.org.
Nickerson said in most of the cases she’s dealt with, the victim had a personal connection to their perpetrator.
“Nine out of 10 times, the people knew each other,” Nickerson said. “It could have been they had consensual relations before, but it was on this occasion, the person didn’t want to, or they didn’t want to go that far, and they expressed that right?”
Nickerson said this connection makes the trauma even more difficult to work through because sexual assault is a “violation of your humanity.”
“We’re not made to understand, like, how could this person do this to me?” Nickerson said. “How could they violate me? You have to take time to be able to work through, how could this person not respect who I am?
How does this impact the ACU community?
While the university’s statistics may lack in comparison to national statistics or other Div. I universities, Nickerson said, ACU is not immune to this issue.
“I don’t want to try to make us sound better or worse than any other campus,” Nickerson said.“People come here, and Christians are here, but there are people here who don’t have Jesus on their mind, and we are all capable of making poor decisions.”
The goal of the Title IX office is to continue raising awareness and educating others throughout the year and not just in April.
“If you educate people, they’re more prone to make wise decisions versus poor decisions,” Nickerson said. “If they have the information on, like, ‘Even if I set my drink down at a party, somebody could put something in it.’ If I tell them that, then they know not to do it. But if I never tell them, they never know it.”
For her biggest piece of advice, Nickerson said to look out for one another and know that sexual assault is not a joke.
“This is hard work in here, and when people sit in that chair, they are broken,” Nickerson said. “Their lives have changed, whether they are the suspect or the victim, and I do my best to help them and bless them, but I can’t change what happened in the back seat of the car or over here at the park. So I say treat people with kindness, and remember that is somebody’s brother or sister or daughter or son.”
