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Sexual Assault Adjudication on Campus: Examining the Underlying Discourses of Title IX

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Sexual Assault Adjudication on Campus: Examining the Underlying Discourses of Title IX University of Northern Colorado Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC Dissertations Student Research 8-2019 Sexual Assault Adjudication on Campus: Examining the Underlying Discourses of Title IX Colleen Sonnentag Follow this and additional works at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Sonnentag, Colleen, "Sexual Assault Adjudication on Campus: Examining the Underlying Discourses of Title IX" (2019). Dissertations. 587. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/587 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © 2019 Colleen Sonnentag ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School SEXUAL ASSAULT ADJUDICATION ON CAMPUS: EXAMINING THE UNDERLYING DISCOURSES OF TITLE IX A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Colleen Sonnentag College of Education and Behavioral Sciences Leadership, Policy and Development: Higher Education and P-12 Education Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership August 2019 This dissertation by: Colleen Sonnentag Entitled: Sexual Assault Adjudication on Campus: Examining the Underlying Discourses of Title IX has been approved as meeting the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in College of Education and Behavioral Sciences in School of Leadership, Policy and Development: Higher Education and P-12 Education, Program of Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership Accepted by the Doctoral Committee _____________________________________________ Tamara Yakaboski, Ph.D., Research Advisor _____________________________________________ Katrina Rodriguez, Ph.D., Committee Member _____________________________________________ Chris Talbot, Ph.D., Committee Member _____________________________________________ Mark Smith, Ph.D., Faculty Representative Date of Dissertation Defense_____________________________________________ Accepted by the Graduate School _____________________________________________ Linda L. Black, Ed.D. Associate Provost and Dean Graduate School and International Admissions Research and Sponsored Projects ABSTRACT Sonnentag, Colleen. Sexual assault adjudication on campus: Examining the underlying discourses of Title IX. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2019. It is estimated that 20% of college women have been victims of sexual assault (Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2009), an alarming rate that drew the attention of the Obama-Biden Administration. During their time in office (January 20, 2009-January 20, 2017), the Administration bolstered institutional requirements to address sexual assault in higher education under Title IX (U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2011). Even though addressing campus sexual assault was a stated priority of the (seemingly progressive) Obama-Biden Administration, there was a lack of representation among students with marginalized identities reflected in the national media conversation at the time. The purpose of this Critical Discourse Study was to examine the ideologies underlying sexual assault and its adjudication in higher education. To uncover and examine these ideological discourses, I conducted this study through a poststructural feminist paradigm (Peters & Burbules, 2004; St. Pierre & Pillow, 2000), and applied intersectionality as a theoretical framework (Crenshaw, 1991, 2014). I chose to analyze the ideologies conveyed through print news media because of its ubiquity and relationship to the formation of public opinion. I analyzed 340 print news articles from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Chronicle of Higher Education that iii were published during the Obama-Biden Administration (January 20, 2009-January 20, 2017) and identified four ideological findings: (1) violence as the problem and solution, (2) money motivates action, (3) preventing sexual assault is up to everyone, except perpetrators, and (4) the University is its football program. Each of these four underpinning ideologies support social stratification through dynamics of affluent, white, cisheteropatriarchal values and norms being dominant over others. Ultimately, dynamics of power and oppression supported by the rhetoric rely on the same attitudes and beliefs that uphold sexual violence as a social issue. This study is significant to the field of higher education because it provides a critical examination of ideological assumptions surrounding sexual assault adjudication in a contemporary legal and political environment and contributes to the growing body of literature in higher education applying intersectionality as a theoretical framework. Intersectionality can help us understand the complexities of sexual assault and the reproduction of dominance perpetuated through white, cisheteropatriarchal systems such as higher education. Key Words: Title IX; sexual assault; sexual violence; critical discourse; intersectionality; higher education; media iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincerest thanks to everyone who has supported me throughout this adventure. To Matt, thank you for all of your help and camaraderie—I never would have gotten this far without you. Thanks to Em for the editing help wrapped in friendship, geeky things, and punk rock attitude. Shout out to my cohort buddies Ruthanne and Erin, Talia, my parents, my work family, my chosen family, and the GBB staff for keeping me motivated and human along the way. Thank you to my faculty friends Flo, Stacy, and Tuck for all of your coaching, expertise, and moral support. Thanks to Jed for all of the pep talks and help adulting (it’s officially my turn to do the laundry), and to my mom who would always drive me back to Talkeetna Elementary at night to pick up my homework when I left it in my desk. Lastly, thanks to my committee members, Dr. Tamara Yakaboski, Dr. Katrina Rodriguez, Dr. Chris Talbot, and Dr. Mark Smith. Your feedback and support throughout this process has been invaluable to my development as a scholar-practitioner. I appreciate you challenging me to see this project in new ways and all of our conversations. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................... 8 Purpose ........................................................................................................... 9 Research Questions ...................................................................................... 11 Study Significance ....................................................................................... 11 Definitions.................................................................................................... 15 Organization of Study .................................................................................. 16 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...................................................................... 17 Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks .................................................... 17 News Media ................................................................................................. 33 Title IX’s History and Influence .................................................................. 42 Gendered Organizations and Inequality Regimes ........................................ 73 III. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ................................................... 84 Research Questions ...................................................................................... 85 Setting .......................................................................................................... 86 Research Design ........................................................................................... 86 Trustworthiness and Rigor ......................................................................... 100 Researcher Subjectivities ........................................................................... 106 Limitations ................................................................................................. 110 Overview of Data ....................................................................................... 111 IV. PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ............................................................ 127 Research Questions .................................................................................... 128 Findings...................................................................................................... 128 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 188 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ..................................................... 191 Research Questions .................................................................................... 191 Discussion .................................................................................................. 192 Implications and Recommendations .......................................................... 237 Conclusion ................................................................................................
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