University AbuseAwareness: Bringing Hidden Stories to Light
Tell Us Your Story
Share Your Experience Confidently
What to Include
-
Apprimate Date You Reported Abuse
-
Role of the person you reported to (e.g., professor, resident advisor, athletic director).
-
Any reaction you received—verbal assurances, threats, paperwork, transfers, or total silence.
Step‑by‑Step Submission Guide
Step Action
1. Complete the secure form with contact details (alias acceptable).
2. Click Send Securely—you’ll receive an encrypted confirmation email.
What Happens Next
Within 48 hours, our representatives will contact you to discuss our project.
Information Gathering
Who Are We
For decades, particularly before 1975, students and staff who reported sexual assault inside the University of California system were too often met with silence, dismissal, or secrecy. Administrators prioritized the institution’s reputation, leaving survivors without recourse and the public without the truth. AbuseAwareness is an initiative that gathers first‑hand accounts to expose those historical cover‑ups.
Who We’re Seeking
-
Anyone sexually assaulted before 1975 at any UC campus, medical facility, laboratory, or extension program.
-
Survivors who told a professor, coach, counselor, dean, or other UC employee at the time and saw little or no action taken.
-
Witnesses who observed administrators discouraging, overlooking, or hiding complaints.
How Your Story Helps
-
Demonstrates a pattern of institutional neglect and image management.
-
Strengthens evidentiary claims designed to compel disclosure of archived records. Empowers present‑day reforms so future students never face the same indifference
Confidential & Secure
Submissions are encrypted on arrival. Nothing will be published or shared without your written consent.
Historical Cover‑Ups Explained
How and Why UC Silenced Survivors
Social Climate Pre‑1975
Public discourse treated sexual violence as a private issue. Few California laws, if any, mandated university intervention; most administrators lacked training, and many feared scandal more than misconduct itself.
Reputation Management Tactics
-
Informal “quiet transfers” of accused faculty or staff.
-
Withholding incident reports from campus police or deleting them from registrar files.
-
Pressure on student newspapers to “avoid sensationalism.”
-
Loss‑of‑funding threats to departments where leaders were abuses.
.jpg)
Decentralized Governance
Each UC campus operated quasi‑autonomously. Without a system‑wide sexual‑misconduct protocol, even sincere officials often “kicked reports upstairs” into a bureaucratic void.
.jpg)
Survivor Retaliation & Isolation
Victims faced rumors, character attacks (“promiscuity” labels, mental‑health smears). Fear of these reprisals fueled silence.
.jpg)
Why We Need Your Evidence Now
The community increasingly recognizes institutional patterns spanning decades. Your lived experience is not “just anecdotal”; combined with others, it becomes a mosaic that cannot be ignored.
Importance of Your Voice
A lone account can be dismissed as a misunderstanding, a memory lapse, or a mere anomaly. But when many survivors speak in harmony, the chorus commands attention. Your story—no matter how brief, fragmented, or difficult to share—connects to a much larger puzzle that only those who lived it can complete.
Collective Power
Validating Hidden Pain
Decades of silence can leave survivors wondering, “Did this really matter?” or “Was I the only one?” By contributing your recollection, you: Offer immediate emotional confirmation to others who endured similar harm. Counteract the isolation imposed by shame, disbelief, or gaslighting. Provide living testimony that memories suppressed for fifty years still carry truth and weight.
Revealing Patterns, Not Anecdotes
Institutions often frame misconduct as an unfortunate but isolated “incident.” Consistent first‑hand reports expose that narrative as myth. When multiple accounts reveal the same response patterns—dismissed complaints, stalled paperwork, quiet staff transfers—those coincidences crystallize into compelling evidence of systemic indifference.
People thought no one would believe them after all this time. Reading stories so close to others gives the courage to speak out.
Teaching Future Generations
2007-2010
Documents fade, administrative files disappear, but survivor voices create an indelible oral history. Your narrative becomes:
A lesson plan for student activists studying campus safety.
A case study for administrators re‑designing reporting channels.
A touchstone for young survivors who need to know the past to change the future.
Breaking the Cycle of Silence
Secrecy thrives in darkness. Each testimonial pushes open a shutter:
One voice sparks a conversation.
Several voices ignite community awareness.
A critical mass demands institutional change.
Through this chain reaction, you convert personal pain into public illumination, ensuring that the misconduct you endured is neither forgotten nor repeated.
Honoring Those Who Never Had the Chance
Many classmates, colleagues, and friends have passed away without seeing acknowledgment of the wrongs they suffered. By sharing what happened to you—and what you witnessed—you speak for those who can’t, giving their experience posthumous dignity and a place in the historical record.
Your Contribution, Your Control
Use whatever detail feels safe; anonymity is respected.
Submit a single paragraph or an extensive timeline—every fragment matters.
Update your story later if memories surface or supporting documents emerge.
Remember: An individual story might be doubted, but ten, twenty, or a hundred interconnected voices form a tapestry that cannot be unraveled. Your voice adds a vital thread—one that strengthens the entire weave and ensures the truth is finally seen in full color.