Sexual violence and harassment, or SVSH, has long impacted college life and continues to disproportionately impact women, students of color and disabled students.
Yet despite our campus’s 2023 Civil Rights Report, which found an increase in reported SVSH cases, campus-based resources for survivors have been on the decline.
On Oct. 2, the PATH to Care Center and University Health Services discontinued the center’s 24/7 hotline, citing funding cuts.
The hotline, which had offered round-the-clock services to survivors of SVSH, no longer exists. Now, the PATH to Care website directs students to call various other hotlines. In a campuswide email sent by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion informing students of the closure, campus officials framed the closure as a “transition” to these preexisting services.
However, these resources do not adequately fill the shoes of PATH to Care’s hotline. Campus-specific and student-centered SVSH hotlines are paramount to student health and safety. UC Berkeley should assist the PATH to Care Center in regaining funding and finding new partners in order to reinstate the hotline, rather than substituting it with non-student-specific or national resources.
Many of the advocates who had operated the PATH to Care hotline did so on top of their regular roles at the center, covering additional overnight and weekend shifts to meet students’ needs. This already-unsustainable model was left even more vulnerable after the center ended its partnership with BRAVE Bay Area, a local Alameda County nonprofit that permanently shut down Sept. 30. Coupled with preexisting budget constraints and subsequent staff shortages, the end of BRAVE’s partnership triggered the line’s discontinuation.
The closure of the PATH line certainly did not follow a lack of need. College campuses have long been hotspots for sexual assault. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted during their time in college. In the 2022-2023 academic year alone, the Office of Prevention, Harassment and Discrimination, or OPHD, received 597 reports alleging some type of sexual violence or harassment, making up 66.9% of OPHD’s reports.
Additionally, according to the American Association of University Women, nearly two-thirds of college students experience some form of sexual harassment. Thus, there is a significant need for diverse forms of consistent and reliable student-centered SVSH support on campuses.
The PATH to Care Center still employs confidential advocates to meet with student survivors and assist them in accessing medical attention, arranging immediate or long-term safe housing options, navigating options for reporting and more.
However, advocates are only accessible by appointment. Moreover, the appointment form explicitly mentions that it is for “non-urgent appointments only.”
For urgent needs, the center now directs students to other hotlines. One of these replacements is the Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, hotline. While CAPS does employ trained mental health professionals, they are not equipped to help victims of sexual assault in times of crisis.
Another substitute, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline, isn’t sufficient either; though its responders are trained to manage general SVSH cases, they have no institutional knowledge of UC Berkeley’s policies and culture, leaving them under qualified to support students to the extent PATH to Care would be able to.
PATH to Care also gives students the option to call the 24/7 lines of San Francisco Women against Rape, the Family Violence Law Center and more, but neither offers the student-centered SVSH care of the PATH to Care line.
The PATH to Care hotline operators worked not only within the UC Berkeley community but also had partnerships with other local SVSH institutions, making them uniquely equipped to navigate student-specific situations.
For example, operators could help students efficiently access resources such as rape kits, while also assisting them in understanding their options to report on campus or to local law enforcement. Operators were also trained with specific knowledge within complicated and lengthy student safety processes, such as seeking academic accommodation from professors, guiding survivors through disciplinary repercussions for perpetrators and responding urgently to critical situations on campus.
Having this kind of targeted care available at all times — not only by appointment — is crucial in ensuring vulnerable students are comprehensively supported in navigating the aftermath of sexual assault or harassment.
Students who experience sexual assault are more likely to drop out of school, especially during their first year on campus. Especially without personalized, relevant care, these traumatic events can be more likely to sabotage a student’s performance, relationships and overall mental health.
UC Berkeley has a responsibility to ensure that its students are immediately able to access a reliable responder who is trained to handle SVSH crises and is well versed in the ecosystem of campus institutions, including the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, the center for student conduct, mental health resources, housing and more.
The editorial board calls on campus to provide the PATH to Care Center with the resources necessary to reinstate its hotline. In order to help PATH to Care rebuild partnerships with local survivor and advocacy networks and create a more sustainable model, UC Berkeley must recognize that the alternative options listed are not enough.
While reopening the 24/7 hotline won’t prevent devastating sexual violence on campus, PATH to Care’s immediate response time and knowledge of specific resources is a critical resource in supporting students in crucial moments.