Annie E. Clark

Annie E. Clark
Born Annie Elizabeth Clark
(1989-07-15) July 15, 1989
Raleigh, North Carolina
Education B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Annie Elizabeth Clark is a women's rights and civil rights activist. She was one of the lead complainants of the 2013 Title IX and Clery Act charges lodged against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[1][2] Clark and Andrea Pino, then a fellow UNC student and also a sexual assault survivor, launched a nationwide campaign to use Title IX complaints to force U.S. universities to address sexual assault and related problems more aggressively.[3][4] Clark is executive director and co-founder of End Rape on Campus, an advocacy group for survivors of campus sexual assault.[5]

Background

Clark was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended Jesse O. Sanderson High School. Clark attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. During college at UNC-Chapel Hill, Clark was inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha, the Order of the Golden Fleece Honorary Society and the Order of the Grail-Valkyries for her service and student leadership. She was also inducted into The Phi Beta Kappa Society for her academic work. In 2011, she presented her work "Interpersonal Violence Policy and Prevention in US Higher Education" at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.[6]

Activism

Clark's activism stems in part from a personal experience during Clark's freshman year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[2] In 2007, Clark was approached by a friend who confided a sexual assault; Clark herself had been recently assaulted and the two women agreed to report their rapes to the school administration.[7] According to Clark, when she sought support for the incident, a UNC school staff member "advised her that rape was like a football game, and that the next day was like being a Monday-morning quarterback where you look back and think, What would I have done differently?" [8][9][10] In response, Clark began research into Title IX, a 1972 Civil Rights Act amendment which grants certain rights to those pursuing higher education.[2]

Together with Andrea Pino, a fellow student at UNC who also allegedly experienced Title IX violations, Clark began work on an OCR complaint against UNC's administration.[11][12] In January 2013, after interviewing "hundreds of victims," Clark and Pino, in conjunction with other UNC students and alumni and one former administrator, filed a 34-page complaint against the university with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights.[13] The U.S. Department of Education, as a result, launched an investigation into how the university handled sexual assault cases.[14]

After the UNC case made national headlines, Clark voiced hope that the complaints filed would help bring "other stories of assault and cover-up into the light," so that change could occur nationwide.[2][15] Clark and Pino were sought out by survivors from across the country filing similar complaints at their own schools. The two women helped form a network of students and staff at higher education institutions across the country and aided others in filing complaints against their institutions.[16][17] At a May 2013 press conference announcing filings by students at Occidental College, Dartmouth College, Swarthmore College, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California, Clark issued a statement that victims of sexual violence had "reached a critical mass where we can no longer be ignored."[17][18]

Clark and Pino's activism are the subject of a controversial 2015 documentary film, The Hunting Ground.[19]

End Rape on Campus

In 2013, Clark and Pino co-founded End Rape on Campus (EROC), a group working to end sexual violence on campuses around the country.[20] EROC helps people who have been sexually assaulted with direct resources, with pro bono therapists and attorneys, and it provides assistance with filing complaints.[21]

References

  1. ↑ U.S. to investigate UNC's handling of sex assault reports - CNN.com
  2. 1 2 3 4 Annie E. Clark (2013-01-13). "Why I am Filing an Office for Civil Rights Complaint and Clery Act Complaint Against UNC-Chapel Hill". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  3. ↑ Sneed, Tierney (February 27, 2015). "'The Hunting Ground' Subjects Defend Title IX Campaign". U. S. News & World Report.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Rebecca (October 9, 2014). "Campus Sexual Assault: Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino Are Fighting Back—And Shaping the National Debate". Vogue.
  5. ↑ "Student-led activists movement fights to end rape on campus - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  6. ↑ "Annie E. Clark presents at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women". WomenNC.
  7. ↑ Annie E. Clark (2013-02-28). "Rape Is Like a Football Game: Why Survivors of Sexual Assault Do Not Report". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
  8. ↑ "Campus Sexual Assault: Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino Are Fighting Back—And Shaping the National Debate". Vogue. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  9. ↑ Tyler Kingkade (2013-01-16). "University Of North Carolina Routinely Violates Sexual Assault Survivor Rights, Students Claim". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
  10. ↑ Alexander Abad-Santos (2013-03-26). "Apparently UNC Thinks 'Rape Is Like Football'". The Atlantic Wire. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  11. ↑ Tyler Kingkade (2013-03-21). "College Sexual Assault Survivors Form Underground Network To Reform Campus Policies". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  12. ↑ Richard Pérez-Peña (2013-03-20). "College Groups Connect to Fight Sexual Assault". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  13. ↑ Richard Pérez-Peña (2013-03-07). "Students Initiate Inquiry Into Harassment Reports". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
  14. ↑ U.S. Department of Education to investigate UNC’s handling of sexual assault cases | The Carolina Mercury
  15. ↑ Melissa Harris-Perry. (Interview). 2013-03-16. MSNBC. San Francisco. Retrieved 2013-07-09.
  16. ↑ Stancill, Jane (June 1, 2011). "UNC-CH women wage national campaign against sexual assault". News and Observer. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  17. 1 2 Ginny Graves (June 2013). "Attention Rapists: You've Met Your Match". Glamour magazine. Retrieved 2013-06-22.
  18. ↑ Castellanos, Dalina (22 May 2013). "Activists Accuse Colleges of Not Responding to Sexual Assault Complaints". LA Times. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  19. ↑ Barnes, Brook. "An Unblinking Look at Sexual Assaults on Campus" (25 January 2015). New York Times. Retrieved 2015-03-13.
  20. ↑ Johnson, Rebecca (October 9, 2014). "Campus Sexual Assault: Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino Are Fighting Back—And Shaping the National Debate". Vogue.
  21. ↑ Glock, Allison. "Fighting Rape on Campus: Talking with Two Heroes from 'The Hunting Ground'". ESPN W. Retrieved 5 November 2015.

External links

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