American higher education has a rape problem. It also has a silencing problem that allows sexual assaults to be swept under the rug. Remarkably, the state Legislature doesn’t seem in any rush to fix it.
Since a former Cornell University student detailed how she was allegedly raped by seven fraternity brothers, women across New York have spoken up about their own sexual assault. Some of them were just freshmen in college, young women who had their virginity taken in horrible, violent acts, forever changing who they are.
Yet, so many of them can’t speak publicly about their assailant or even confide in their parents about what happened to them. The reason? They were coerced into signing a non-disclosure agreement that prevented them from ever exposing the details of what happened, and at whose hands.
New York law bans NDAs in settlement agreements “except at the request of the survivor.” This sounds good in theory but in practice, it is utter nonsense. Here are just some of the comments we have heard from young women pressured into “requesting” an NDA by universities:
“My mental health was in shambles. I had no will to continue. I wanted the torture to end. I agreed to sign an NDA to get my diploma.”
“The amount of girls I know who have been groped and had to sign NDAs to graduate university is appalling. It truly is systemic.”
“A friend… was forced to sign an NDA that she wouldn’t discuss her rape in order to receive her diploma and graduate.”
These survivors didn’t “request” NDAs. These are women who had to sign away their right to speak about the most traumatic event of their lives in order to get a diploma or even a small financial settlement. What’s worse, the law put the onus on them to ask to be silenced.
For several years, we’ve been asking legislators to amend New York’s NDA ban to remove the ridiculous “at the request of the survivor” language. If a survivor does not want to speak, she does not need to “request” an NDA. She can just choose not to speak.
Earlier this year, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Amanda Septimo introduced the Stop Silencing Survivors Act to ban NDAs and empower New Yorkers to speak out about abuse. It failed to pass before the Legislature recessed for the summer — just like similar legislation failed to pass in previous sessions.
The legislature can no longer sweep this under the rug. As Golda Daphna, a courageous Columbia University student who alleged that she was raped, beaten, and stalked by her college boyfriend, wrote, “So many people in my life have told me to ‘get over it.’ How can we get over something that is still ongoing in university campuses across America. Something needs change.”
Something does have to change — and it has to begin with New York law that makes it easy for institutions to bully survivors into signing away their rights.
The Cornell story has galvanized outrage precisely because it is so shocking — but it shouldn’t be. Advocates know Jane Doe’s story is not unusual. It is only stunning because stories like this are typically covered up by NDAs, letting us pretend they don’t exist.
Before a single vote is cast this fall, every single New Yorker of good conscience should demand to know where their legislator stands on the Stop Silencing Survivors Act. If we don’t, there will be another Jane Doe and another one after that. This time, no one can pretend they were surprised.
Carlson and Roginsky are the co-founders of Lift Our Voices, a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating silencing provisions including forced arbitration and NDAs for toxic workplace issues.