One year since White House launched ‘It’s On Us’ campaign, where are the results?

Earlier this month, the administration sent out a “fact sheet” highlighting the first year of the campaign and including everything President Obama and his administration has done to combat sexual assault and violence against women. One thing noticeably absent from the press release: One iota of evidence that any of the numerous committees, task forces, programs, campaigns or speeches has made a dent in the number of sexual assaults.

Highlights of the first year of “It’s On Us” include:

• The launch of the campaign
• The number of schools that have hosted “It’s On Us” events
• The number of people who have signed a pledge to end sexual assault or have watched one of the “It’s On Us” videos
• The number of partners the campaign has

Maybe I’m missing something, but if a campaign is supposed to combat campus sexual assault shouldn’t its success be measured by whether or not the number of sexual assaults declined rather than by the number of people who sign their name to something?

The “key highlights” from Obama’s record on “fighting sexual violence” doesn’t offer any real evidence either.

Since 2009, the Obama administration has created one council, one working group and one task force; appointed one adviser; held one roundtable; announced three new government commitments; released a YouTube video; signed two executive orders, some executive actions and a presidential memorandum; and changed the definition of rape. Its also released a few studies and, of course, provided millions of dollars in new funding to various interest groups.

Again, none of these highlights suggest any of the celebrity campaigns or task force announcements have had any discernible effect in combatting the problem they were created to combat.

But, this is Washington, where success is measured by
how much money is thrown at the problem.