Georgetown College’s Student–Run Newspaper
April 26, 2017
Admissions diverts attention away from sexual assault prevention
Volume CXXXVII Issue 11
Sexual assault prevention campaign hidden from prospective students at request of Admissions Office By KALLIE FLEMING Copy Editor
Throughout the month of April, Georgetown College participated in the Clothes Line Project as part of Sexual Assault and Awareness month. Georgetown College had been a host for this project for six years now. The project is currently led by Kristin Czarnecki. For the project, students were invited to decorate t– shirts which were hung up in the Student Center. Shirts were painted with messages such as “It was not my fault,” and “I am a survivor.” While this project was being displayed, some staff members in the Admissions Office instructed student tour guides to refrain from taking the prospective students through the Student Center, where the shirts were hanging. The Admissions Counselors chose not to give a statement, but Dr. Jonathan Sands Wise, Vice President
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of Enrollment Management, said, “From the stand point of admissions, this is an incredibly important event, and the conversation is incredibly important. It is not one that we want to try to incorporate into a regular visit for our students, or our prospective students, but we have happily, over the past two years, worked alongside the project, so that everyone could achieve their goals,” stated Dr. Sands Wise. Over the course of the interview, Sands Wise acknowledged the importance of the project, and that he has been part of the project himself in the past. The Admissions office was trying to avoid making the t-shirts the central focus of tours for prospective students. Sands Wise suggested that the project was more important for current Georgetown College students to see rather than prospective Georgetown College students. Sands Wise stressed that the motivation of the Admissions Office was not to hide,
or minimize the project, but prevent it from becoming the focus of the tours. Multiple tour guides at the Admissions Office confirmed that they were asked to not take prospective students through the student center while the t–shirts advocating for sexual assault awareness were displayed. The Clothes Lines Project has been bringing violence and abuse against women to the public light for 25 years. This project is a global effort, with projects in 41 different states and five different countries, and is put into effect on many college campuses (clotheslineproject.org). As explained on the project website, survivors of abuse are encouraged to design t−shirts, which are displayed in public areas. “The Clothes Line Project is meant to do a number of different things. It is a means of providing an outlet for survivors of sexual violence to write out something about their
experience, or express anger, or express a message of hope to other victims and survivors. It is kind of a therapeutic way for them to express their feelings,” explained Dr. Czarnecki. “It is a way of airing dirty laundry. So often sexual violence, and things of that nature, are meant to be kept quiet about, because no one wants to hear about it, or because the subject is too upsetting. This project is a way of making your experience known, and making it something to address.” Both Czarnecki and Sands Wise expressed that it is
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important to have conversations about violence and abuse against women. In the past, the project has been displayed in many different areas around campus, including the library and The Ward Room. When the project was displayed in more public areas, there were complaints from some students, that had been victims of sexual violence themselves, that they did not want to see the project displayed in such a public place, when they were simply trying to get to class. (continued. on p. 3)
“The Clothes Line Project is trying to make a difference, and that is something to be proud of, not to hide. While we run the risk of prospective students or parents asking about sexual assault on campus, we need to be honest.” — Maddie Long New healthcare plan appears disastrous page 11