The Dartmouth - A Campus Facing Violence

A Campus Facing Violence 05.16.2014

Looking into the lives affected by sexual assault, the policy proposals that could shift the landscape and a college in ux.

Proposed Policy |FV6

Student Survey | FV8

Greek Life| FV12

Rebel Roberts | FV23

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The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Editors’ Note

Friday, May 16, 2014

Table of Contents Sexual assault dominates campus dialogue in a year of turmoil

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Reported assaults higher than peers’, analysis shows

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Title IX, Clery Act investigations hit institutions nationwide

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With proposed change, College will expel some perpetrators FV6 New Center brings challenge of coordinating campus resources FV7

LINDSAY ELLIS/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

This year, we decided to suspend our annual Green Key issue in favor of an in-depth look at the subject that has seized campus dialogue — sexual assault.

Our goal is not to interrupt the festivities this weekend, but we do hope you’ll pause to look through our coverage. When it’s warm out and all your friends are relaxing on the Green, it’s easy to ignore the deep fractures marking this campus, both at an institutional level and within the supportive subcommunities that make Dartmouth feel so special. We think that identifying those divisions, providing the necessary context for understanding them and analyzing their future is one way our campus and the people whose lives have been influenced by sexual violence can heal.

The issue has taught us that there are many, many people at the College working to improve Dartmouth’s handling of sexual assault. And throughout the process, we’ve come up against the limits of words, the limits of reporting. There are some experiences that journalists cannot possibly convey. By all accounts, sexual assault is one of those experiences.

If there’s a flaw in our approach, it’s that the issue feels a little policy-heavy. While all the new policies, centers and acronyms introduced over the past few years merit our attention, sexual assault is, at its core, a violent crime committed against another person. That matters most.

If you have questions about any of our editorial decisions, please let us know.

Student survey shows divided campus

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Recent conversations mark unique moment in College history

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Anonymous: Dear Dartmouth: Thank You

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Opinion Asks: Proposed New Policy

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The Sway of Social Spaces

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Looking at campus groups against sexual assault

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Meet an advocate, UGA and cupcake-maker

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Living just steps away, alumna speaks for change

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Sergeant brings warmth to fight against assault

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Exploring how art can help heal

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Thank you,

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The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

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Sexual assault dominates campus dialogue in a year of turmoil

By Sean connolly AND sera kwon The Dartmouth Staff

About a year ago, a group of students interrupted a prospective students show chanting “Dartmouth has a problem” and citing incidents of homophobia, racism and underreported sexual assaults. Both the chant and the issues have since become ingrained in the Dartmouth lexicon and discussions of campus events.

It may seem inconceivable that a problem as severe as sexual assault could exist in the College’s idyllic setting. But in recent years, as students, alumni, faculty and staff have shared their narratives, many on campus have begun to grapple with a once-taboo subject.

Since that weekend, the theme of sexual assault has consistently resurfaced in campus news and conversations. In May 2013, 30 students and alumni filed a Clery Act complaint against the College, alleging widespread sexual assault, aggression against the LGBTQ community and allies, racial and religious discrimination, hate crimes, bullying and hazing.

That month, Parker Gilbert ’16 was charged with seven counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and one misdemeanor count of

criminal trespass, of which he was fully acquitted this past March.

A post on Bored at Baker this winter, which outlined the steps to rape an identified female member of the Class of 2017, resulted in demonstrations of outrage and solidarity in support of the student. In February, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights conducted its second round of interviews as part of an ongoing Title IX investigation into the College.

On Feb. 7, Johnson announced the creation of the Center for Community Action and Prevention.

She said that the new center aims to find “points of connection” for Dartmouth community members as well as external partners such as WISE, a non-profit organization that provides 24-hour crisis intervention and support services for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault in Vermont and New Hampshire.

On Feb. 24, a group of students released the “Freedom Budget.”

Supporters held a sit-in inside College President Phil Hanlon’s office in April, insisting on a point-by-point response to the document’s 70-plus demands, which called for mandatory expulsion of a student found guilty of sexual assault or rape and the re-evaluation of the status of

Greek life at Dartmouth as it relates to sexual assault.

The first day of the sit-in, Hanlon promised that the College would conduct a campus-wide survey to assess campus climate. A 2013 report by the Committee on Student Safety and Accountability recommended that the College partner with external social science experts to perform a data-driven campus study.

In mid-March, a women’s rights activist group, UltraViolet, circulated a petition online “demanding the elite college take action to address its campus rape problem.” The petition garnered tens of thousands of signatures.

On March 8, the Board of Trustees unanimously supported a proposal that would set a “strong presumption” that any sexual assault would result in expulsion, regardless of intent, means or a perpetrator’s prior violations.

Under the new policy, the College would hire an external adjudicator to investigate sexual assault cases and end the current COS hearings.

The topic of sexual assault on college campuses has also been elevated in national discourse in recent months. In January, President Barack Obama established the White House Task Force to

JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Students march across the Green at this year’s Take Back the Night rally.

Protect Students from Sexual Assault, which submitted its recommendations for a coordinated federal response to campus rape and sexual assault at the end of April. The report, titled “Not Alone,” announced steps to help universities identify the scope of campus sexual assault, bolster prevention efforts and respond effectively to support victims. The report also addressed transparency in federal enforcement efforts.

Fifty-five colleges are currently under investigation for Title IX vio-

lations, the Education Department announced on May 1.

The Of fice for Civil Rights opened an independent investigation into possible Title IX violations at Dartmouth last May. On April 24, in an interview on National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm Show, Hanlon acknowledged that the College still needs “a fundamental change in the social scene to end these high-risk behaviors.”

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The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

Reported assaults higher than peers’, Clery analysis shows B y chris leech and elizabeth smith The Dartmouth Staff

Data analysis conducted by The Dartmouth showed a higher mean number of sexual assaults reported at the College than at its peer institutions, coupled with a 99.4 percent confidence that the gap between Dartmouth and similar colleges did not occur by chance.

The data set used for this twosample t-test consisted of seven years of data filed under the Clery Act from Dartmouth and 133 entries over the same seven years from a data set composed of 20 schools, including all eight Ivy League institutions, elite colleges in New England and elite research universities across the country. The Dartmouth used current student enrollment at each institution to determine the institution’s mean rate of reported sexual assault per 1,000 students.

Government professor Michael Herron, who teaches statistical analysis courses at the College, confirmed that the t-test was the correct test to answer this research question. He further confirmed that the practice of using current enrollment figures, which only fluctuate slightly each year, was acceptable for this test.

He cautioned, however, that there are some assumptions involved with

this type of analysis.

Because the numbers cover only reported assaults, they cannot provide a direct comparison of either overall assault rates or reporting rates at the schools, Herron said. He added that by including all of Dartmouth’s peers in one comparison group, the test assumes that the rate of assault reported in the Clery disclosures is the same across this sample. Finally, he noted that since the test pools data across seven years, it assumes that the rates did not change over the period.

Over the past seven years a total of 126 forcible assaults have been reported at Dartmouth. The average number of reported yearly assaults is 18, and the yearly number of reported assaults per capita is 0.0029, or just under three reported assaults per year per 1,000 students. This figure ranks as the highest in the Ivy League — over three times as high as the average across all other Ivy League institutions, which is under one report assault per year per student.

Out of a control group of 19 schools, which consisted of the Ivy League and some of the College’s peer institutions, the average yearly rate of reported sexual assaults per capita was 0.0014, half of Dartmouth’s rate. Among these institutions, the school with the highest average yearly per capita rate was Amherst College, with more than 5.5 reported assaults per year per 1,000

ERIN O’NEIL/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The College’s rate is more than three times the average of the Ivy League excluding Dartmouth. students.

Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson said that she has seen the College’s Clery data but does not believe that the number of assaults is higher at Dartmouth. And director of

judicial affairs Leigh Remy said that the relatively high number of reported assaults may reflect positively on the College. “[Our goal is] to create a culture where reporting would be normative, supportive, and feel like a good choice for somebody — you could anticipate to see our Clery Act numbers rise,” Remy said. “I think that means we are doing the right work.”

Seven assaults were reported to the Hanover Police department in 2011, of which three were investigated, according to data provided by Captain Frank Moran. In 2012, 14 assaults were reported, and two were investigated.

Finally, in 2013, 21 assaults were reported, eight were investigated and one arrest was made.

Moran noted in an email that the

police could not investigate 28 reports over the last three years because anonymous sexual assault evidence collection kits were received by the police, or because the reporting person declined to cooperate with the Hanover Police department. He wrote that reports have increased over recent years but that investigations often could not proceed because the police abides by the alleged victim’s wishes.

Data collection on sexual assault at the College is further complicated by the College’s commitment to preserving the student’s decision to report an assault, Remy said.

“Right now, we don’t know and can’t define the population of people who are experiencing assault,” Remy SEE DATA PAGE FV17

The Dartmouth

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Friday, May 16, 2014

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Title IX, Clery Act investigations hit institutions nationwide By zac hardwick AND miguel pena The Dartmouth Staff

One evening in October 2010, Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity pledges at Yale University were blindfolded, parading around the university’s picturesque Old Campus. Their chants were clear.

“No means yes. Yes means anal!”

In the wake of a media firestorm, Yale students and alumni filed a Title IX complaint against the university, which concluded in 2012 with the government finding that Yale complied with existing law. The U.S. Department of Education fined Yale $165,000 last year for failing to report four forcible sex offenses in 2001 and 2002, the result of a seven-year Clery Act investigation that concluded in 2011.

The federal Office for Civil Rights began investigating Dartmouth in 2013 for Title IX violations, the same year that students and alumni filed a Clery Act complaint, though College spokesperson Justin Anderson said that the College has received no official notice that it is under Clery investigation.

The schools are not anomalies in Ivy League. Most recently, 23 students at Columbia University filed a federal complaint in April that alleges violations of Title IX, Title II and the Clery Act by the university, although no investigation has officially commenced.

The Department of Education is investigating Harvard University and Princeton University for Title IX violations. The department announced on May 1 that 55 institutions are currently under investigation for Title IX violations.

Under a Title IX investigation, the government determines whether schools are compliant with federal law barring gender-based discrimination. The 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter issued by the

Courtesy of Elena Malloy, Yale Daily News

Yale University is the only Ivy League institution with completed Clery Act and Title IX investigations.

Department of Education clarified institutions’ obligations under Title IX. The Cler y Act requires that schools publish select campus crime statistics, including the amount of sexual assaults reported.

Federal Investigations Around the Ivy League As the only Ivy League institution with completed Clery Act and Title IX investigations, Yale’s experience merits special attention.

After news spread about DKE’s chants, Yale prohibited DKE from holding any campus event and from using the College’s email or bulletin boards to communicate with the student body, the New York Times reported in 2011.

Kate Orazem, a complainant, said in a 2012 Yale Daily News article that

the incident was the “final straw” that drove 16 Yale students and alumni to file a Title IX complaint.

For years, the students said Yale had failed to respond sufficiently quickly or strictly to sexual misconduct cases, and after consulting with a Harvard Law School professor, they decided to file the complaint, according to the article. The fraternity’s chants began to symbolize Yale’s weaknesses, Orazem said to the Yale Daily News.

In response to the complaints, Yale launched a raft of new programs and expedited preexisting campus projects. Following recommendations issued by Yale’s Advisory Committee on Campus Climate, Yale bolstered sexual misconduct training for administrators and increased the scope of its sexual harassment response and education center.

Yale also overhauled freshman orientation, instituted mandatory instruction for student organizations’ leaders and committed to conducting regular assessments on sexual misconduct, discrimination and Title IX on campus.

In early May, Yale announced it would conduct a quantitative campus sexual assault survey next year, Yale Alumni Magazine reported.

Sandra Park, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights project, said Yale will receive extra federal scrutiny as a result of the investigation.

Since the conclusion of the investigations, Yale has improved its mechanisms for addressing sexual assault on campus, several Yale students said.

In fall 2011, Yale implemented a new program that tasks peer advisors with educating students about sexual health and violence.

Although the recommendation to create the program was issued be-

fore the Title IX complaint was filed, administrators said in 2011 that the Title IX complaint accelerated new campus programming.

Yale sophomore Corey MaloneSmolla, a peer advisor, said two new workshops have arisen from the Title IX investigation.

“It’s good that we’re getting criticism and constantly under watch because it means that the student body is always keeping the administration in check,” she said.

While at other schools the topic of sexual assault might still be considered a taboo, Yale embraces conversations about sexual assault, Eli Feldman, a Yale sophomore, said.

A number of groups have pledged to discuss ways to improve Yale’s handling of sexual assault cases, he said.

Malone-Smolla said that discussions have even expanded to students who are not “necessarily involved in these circles.”

“I would say it’s a very open dialogue,” Malone-Smolla said.

“Anything that was taboo isn’t really taboo anymore.”

The Title IX investigation also prompted increased transparency, Yale sophomore and community health educator Katherine Garvey said, citing Yale’s campus-wide emails that document sexual assault reports.

But even after the conclusion of the Title IX investigation, some students still say sexual assault remains mishandled on campus.

Responding to the most recent semi-annual report the school released in February, a student group called Students Against Sexual Violence at Yale released an open letter criticizing Yale’s handling of sexual assault reports. The open letter consisted of policy recommendations, including establishing an explicit preferred sanction of

expulsion for those found guilty of sexual assault, hiring an external victim’s advocate for sur vivors, placing student who are survivors on committees related to sexual assault and instituting mandatory disciplinary hearings for students reported for sexual assault more than once, regardless of if the reports were filed formally.

Yale sophomore Emma Goldberg, an original signatory of the open letter and a member of Yale’s undergraduate Title IX Advisory Board, said Yale’s administration has remained open to change. But she said that sexual misconduct still occurs on campus, and some students not passionate about the issue remain ignorant of the issue.

She stressed that every college struggles with these issues.

“We’re really looking for the student body to step up,” she said.

The Dar tmouth requested comment from 11 of the 15 Yale students and alumni who penned the letter, and all, besides Goldberg, did not respond. The Dartmouth additionally requested comment from four students and an alumna who signed the letter, none of whom responded. The Dartmouth further requested comment from six administrators who sit on Yale’s Title IX steering committee. None responded. John Aroutiouniar, a student on Yale’s Title IX Advisory Board, declined to comment. The Dartmouth requested comment from five additional students who sit on the Title IX Advisory Board, with no response.

In the week following its own Title IX investigation, filed on March 28, Harvard created a task force to address campus sexual misconduct. In a letter to the community, Harvard President Drew Faust wrote that the force “will develop recommendations about how Harvard can improve efforts to prevent sexual misconduct and develop insight into these issues.”

About a year ago, Harvard hired Mia Karvonides, former attorney for the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education, as the University’s first Title IX coordinator, The Crimson reported.

Last month, Columbia students filed several federal complaints against the school, notably employing a Title II complaint to argue that inaction on sexual assault had led to emotional instability that caused violations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, in addition to alleging Title IX and Clery Act violations.

Emma Sulkowicz, Columbia junior and a participant in the federal complaints, said that although it is too early to discern any concrete changes on campus, the complaints have brought a media spotlight on sexual assault.

Sulkowicz cited the recent inciSEE TITLE IX PAGE FV19

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The Dartmouth

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Friday, May 16, 2014

With proposed change, College will expel some perpetrators B y Sara M c Gahan The Dartmouth Staff

The College will hire a trained investigator to examine and determine responsibility for sexual assault cases as well as mandate expulsion for students found guilty of rape, under a proposed sexual assault policy released March 14. In addition to substantially modifying Dartmouth’s adjudication process and imposing stricter sanctions on perpetrators, the proposal clarifies the College’s definition of certain terms such as consent.

Under the proposed policy, the investigator will research sexual misconduct complaints, conducting inter views and reviewing available evidence and documentation.

Following this investigation, the investigator will draft a report that includes a factual assessment of the case and a conclusion about whether the alleged perpetrator assaulted the alleged victim.

Lisa Friel ’79, who has worked with Dar tmouth on its judicial processes in the past, may ser ve as an investigator, College President Phil Hanlon said. The College will most likely hire an attorney, retired law enforcement officer or another individual with years of experience in examining and judging sexual assault cases, but administrators will probably name more than one person to increase availability, he said.

If the investigator finds an individual responsible for sexual assault, a sanctioning panel consisting of the College’s director of judicial af fairs, its Title IX coordinator and a representative designated by the dean of the perpetrator’s school will convene to impose a punishment. The representative will be an associate dean responsible for student af fairs if the perpetrator is an undergraduate student, or the dean of the perpetrator’s school if the individual is a graduate or professional school student.

Either the student charged with sexual assault or the complainant may submit a request for review within seven days of a decision.

The proposal mandates expulsion for a student found guilty of sexual assault involving sexual penetration, oral-genital contact or oral-anal contact through force, threat or purposeful incapacitation of a sur vivor. The sanctioning panel will also impose expulsion if the student in question committed the same acts motivated by bias based on various social factors including race, religion and sexual orientation or if the student possesses prior records of sexual assault. The likely sanctions for all other cases include a fine, warning, College probation, no-contact order and restriction from specific College programs,

SHARON CHO/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Remy will sit on the three-person sanctioning panel proposed in the revamped sexual assault policy. activities or housing.

Current College policy invests Safety and Security with the authority to investigate sexual assault reports and dictates that a Committee on Standards panel — usually composed of two faculty members, two students and an administrator — tr y sexual assault cases and impose sanc-

“It’s not a question of did you hear no. I think it’s really a question of how did you hear yes.”

- Leigh remy, Assistant dean of undergraduate students tions. The exiting policy states that students found guilty of actual or attempted sexual penetration without consent or those guilty of repeatedly committing sexual misconduct “should be prepared to be permanently separated from the College.” Apart from expulsion, the COS will select from the sanctions of warning, reprimand, College probation, suspension and special action, the last option entailing removal from specific College housing, events or areas.

The investigator model seeks to help students feel more comfortable about reporting sexual assault, Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson said.

“What we hope this will result in is an increased confidence in the way we adjudicate these cases and increased credibility around the system, all of which will feed into creating community,” Johnson

said.

Johnson said that the proposed policy responds to victim concerns about testifying in front of a COS panel, which could include students and faculty members whom the victim knows.

The proposed policy does not specify situations in which a student would not be expelled for rape, director of judicial affairs and assistant dean of undergraduate students Leigh Remy said.

Remy said that she usually heard strong opinions in favor of automatic expulsion in public and more nuanced opinions in private, and that she wondered how students could have a real exchange of their thoughts on this topic.

“Victims should have a forum to speak out without being evaluated or censored or condemned,” Remy said. “And there are other people who say, ‘But I have a perspective to share that would differ, how do I do that in a way that’s not blaming the victim but in a way that’s bringing for ward a different perspective?’ There’s a fear that by asking questions or sharing an opinion, you can automatically be accused as someone who supports rape.”

The sanctioning panel is not given information about previous cases until it finds a person responsible for sexual misconduct, Remy said. Precedent would not mandate an outcome, but would inform the decision, she said. Remy estimated that about three cases per year go through the undergraduate judicial affairs office but noted that this year had seen a spike in the number of reported cases.

All findings will be determined using a “preponderance of the evidence” standard, meaning that a verdict will depend on “whether it is more likely than not that the

Responding Person engaged in Sexual Assault.” The College’s current sexual assault policy also uses this burden of proof.

The federal Of fice for Civil Rights mandated in 2011 that federally funded educational programs or activities use the “preponderance of the evidence” standard in sexual assault hearings.

In addition to altering the College’s adjudication procedures and strengthening punishment for students found guilty of sexual assault, the proposed policy defines nine terms frequently used in Dartmouth’s sexual misconduct policy. Although the current policy contains many of these terms, it does not define them.

The proposed policy defines consent as “clear and unambigu-

“We can’t really prove that this is the solution we need without having understood the problem well enough.”

- Dani Levin ’12, former spcsa chair ous agreement, expressed in mutually understandable words or actions, to engage in a particular activity.”

Remy said that this definition does not mark a policy change.

Rather, the clarification aims to emphasize the affirmative aspect of consent.

“It’s not a question of did you hear no,” Remy said. “I think it’s really a question of how did you hear yes.”

The proposed policy defines

sexual assault as “unwanted or unwelcome touching of a sexual nature, including fondling, oral sex, anal or vaginal intercourse, digital penetration, penetration with an object, or other sexual activity that occurs without valid Consent.” The new definition also includes abetting or concealing sexual assault as instances of sexual misconduct.

Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault former chair Dani Levin ’12 said she thinks that the proposed changes to the sexual assault policy indicate “progress” but will not fix all of Dartmouth’s problems surrounding sexual assault.

“We can’t really prove that this is the solution we need without having understood the problem well enough,” Levin said.

Levin said she believes the root of Dar tmouth’s sexual assault problems lies in the distribution of power on campus regarding not only gender but also other social markers like race, socioeconomic class and culture. She cited the “Freedom Budget” protest as an example of students’ dissatisfaction with the current power distribution.

“Dartmouth has a power problem,” Levin said, and the College needs to undergo a period of “genuine and extremely self-critical reflection” to resolve this problem.

Johnson said that the new policy was proposed to improve the climate of reporting at the College.

The Committee on Student Safety and Accountability’s fall 2013 report, SPCSA recommendations and research performed by Remy and others influenced the administration’s decision to revise the policy.

“By implementing the policy in its final form, one of the clear messages we’ll send is that the institutional weight is behind expulsion as the presumptive outcome of someone who penetrates someone else without his or her consent,” Johnson said.

Other Schools’ Sanctions Through the SPCSA’s Elizabeth A. Hoffman research grants, grant recipient Silvia Arora ’16 investigated the sexual misconduct adjudication processes at Dartmouth’s peer institutions. Arora sur veyed 19 colleges, including all eight Ivy League institutions.

According to Arora’s research, none of the other seven Ivy League schools has explicitly mandated that individuals found guilty of sexual misconduct be expelled from their institution.

Brown University, Cor nell University and the University of Pennsylvania have some combination of students, administrators, faculty and staff investigate and SEE NEW POLICY PAGE FV16

The Dartmouth

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New Center brings challenge of coordinating campus resources B y Rebecca Rowland The Dartmouth Staff

The new Center for Community Action and Prevention, expected to open July 1, will introduce and redistribute new and preexisting

resources for sexual assault prevention.

A new center brings the challenge of transitioning to a new institutional structure for addressing sexual assault.

“There’s still a lot of questions

about exactly when that will happen and exactly how will that look, and all of those things we’re still working on,” director of health promotion and student wellness Aurora Matzkin said. “It’s an opportunity to better collaborate and coordinate.”

BRETT DRUCKER/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

CCAP will centralize new and existing sexual assault prevention resources on campus.

Sexual Assault Awareness Program coordinator Amanda Childress will not head the new center, as was initially announced in February.

Childress received scr utiny after speaking at a Feb. 12 panel on sexual misconduct at the University of Virginia. Inside Higher Ed reported that Childress asked, “Why could we not expel a student based on an allegation,” asserting that removing alleged perpetrators, who are “reasonably a threat to our community,” would ensure student safety.

But Childress said that these comments were not linked to her decision to reject the position at CCAP. She said she wanted to stay with SAAP because she did not feel comfortable transitioning to a new project without finding a replacement in response work.

“It’s making sure that survivors

have support along the way,” Childress said. “Our concern has always been making sure that no one gets lost in the middle of all the craziness that’s happening.”

Because CCAP is still in development, Center for Gender and Student Engagement assistant director Michelle Hector said she does not yet know how the new center will influence CGSE. CGSE manages gender-related resources and programming and might therefore fall under CCAP’s jurisdiction.

Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault chair Sophia Pedlow ’15 said in an email to The Dartmouth that she does not know whether the committee will be affected by the new center.

Because SPCSA is student-run, it should not fall under CCAP’s SEE CENTER PAGE FV17

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The Dartmouth

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Student survey shows divided campus B y Michael qian

The Dartmouth Staff

In the wake of intense media scrutiny and passionate campus discussion of sexual assault, The Dartmouth polled the College’s undergraduates on topics related to sexual violence, finding that student opinion is sharply divided over Dartmouth’s responses to reports of sexual assault yet largely united in support of the proposed sexual assault policy. Self-identified men and women, the survey found, report they hold different views of sexual assault frequency, College response procedures and the Greek system’s connection to sexual assault. Sixty-two percent said they knew someone who had been sexually assaulted.

The poll was conducted online between April 11 and 27, garnering 873 responses, about evenly distributed

A large majority of respondents from every year besides the Class of 2017 said they knew someone who was sexually assaulted on campus, with numbers ranging from 59 percent of sophomores to 74 percent of seniors. between class years. According to government professor Yusaku Horiuchi, who researches and teaches statistical methods in politics, the results do not necessarily represent the student body. The sampling was not random, he said, because students elected to participate in the survey. Horiuchi added that because of the survey’s large sample size, one might be able to assume that the survey’s respondents reflect the true population.

Results also have tight confidence intervals, and statistical analysis for comparisons between variables indicate high degrees of correlation, even though causation cannot be proven.

The survey’s timing follows several events tied to sexual violence, including the March trial of Parker Gilbert ’16, found not guilty of rape, the Parkhurst Hall sit-in, an advertisement campaign targetting the College’s handling of sexual assault and College President Phil Hanlon’s “Call To Action” distributed via email last month.

Results indicate that sexual assault remains a salient and hotly-contested issue at the College.

A majority of respondents from every class besides the Class of 2017 said they knew someone who was sexually assaulted on campus, with numbers ranging from 59 percent of sophomores to 74 percent of seniors. Among the Class of 2017,

43 percent said they knew someone who had been sexually assaulted.

These results mirrored respondents’ opinions of how often sexual assault occurs. Whereas 16 percent of freshmen thought that assault occurred “frequently,” twice as many seniors thought the same.

In a similar survey conducted at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013, only 31 percent of undergraduates said they knew someone who was sexually assaulted while a student at the institution.

Twenty percent of women are sexually assaulted while at college, according to “Not Alone,” a White House report on sexual assault on college campuses that cites 2007 research published in the Journal of American College Health.

“The rates for sexual violence among students [are] high,” Sandra Park, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberty Union’s Women’s Rights Project, said. “In reality, probably almost everybody knows someone who was sexually assaulted.”

Park added that Dartmouth’s small class size might result in students knowing more about their peers.

Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson said she has no reason to believe that the number of sexual assaults is higher at Dartmouth than at other institutions.

From a list of 12 different reasons ranging from “fear of retaliation” to “victim does not want to recall the experience,” 60 percent of students selected “shame or embarrassment” as one of the top three reasons for which students may not report sexual violence. This selection was followed by 35 percent choosing “victim feels responsible for what happened” and 34 percent for “unsure whether sexual assault occurred.”

The results suggest that many students think the precise criteria for what constitutes sexual assault remains nebulous.

Holli Weed ’14, who has worked extensively with sexual assault issues on campus, qualified the aforementioned results by citing the problematic nature of the label “sexual assault,” adding that Dartmouth students often forget to include behaviors like groping and heavy petting under its definition.

More open communication about sex and sexuality could mitigate cultural taboos and make talking about sexual violence less difficult for survivors, former Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault vice president Gus Ruiz Llopiz ’14 said.

“The first step [toward encouraging survivors to report their assault] is to work within a system of empowerment, a system that will allow survivors to take the process of reporting and healing into their own hands,” he said.

About 53 percent of respondents identified as women, 46 percent as men and 1 percent as gendernonconforming. Although results are fairly consistent over class years, they are polarized by genders. Whereas

only 27 percent of self-identifying men expressed disapproval for how the College responds to sexual assault reports, 44 percent of women — a significant plurality — indicated disapproval. Four out of the seven gender-nonconforming respondents signalled disapproval.

Twenty-nine percent of women answered that sexual assault happens “frequently,” while only 16 percent of men responded the same way. By the same token, 36 percent of men and 17 percent of women said that sexual assault happened “rarely.”

Seventy percent of women responded that they know a victim, as opposed to 52 percent of men. Six of the seven gender-nonconforming respondents said that they know a victim.

In response to a question asking how often claims of sexual assault are false, 21 percent of male respondents indicated “often” or “all of the time.”

Seven percent of women selected the same choices. All gender-nonconforming respondents indicated that false claims are “rarely” made.

When asked about the connection

Do you know any students (including yourself) who were sexually assaulted on campus?

.

Whereas only 27 percent of selfidentifying men expressed disapproval of how the College responds to sexual assault reports, 44 percent of women — a significant plurality — indicated disapproval.

between Greek life and sexual assault, more women indicated a correlation than men. Whereas 47 percent of men believed that Greek life had “some positive correlation” or “a strong positive correlation” with the frequency of sexual assault, 65 percent of women believed the same. About half of the male and female respondents identified as Greek-affiliated.

The six respondents who did not identify as male or female and responded to the question said they thought that the Greek system had a strong positive or some positive correlation with sexual assault frequency.

Two of the respondents identified as Greek-affiliated.

A large percentage of affiliated students and unaffiliated students indicated that they believe that the Greek system is linked with sexual assault.

47 percent of affiliated students said there is “some positive” or a “strong positive” correlation between the Greek system and sexual assault, as opposed to 68 percent of unaffiliated students.

Greek affiliation did not have a ERIN O’NEIL/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

SEE SURVEY PAGE FV18

Thirty-six percent of men and 17 percent of women said assault happens “rarely.”

The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

Page FV9

Recent conversations mark unique moment in College history

By Amelia rosch and sakina abu boakye T he Dartmouth Staff

When Nina Beattie ’89 attended the College, over a decade after women began matriculating, it was not uncommon for a woman walking down a Hanover road to be publicly ‘rated’ by onlookers, she said. Beattie remembers a culture in which sexual harassment was common.

In the years following women’s arrival in Hanover classrooms, many say the dialogue surrounding sexual violence was stilted, allowing harassment and marginalization to slip into college culture without uproar. In recent years, however, the College has moved to bolster its resources to support survivors and bring sexual violence to the forefront of campus discussion.

A “tremendous” pressure Well before the College began to accept women, integration of women into student life was an issue fraught with contention.

In 1960, coeducation became a viable topic at the College when then-president John Sloan Dickey announced that Dartmouth would initiate a coeducational summer term.

Theater professor Peter Hackett ’75, a member of the last all-male class at Dartmouth, emphasized that many College communities opposed coeducation.

“In general, there was a significant amount of resistance to women coming on campus, not just from students but also from the faculty and administration,” Hackett said.

The first class of women, which included 178 women and 805 men, arrived on campus in the fall of 1972.

Hackett said the College did not make accommodations for women’s arrival.

“There was a tremendous amount of pr essur e on the Dartmouth women to adapt and become Dartmouth men,” he said.

Mar tha Hennessey ’76 said women faced disparagement and verbal abuse during her time at the College. As a student, Hennessey was physically assaulted by an intoxicated fraternity member who accused her of tearing his sweater, she said. She said she heard stories of men urinating on women over big weekends and felt that anti-feminist attitudes were institutionalized.

“People were ver y ner vous about being associated with groups of women who were complaining

about anything,” Hennessey said.

Theta Delta Chi fraternity won a singing contest in 1975 for a song called “Our Cohogs,” which included derogator y language toward women. The word “cohogs” is a slur referring to female genitalia.

TDX won again in 1976 for a less obscene version of the song.

One line in the song, sung to the tune of “This Old Man,” was, “Our Co-hogs, they play four / They’re all a bunch of dirty whores.”

Hennessey and a group of women planned to throw eggs at fraternity members while they sang, but administrators instructed them that they would face punishment if they did so, she said. She noted that even after she helped draft a petition in opposition to the song, many women were reluctant to sign.

She did not hear people openly reprimand sexist actions for years, she said.

Fraternity songs that featured sexist language were a College tradition into the 1990s. In 1995, a poem was read aloud at Beta Theta Pi fraternity meetings that included derogator y language towar d women and Native Americans.

Despite the outwardly hostile climate, Hennessey said that sexual assault was never discussed while she was on campus.

Courtesy of Rauner Library

Banners on Russell Sage hall in the 1970s show resistance to coeducation.

“We got a ver y clear message that we were supposed to be kind of one of the guys and that if we complained about anything we were sort of ungrateful,” she said.

Marianne Hirsch, who taught at the College between 1975 and 2004, said that in the 1970s, the College did not have a reporting mechanism or trauma resources in place to tackle sexual assault. Women were expected to understand that they would face a difficult climate at the College, she said.

“Women were not encouraged to come for ward and report,” Hirsch said.

In November 1979, a female member of the class of 1983 was raped at knife-point by an unknown man, The Dartmouth reported at the time. The perpetrator was never found.

Soon, pockets of campus slowly began introducing resources for women.

The College created the women’s studies department in 1978, now called the women’s and gender studies program. The discipline was the first of its kind in the Ivy SEE HISTORY PAGE FV15

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The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

Guest Columnist anonymous

Dear Dartmouth: Thank You

After painful silence, I found my voice through reporting rape with the Committee on Standards. and deserves to be heard, but it is frustrating that despite the number of survivors coming forward with their stories, the sexual violence continues.

In most stories of sexual assault the survivor never comes forward, fearing peers’ judgment or that administrators or law enforcement officers will sorely mishandle the case. Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes.

During my sophomore winter I was raped Most rapes are not reported to the police, and by another student. I will graduate in three of those that are, only a tiny percentage lead weeks, proud to call Dartmouth my alma mater. to an arrest. At Dartmouth, survivors have the It was the night before Valentine’s Day. We additional option of reporting their assault to were drinking in a group, and I got too drunk. Safety and Security and requesting a College I spent almost an hour on the bathroom floor, adjudication process. When a survivor does vomiting into the toilet. My perpetrator and come forward at Dartmouth, the notorious another friend took care of me, gave me water Committee on Standards process can be fruitand rubbed my back. After friends put me to less, only producing rumors, skepticism and bed, my perpetrator entered my room while humiliation for the victim. Some survivors leave I was asleep. He got into the bed. Without their dorms, or even their schools, unable to speaking, he started touching me and then find any kind of institutional support. My story raped me. is different.

In the weeks following the assault, my per- It’s important to acknowledge that I am petrator tormented me. I saw him every day in a white, heterosexual, able-bodied, averageclass, and he would catch my eye from across sized woman. When I speak to staff and the room and start laughing. He made jokes faculty members, they listen. My privilege and subtle remarks referencing the incident, has influenced my experiences. I imagine it smiling and winking. I was in a relationship, did particularly in this case. and my perpetrator would ask me about my A few months after my assault, I saw a boyfriend every chance he could. I dropped my Sexual Assault Awareness Program coordiminor; I avoided certain departments’ courses; nator. I needed help. I cried to her and told I asked my dean to place me in a different her my story, and she listened patiently. She section of a class. I was constantly updating a followed up with me a few times lending her mental map of the safe and unsafe places on support, but she never pushed me toward any campus. course of action. And for the next year and a I saw my perpetrator’s face in my night- half, I didn’t take any official action. The SAAP mares. In sudden flashcoordinator and my underbacks my mind would “Some survivors leave graduate dean spoke to return to that bedroom. I’d one of my professors about grow hysterical. I started their dorms, or even switching me from a class seeing a therapist for anxi- their schools, unable section that my perpetraety, depression and mild tor was in. Friends who OCD. I became panicked to find any kind of knew about my assault in a room with too much institutional support. were understanding and commotion, and I would thanks to My story is different.” knowledgeable, run from the room shaking a campus dialogue about if I saw my perpetrator. I sexual violence that was cried often after being growing louder and louder intimate with my boyfriend, remembering each passing month. I started to consider the feelings that I had during the assault that reporting the rape. are so difficult to describe now. It’s a painful Yet I had little hope that reporting would helplessness, like how I imagine drowning help. I dreaded retelling this story, even if just might feel. in writing. I wanted to avoid reliving the trauma.

My consolation was that only a few people I’d heard my peers talking about women who knew what I was going through. It was easy to had reported their rapes: She lied to convince hide. I hid in my safe places: my room, friends’ her boyfriend; there are crazy girls out there; rooms, off campus, dining halls at times when I people falsely accuse guys of rape all the time. knew he wouldn’t be there, spots in the library Would people think that about me? Would he didn’t frequent. I got so good at avoiding people talk about me, harass me on Bored at him that I survived at Dartmouth pretending Baker? What if he was found not responsible? he was gone — until I saw him across campus How could I walk around campus every day or in FoCo and the illusion of security fell and see his smug, vindicated face? Can I even apart. Yet again and again I resolved to keep get through telling my story without crying? the memories compartmentalized. I heard so One day, however, I stumbled upon a story many horror stories about the College’s judi- of a woman who had been sexually abused by cial process failing victims that I didn’t even her childhood teacher. Because of the statute consider reporting. I didn’t want the rape to of limitations in her state, the survivor could no become an even bigger part of my life. I wanted longer press charges, even though the abuser it to stay buried. I wanted to move on. admitted to the crime. That night I dreamt I’m willing to bet you’ve heard some that it was graduation. I posed for a picture variation of this story before. I have heard it with my parents, smiling, my black cap and at student panels, I’ve read it in the pages of gown against the grass and a solid blue sky. this publication and others and I’ve listened My perpetrator walked by and stared at us as to close friends tell it. Every story is different the camera flashed. It was too late. There was Editors’ note: For this column, the editors of The Dartmouth are making an exception to our usual ban on publishing work anonymously because we believe that the issues raised here are so pertinent to the College.

Trigger warning: The following contains images and content that may trigger survivors of violence or sexual assault.

JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

nothing I could recover out of everything he took from me.

Once a perpetrator is no longer a student, a survivor cannot take action against him or her through the College. In the morning I sent an email to the SAAP coordinator telling her I had decided to report my assault.

We met in her office that same afternoon, and after talking over my decision, we walked together to the Safety and Security office where I filed an official report and requested a nocontact order against my assailant. The officer was warm, patient and kind. She reiterated that it was important I feel safe and comfortable. My voice shaking, I told her I had been sexually assaulted by a student, named him and gave her the date of the incident. That night I sent her a detailed description of the incident. The next day, my perpetrator was interviewed by Safety and Security. The no-contact orders forbade us from communicating in any way, so he would face disciplinary action for contacting me.

When I filed my report I named four witnesses who had been drinking with us on the

night of the assault. Eventually I learned that the investigating officer contacted nine other people who were around us in the months following the assault, wanting to know about my perpetrator’s behavior toward me during that time. I felt like the process was spiraling out of control. What I thought would be a quiet and quick process now dragged on for weeks, and a dozen people whom I didn’t choose to tell now knew there had been an incident. I felt exposed. Because the Safety and Security officer had to interview so many people, the investigation took a long time. I didn’t hear anything for over a month following my report.

The period of waiting was the hardest. I saw my perpetrator, his friends and the witnesses around campus, and I panicked just like I had in the first months after the assault. One of his friends, also a witness, gave me dirty looks, rolled her eyes and ignored me when I said hi to her. I was afraid to leave my room for fear of seeing anyone who knew about the impending CONTINUED ON FOLLOWING PAGE

The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

‘Now I Am Strong’ Continued from previous page

hearing. ing he had gotten my consent. I got lucky A few weeks before the hearing, he and I that I hadn’t invited him back to my room, received printed packets including every wit- because if I had, it would have been easier for ness statement, Safety and Security interview the Committee on Standards to blame me or write-ups and information regarding the COS justify not finding my perpetrator responsible. process. I had chosen my undergraduate dean That’s not what happened. In the morning as my designated advisor for the process, and my dean and I went to the senior assistant he met with me often to provide emotional sup- Dean of the College’s office. She notified us port and explain every detail of the process. that my perpetrator would be suspended for He was unfailingly understanding and gentle. six terms.

Ten weeks after reporting the assault, I He did not request a review of the decision. was getting dressed for my hearing. I listened He is not allowed on campus during his susto music to calm myself pension, which means that down and read over my “Some part of me I had I will never see him again. notes for my statements Yet had I reported the rape forgotten about was to the committee. right after it happened, We both dressed up back. I had a voice.” he would have already for the hearing. A cubicle returned to campus. We wall separated us so that I would live, eat and study didn’t have to look at him, but I saw his hands, in the same spaces. folded on the desk with dress shirt cuffs at The night after we heard the decision, I his wrists. And I saw the tip of his profile once received an angry email from my perpetrator’s when we both leaned forward. I lurched back, friend, ranting that I had ruined my perpetratrembling. I heard his voice. I heard his voice tor’s life and hurt a lot of people. Ironic, isn’t for five hours, telling lies. I heard his voice for it? I never responded. Since then, no one has the first time in a year and a half, and it made contacted me about the hearing. The College my whole body shake and sweat. I sobbed treats the whole process as confidential, so during my closing statement, but I got every other students can only learn about it from word out. The committee questioned us for my perpetrator, the witnesses or me. It hours, pressing us to outline the exact details troubles me that when he eventually returns of who touched whom where, how much to campus, no one will know him or know alcohol was consumed, what words were that the College found him responsible for said, what noises were made. All in all, the raping another student. He will graduate with committee made both of us feel comfortable, a shiny Ivy League degree and a convenient as comfortable as was possible. They had no story explaining his hiatus from campus. power to hold either of us accountable for Sometimes around campus I see the stuunderage alcohol consumption. They never dents and faculty members who sat on the asked hurtful, victim-blaming questions. My committee for my hearing. It’s a little awkward. dean sat beside me, passing me encouraging We don’t speak, but I feel silently supported. notes or nodding when I spoke. Witnesses Under the College’s new sexual assault policy, answered a few questions then left without reporting students won’t have to appear in receiving any information about the allega- front of a committee, and they’ll never have tions, the hearing or the eventual decision. to hear their perpetrator speak. A reporting My perpetrator and I got five-minute breaks student can file a report and an external every hour to discuss the proceedings with investigator will interview that student, the our advisors and take a few deep breaths. My accused student and witnesses individually. advisor and my observer, the SAAP coordina- Survivors will not walk around campus with tor, would wait until the perpetrator and his other students who heard the entire case. I advisor and observer had left the room before hope that these facts will encourage more we got up to leave the room, so we would not survivors to come forward without fear or have to see each other’s faces. hesitation.

The hearing lasted five and a half hours. On the morning of my hearing, the Harvard In my closing statement, I sobbed, but I said Crimson published “Dear Harvard: You Win,” everything I had needed to say for two years. an anonymous opinion piece. A student wrote I felt like Ariel in the closing scene of “The the piece when Harvard administrators and Little Mermaid,” when her voice swirls back staff failed to take action against her perpetrainto her body and soars out of her mouth. tor. Many people at the university to whom Some part of me I had forgotten about was she spoke after her assault encouraged her back. I had a voice. to keep quiet. This kind of reaction is shock I wouldn’t know the decision until the next ingly common. Survivors deserve better. morning, so my boyfriend and I dressed up They deserve respect and understanding, and went out to dinner at 9:30 p.m. I was not skepticism and dismissal. sweating and shaking and exhausted and Dartmouth, thank you for hearing me, invigorated. It felt like the beginning of my respecting me and believing me. When I walk new life. I didn’t care if my perpetrator was around campus today I smile and I look around found responsible. I knew he was. I fought — not to look out for my perpetrator, but to back, and it was empowering. admire our beautiful campus. I’m not afraid Sometimes I think I got lucky. I cringe anymore. When I speak, I hear a chorus of when I let that thought go through my mind, campus allies behind my voice. Knowing my because out of all the experiences in my life, perpetrator is far away brings me relief, yes. being raped is the one I would erase. Nothing But the knowledge that I spoke and somebody good comes out of being sexually assaulted. heard is even more powerful. Writing my stateBut I got lucky that my perpetrator was bold ment, being supported by my dean and my enough to watch me get drunk, vomit from SAAP coordinator and my friends, hearing the alcohol poisoning and then still choose to rape sound of my voice telling my story — these me. The evidence stacked against him. I got are the things that have rebuilt me. After I lucky that my perpetrator thought he would was assaulted I felt that I would never be in get off easy, and so he didn’t bother pretend- control again. Now I am strong.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Page FV11

The Dartmouth Opinion Staff

Opinion Asks

We asked our staff: What do you think about the new sexual assault policy?

Making the move toward a zero-tolerance sexual assault policy is a cr ucial step for ward for our school and will hopefully inspire other colleges to do the same. It is appalling to consider that a convicted offender could remain on the campus where they committed their crime. The mandator y external investigator model combined with a 60-day time limit for investigations could also minimize the pain inflicted upon those going through the sanctioning process. The policy will encourage individuals who do not feel comfortable with the sanctioning being an entirely internal investigation to report assaults. The administration should codify the SPCSA recommendations in their final revision of the sexual assault policy in order to ensure the comfort and safety of the victim. ­— Emily Albrecht ’16 The new policy is an improvement upon the old one, but questions will linger about what constitutes sexual assault because of the ambiguity of our definitions thereof. The new policy alleviates some of this ambiguity by defining sexual assault as “unwanted or unwelcome touching of a sexual nature, including fondling, oral sex, anal or vaginal intercourse, digital penetration, penetration with an object, or other sexual activity that occurs without valid Consent.”

The policy defines consent as “clear and unambiguous agreement, expressed in mutually understandable words or actions, to engage in a particular activity. Consent can be withdrawn by either party at any point.

Consent must be voluntarily given and is not valid if (1) obtained by physical force, coercion, or threat; or (2) the initiating party, acting as a reasonable person, would have known that the non-initiating party was incapable of giving consent because of incapacitation, unconsciousness, or any circumstance rendering the non-initiating party unaware that sexual activity is occurring or is about to occur. Consent to engage in one sexual activity, or past agreement to engage in a particular sexual activity, cannot be presumed to constitute consent to engage in a different sexual activity or to engage again in a sexual activity.”

At Dartmouth, as at many colleges, sex often occurs after alcohol consumption, often in both members. Since there is no discernible threshold at which someone becomes too incapacitated by way of alcohol to give consent, what may appear as sex may in fact be sexual assault. Drunk and seemingly consensual sex could be sexual assault. A victim may wake up the next morning and realize someone took advantage of him or her, even if he or she did not or could not express opposition at the time. Until hook-up culture changes or Dartmouth is able to more clearly define what constitutes an inability to give consent, the nebulous classification will continue to cast confusion over sexual assault cases, an unfortunate occurrence which may in part explain why so many instances of sexual assault go unreported.

— Kyle Bigley ’17

I believe that the new sexual assault policy is a step in the right direction as it shows that Dartmouth is committed to combatting and ending sexual assault. I agree 100 percent that those found guilty of sexual assault should be expelled immediately. Ultimately, however, the success of the policy should be judged based on whether the number of sexual assaults on campus declines, which can never fully be known. Although I strongly support mandator y expulsion, our main focus should be on preventing the assaults before they happen, not on dealing with them after the fact. The goal should be to prevent sexual assault, period. One could argue that because there is now a harsher punishment for sexual assault, it will deter people from committing sexual assault and therefore decrease the number of assaults that occur on campus.

I disagree. The threat of jail does not stop people from committing crimes, and the threat of expulsion will not in itself defeat sexual assault on this campus, especially when alcohol and other drugs may be involved. So while I support the College’s new sexual assault policy, I believe that we should not stop there. There is more work to be done on the education side. Expelling the perpetrator does not change the fact that the assault occurred, and it does not by any means make the victim forget the assault either.

— Joseph Geller ’16 The new policy represents a marked and positive change in administrators’ attitudes towards sexual assault policy, but the real test will be its implementation over the next year. With this change the College has an opportunity to transform student attitudes towards sexual assault on campus. I’d like to see an aggressive education campaign from Parkhurst that works toward campuswide awareness of the new sexual assault policies and their ramifications. It’s one thing to make a 12-page document available to campus in an email, but it would be far more consequential to create and distribute the question-and-answer PSA outlining the policy’s salient points. I challenge the administration to take advantage of this opportunity to change our campus’ attitude towards sexual assault. For the sake of the student body and the school’s image, let’s see some accessibility and leadership accompanying this positive policy shift.

— Isaac Green ’17 While the College’s reformed sexual assault policy is a step in the right direction, it is by no means a cure-all. Some of the recent changes show signs of progress. The newly adopted zero-tolerance clause, coupled with the assistance of outside investigators, has the potential to act as a deterrent. However, unless significant changes in campus culture accompany these new provisions, the advancements made in the new policy will never realize their full potential. Dartmouth students must embrace their individual role in combatting sexual assault.

— Sarah Perez ’17

By EMI

In recent years, students, faculty and outside observers have linked Dartmouth’s Greek system to the perpetuation of sexual assault, with some pointing to gender segregation, intoxication and hazing as sources of sexual violence. But the existence of final clubs, undercover Greek systems, social houses and similar social arrangements at peer institutions may indicate that Dartmouth’s system does not dramatically differ from groups at other schools without a strong Greek presence, and there are some signs that Greek leaders at the College have edged toward reform.

Dartmouth students are not alone in struggling with questions about the nature of Greek life. Across the country, scholars, students and college administrators have attempted to tackle the thorny issue of sexual assault on college campuses, and that conversation has often focused on the role of Greek life in both potentially promoting and mitigating broken campus cultures.

Of 873 current undergraduates polled

by The Dartmouth, nearly 57 percent responded that they believe there is a positive correlation between Greek life and instances of sexual assault. Among affiliated students, this percentage dropped only 10 points, so nearly half of affiliated students said they felt that a system they opted to join played a role in perpetuating sexual assault at the College.

Many students interviewed began a summary of their concerns with Greek spaces by stressing that most houses segregate students by gender. Among the College’s 31 Greek organizations, 28 are single-sex organizations — of the 2,168 active affiliated students in winter 2014, approximately 96 percent join single-sex, residential houses.

Several sociological studies have argued that such organizations perpetuate dangerous conceptions of acceptable behavior toward the opposite sex.

National media has pointed to Dartmouth Greek organizations’ themed parties like “Cougar tails,” in addition to intrafraternity emails, as promoting troubling gender distinctions.

While students acknowledge Greek organizations’ sway on campus, many do not link sexual assault with Dartmouth’s Greek system.

“Although the Greek system has an influence in culture and student’s social life, the Greek system is not the responsible actor for sexual assault,” Dari Seo ’16, a member of Alpha Delta, said.

Dartmouth students are quick to argue that criticisms of Greek organizations nationally — and particularly at southern schools — do not apply to the system at the College, touted by its members as more inclusive.

In last month’s public debate on the Greek system held in front of over 180 community members, public policy professor Charlie Wheelan ’88 and former Phi Delta Alpha fraternity president Mark Andriola ’14 called for better data and analysis on sexual assault and campus Greek organizations.

ERIN O’NEIL/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Other students, however, like Becca Rothlematic balance of power when national feld ’14, argue that whether Dartmouth’s sororities have to rely on fraternities to fraternities are more open than Greek host their social events that involve alcohol,” organizations on other campuses does not Panhellenic Council president Rachel Funk affect the issue of sexual assault. ’15 said.

“It might be the case that all of Dart Funk noted that Panhell is working with mouth’s fraternities are painted purple, but national sororities and the College’s Greek that doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the Letter Organizations and Societies office to question of sexual assault,” Rothfeld, who is provide more social options, including more unaffiliated, said. “Similarly, I think that if it intersorority themed parties. is the case that single-sex organizations that Alcohol plays a further role in the pledge operate the way fraternities and sororities do terms of many Greek organizations. Some promote sexual assault, then it doesn’t matstudents, like former Greek Leadership ter if they happen to be more open to people.”

Council moderator Elliot Sanborn ’14, argue When it comes to gender, an issue Roththat hazing and the use of alcohol during feld emphasized, many at the College echo pledge terms help create dangerous spaces. national concerns about the role of single-sex “Hazing can dramatically and permaorganizations. nently change the type of “At single sex-spac- “Having that network behavior you see as nores, there is definitely a mal,” Sanborn said. “The certain power dynamic of girls who always flip side is that alcohol is that is being pushed by have an eye on me very clearly the number cer tain people,” coed one date-rape drug.” council president Evelyn makes me feel so Following that logic, he Weinstein ’16 said. “Some- much safer.” said, one could draw the thing really interesting conclusion that Greek happens when you have organizations perpetuate a room full of people of - AL JOHNSON ’15 sexual assault on campus. the same gender.”

“If you think that a But not all students culture of hazing and a agree with the idea that single-sex organizaculture of excessive drinking are intractable tions inherently affect behavior. Al Johnson Greek problems at Dartmouth, and you think ’15 said membership in a single-sex organizathose two things exacerbate sexual assault, tion has helped her feel safer on campus. then you’d logically think that Greek life at “When I go out, I start the night with 40 Dartmouth is exacerbating sexual assault,” close friends, all of whom know how I act he said. both within and outside of the classroom, GLC moderator Alistair Glover ’15 and and where my boundaries are,” Johnson said.

GLC public relations chair Katherine Fox ’15 “Having that network of girls who always agreed only to answer questions via email, have an eye on me makes me feel so much citing a lack of time to meet in person. When safer.”

The Dartmouth offered additional time, Johnson added, however, that it would and then subsequently provided a list of be “ignorant” to assume her experience is written questions concerning the criticisms consistent with all other students’ experipresented above as well as other aspects of ences.

Greek life at the College, Fox responded

only to an inquiry about the steps the GLC Power Dynamics has taken to eradicate sexual assault. They Those who point to gender segregation did not respond to additional requests for in the Greek system as exacerbating sexual comment. assault often struggle to separate the issue from the role of alcohol in the Dartmouth A Greek System By Any Other Name? social scene. Although 15 of the College’s Many colleges and universities have Greek organizations are local, meaning that moved in recent years to eliminate Greek they are not beholden to national policies, life on campus or to implement changes the remaining 17 Greek organizations on intended to drastically alter the nature of campus must meet national membership Greek houses. In the 1960s, Williams Colguidelines, too. lege took steps to ban Greek organizations While the three local sororities on camon campus, and Amherst and Colby Colleges pus may host events at which alcohol is both followed suit in 1984. For many instituserved, national regulations often prohibit tions that have modified campus Greek life chapters from hosting similar events. And in the last few years, a desire to eliminate those sororities are far outnumbered by sexual assault has played a large role in the the fraternities on campus that are bound reexamination of Greek life. only by the College’s regulations in serving Trinity College, which announced a alcohol. change to its Greek system last fall, required As a result, the majority of students who that its Greek houses become coed by 2016. drink in Greek spaces will typically be served Although dean of students Frederick Alford alcohol in a house controlled by men, even explicitly said that a concern for bolstered if they attend an event jointly hosted by a sexual assault prevention did not drive the sorority. decision, he cited a desire for more equal “I do believe that it can lead to a probgender dynamics as a significant contribut-

ing factor.

Students at schools not noted for Greek life still described many of the same social challenges that are often attributed to the Greek houses.

Bowdoin College labels its eight social houses, which were designed as replacements for its Greek system in the 1990s, the “living rooms” of campus, but they also serve as its bars and meeting halls. And alcohol still flows freely on campus, current students note.

“As a freshman, I saw [social houses] pretty much as party spaces,” Bowdoin senior Sam Shapiro said. “This is somewhere where there is free beer, and as someone who’s not 21, that’s awesome.”

Though Harvard does not recognize campus Greek chapters, its 13 final clubs are single-sex.

Amherst College, now 30 years out from eliminating Greek life on its campus, has made headlines for failing to respond to sexual assault reports and for the dangerous party scene found in its off-campus houses.

Many fraternities at Amherst simply relocated to off-campus houses when banned by the College. Amhest’s Board of Trustees announced May 6 that, starting this summer, it will enforce its ban on Greek membership by charging affiliated students with honor code violations.

While formerly affiliated alumni sometimes express anger or disappointment when their respective alma maters divest themselves of Greek life, some current students on

AND ILY B R IG S T O C K E

JO S H KO E N IG

non-Greek campuses, including Bowdoin junior Schuyler Nardelli, said that they are pleased that Greek life does not dominate their social scene.

“There’s all sorts of stigmas and stereotypes around schools with Greek life, and I kind of like that Bowdoin isn’t associated with all of that,” Nardelli said in an email to The Dartmouth.

A Move Toward Change Many at the College disagree on whether or not Greek life at large should be linked directly to sexual assault, but many students said that the Greek community at Dartmouth has turned toward change. This past year, a combination of leadership from within Greek houses, external pressure and administrators’ urging has promoted new policies.

On Feb. 12, 2013, the GLC unanimously approved a new sexual assault misconduct policy that requires Greek members to attend a minimum of two sexual assault education sessions and sets stricter guidelines for sanctioning offenders, including social bans, bans on leadership positions in their houses and removal from membership entirely. This summer, the GLC requested that the College provide more sexual as-

“If you think that a culture of hazing and a culture of excessive drinking are intractable Greek problems at Dartmouth, and you think those two things exacerbate sexual assault, then you’d logically think that Greek life at Dartmouth is exacerbating sexual assault.”

- ELLIOT SANBORN ’14 FORMER GREEK LEADERSHIP COUNCIL MODERATOR

sault training resources to its members, resulting in a decision to provide optional Dartmouth Bystander Initiative training to Greek organizations.

The Greek community and the administration have made efforts to expand sexual violence and assault education, awareness, prevention and response, Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson said.

While the 2013 policy aimed to enforce member accountability for sexual violence, fraternities on campus can do more to combat sexual assault, Sanborn wrote in an email.

“Since Greek life holds such a dominant position on campus — particularly in controlling the flow of alcohol — there is a special responsibility for members of the Greek system to be aware of community issues like sexual violence,” he said.

Sexual assault prevention and survivor support training are available to all members of campus. The recently rebranded Movement Against Violence, for instance, has made a particular effort this spring to reach out beyond the Greek system, director of college health promotions Aurora Matzkin ’97 said.

Ongoing conversations within Greek

organizations and across campus seem to suggest that further changes may be on the horizon.

A few days after last month’s debate on the Greek system, four senior fraternity members convened a sexual assault awareness panel at Chi Heorot fraternity. Members from every fraternity attended the event, panel organizer and former Bones Gate social chair Campbell Haynes ’14 said.

“We didn’t think this was going to be the end. We knew this was going to be the beginning,” Austin Major ’14, another event organizer and former Heorot president, said.

“This is something that’s going to be a long and difficult process.”

Greek life at the College dates back to 1841. Students in single-sex residential fraternities and sororities are regulated under the auspice of the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, the National Association of Latino/a Fraternal Organizations and the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Coed houses are overseen by the Coed Council.

Rothfeld is a former member of The Dartmouth opinion staff. Major is a member of The Dartmouth staff.

Miguel Pena, Sara McGahan, Sera Kwon and Michael Qian contributed reporting.

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Advocates note shift in conversation after high-profile events FROM REVIEW PAGE FV3

that discussed how to alter Dartmouth’s social scene. Invitations to the closed summit were extended to 120 community members.

A Shift in Tone As the College emerges from a year spent under considerable scrutiny, activists and observers have noted a considerable shift in the tone of discussion.

Women’s and gender studies professor Michael Bronski credited student activism for sustaining campus discussion in the past few years. Drawing on his 14 years of teaching at the College, Bronski said he first saw public discussion on sexual assault in school publications, open forums and from the administration in 2006, when Dartmouth’s first openly gay Student Assembly president, Tim Andreadis ’07, was elected as a write-in running on a platform of ending sexual assault.

In a series of emails sent to campus for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, Movement Against Violence noted a transformation in its facilitated discussions.

“The student collective increasingly acknowledges the existence and severity of sexual assault,” one email read. “Our conversations

have been more productive and we are seeing more students engaging committedly. We are moving forward.”

Women’s and gender studies professor Giavanna Munafo, who first came to Dartmouth in 1994 as the director for the Center for Women and Gender, now the Center for Gender and Student Engagement, said she had observed waves of active engagement come and go throughout her time at the College.

Munafo said she sees Dartmouth students entering the College better prepared to understand how race, class and gender shape learning environments, a development she largely attributed to a shift in national awareness of these issues.

“We are, at this moment, at the most engaged and most inclusive level of campus conversation about the issue of sexual assault that we’ve ever seen,” Munafo said. “At this moment it has been sustained longer, caused by a confluence of various forces.”

Holli Weed ’14, who has been extensively involved in various student groups dealing with sexual assault, said that compared to her first two years, the tenor of the issue has become much more proactive.

“This year is really the first year when I’ve heard people asking about rape culture, what is it, why

are we talking about it, how does it manifest at Dartmouth?” she said.

Still, some have argued that campus discussion remains imperfect.

In an email, history professor Russell Rickford wrote that he found the extent to which discussions of social issues currently revolve around sexual assault appropriate. But Rickford also noted that sexual assault is inextricable from other questions of social relations and power on campus, including race, class, gender and sexuality.

“The volume of the conversation about rape and sexual assault has risen, but self-deception, false consciousness and local structures of power preclude more effective approaches,” Rickford wrote. “We seem unable or unwilling to transcend the dominant discourse of ‘a few bad apples’ and ‘we are better than this.’ These false narratives obscure the reality of our rape culture, and smother the self-critique and self-transformation that are desperately needed.”

Jillian Mayer ’14, who identified herself as a sexual assault survivor, said she has qualms with the current discussion of sexual assault on campus. Although other issues such as racism, homophobia and classism also relate to sexual assault, campus discussion seems

to be one-dimensional rather than intersectional, Mayer said.

Much discussion stems from the question of whether current initiatives and committees address the symptoms, rather than the causes, of sexual assault, she said.

Theater professor Peter Hackett ’75 said that though he finds the current environment more open to discussion, he still feels troubled by the pushback at those who speak about the issue. He said there was a tendency for people to equate his criticisms of the College with a lack of loyalty, when his calls for reform really stem from a deep love for the College and its students.

Weed said she has been threatened and targeted for being vocal.

“My efforts to promote student accountability and to reign in behaviors that I perceive as inherently harmful to community have not always been well-received,” she said. “I have received death threats on Bored at Baker quite a few times. I’ve had people threaten to rape me. I have been called in the middle of the night. I’ve struggled with hostile behavior from certain student organizations on campus.

There was an extended period of time where I could not walk to class by myself because it wasn’t a safe option.”

Weed said she had heard other

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activists say that they have also experienced harassment.

Students, alumni and faculty expressed mixed sentiments on whether administrative responses are enough to tackle and eliminate sexual assault.

When asked if she thought that this period is a departure from previous administrative responses, Dar tmouth Change co-founder Susy Struble ’93 said she remained skeptical.

“I don’t know if we’re at the tipping point,” she said. “What’s different this time? I wish I could feel more positive.”

Hackett said he thought that the College’s branding itself as a leader in sexual assault prevention was misleading and discouraged survivors from coming forward.

Reflecting on her experiences at the College, Weed said that she feels heartened to see student perspectives on sexual violence evolve over such a short time. By prioritizing the issue, administrators had made themselves more available to have people come forward, she said.

“Dartmouth needs to prove that it is a leader in sexual violence prevention,” Weed said. “I would personally love to hold the title of being one of the first campuses to eliminate sexual violence — that would be incredible.”

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Recent years show a campus embracing discussions of gender FROM HISTORY PAGE FV9

League.

English professor Ivy Schweitzer, who started teaching at the College in 1983, said that male students adopted a “war y toleration” of female students. She said there was pressure for women at the College to conform.

“They had to agree to go along with the plan,” she said. “If they didn’t agree to go along with plan, which involved sexism and coercion, they were usually shamed or ostracized or called a lesbian or something like that.”

In 1989, the first year for which sexual assault figures are available, the annual report indicated that students reported nine cases of unwanted sexual contact, three cases of attempted sexual assault and 19 cases of sexual assault.

One third of Dar tmouth repor ted experiencing unwanted sexual contact, and 11.5 percent reported experiencing “completed unwanted sexual intercourse,” the Valley News reported in November 1989. The article said that 5 percent of men at the College had admitted to attempting sexual assault.

Beattie recalled a deeply misogynist culture. She remembers seeing men grab women and pass them up the stands at sporting events.

“There were a lot of things that didn’t quite rise to the level of sexual assault but were common and tolerated,” she said. “All these activities would go on and were somewhat accepted as part of the College.”

During these years, the College’s formal judicial policy for addressing sexual assault began to evolve. From its inception in the 1980s, the Sexual Assault and Sexual Harrassment Committee reviewed College policies regarding sexual assault and of fered recommendations, in addition to providing educational ser vices to students and faculty. In 1989, the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program was also created.

Karen Morton ’88 said that gender issues were beginning to rise to the forefront when she attended Dartmouth, but that there was little discussion about developing a formal, College-run system for responding to assault.

“There was more of an emphasis then on personal responsibility on actions and less of an emphasis on what the administration should do to bring justice,” Morton said.

Counseling and human development director Heather Earle, who ser ved as the first SAAP coordinator in 1989, said that her workload made the early years of the program difficult.

Then, she handle both the clinical and outreach functions of the program. Her other responsibilities included creating educational

events for freshmen and Greek houses, as well as working with staff and students at Dick’s House.

Committee on Standards hearings looked ver y different when she first came to the College, Earle said. Then, the alleged victim was not separated from the alleged perpetrator.

The College now takes steps to ensure that alleged victims and alleged perpetrators cannot see each other during disciplinary hearings.

Additionally, Earle was not allowed to explain background information about sexual assault to COS members for fear of bias.

In the early 1990s, growing frustrations over how the College handled sexual assault led to a protest in front of Parkhurst and backlash from then Dean of the College Marvin Lee Pelton, according to a 1992 Valley News article and the letters that Pelton sent to the student body and the Board of Trustees.

Mar y Childers, the director of the Women’s Resource Center between 1991 and 1993, wrote in an email that many women complained to her about how the social culture at the College made sexual harassment permissible.

She was criticized for her attempts to expand the center’s services, she said.

“When we star ted tr ying to initiate assertiveness and self defense training for women, one of my senior male colleagues yelled at me for wanting to teach women to beat up men,” she wrote.

On Mar. 1, 1992, a female Dartmouth student reported being raped by a male student. The student she named as the perpetrator had already been accused of sexual assault by another female student. On Apr. 22, 1992, students protested how the College handled sexual assault outside Parkhurst Hall.

Schweitzer wrote in her email that the protests involved more than just female students, and faculty urged female students not to enter fraternities at night.

Policy changes never materialized, Schweitzer wrote.

In a 1992 letter, Pelton spoke out against sexual assault, outlining suggestions on sexual assault prevention and improvements to the adjudication process for alleged victims. The suggestions included allowing alleged victims to take out restraining orders against their alleged perpetrators, installing locks on women’s bathrooms in dorms, increasing programming on preventing sexual assault during freshmen orientation week, expelling convicted rapists and the abolition of the fraternity system.

A year later, The Valley News reported that of the 30 cases of sexual assault reported at the College in 1992, five were brought to the Hanover Police. One of the five

Courtesy of Rauner Library

Several of the first women admitted to the College sit alongside male students in a class in 1972. went to trial, and the jur y acquitted the defendant.

Discussion of the relationship between the Greek system and sexual assault peaked again in 1996, when 35 unidentified students distributed flyers to residence halls that named fraternities that the

“If [women] didn’t agree to go along with the plan, which involved sexism and coercion, they were usually shamed or ostracized or called a lesbian or something like that.”

- Ivy schweitzer, english professor group believed had shown sexist behavior. The group also dumped manure on the lawn of Alpha Chi Alpha and Beta Theta Pi fraternities.

Susy Struble ’93 said that her years at the College were the first years in which administrators began talking about consent and safe sex as part of orientation.

“It was really the beginning of an understanding of the epidemic of sexual assault,” she said.

As a student, Struble cofounded a group called Greeks Against Rape, a forerunner of Movement Against Violence, that brought attention to the role of consent.

During the 1990s, students organized the College’s first Take Back the Night rally that drew attention to the right to move freely, day or night, without sexual harassment or assault. A Take Back the Night demonstration now occurs annu-

ally at the College.

Struble said, however, that most conversations about sexual assault were confined to students passionate about the issue.

“Out of the Woodwork” In 2005, Meredith Raucher ’06 helped start Mentors Against Violence. She said that when organization started, “people just came out of the woodwork with stories.” Her years at Dartmouth, she said, marked the beginning of more student-driven dialogues about sexual assault.

Raucher said the administration did not adequately attempt to handle sexual assault. She recounted an incident in which she believes her female friend was drugged at a fraternity event. Following this incident, both Raucher and her friend were reprimanded by the Deans Office for illegal drinking, Raucher said, but the alleged incident of attempted date rape was not further investigated.

During Raucher’s time at Dartmouth, she said the first Speak Out events were organized, which encouraged sur vivors to share the stor y of their assault in a safe setting.

Now, after recent campus protests and the announcement of a new policy, the College is changing its approach to assault.

Last April, a group of students staged a demonstration during the annual Dimensions show to raise awareness about sexual assault, among other issues like racism and homophobia. Following threats to those involved in the protest, the College cancelled classes on April 24.

Raucher said that while she welcomes the new efforts, she believes the policies were put together too hastily and will not improve support for victims.

Earle also said that a major change she has noticed during her

time at the College is that more students are now discussing sexual assault.

“I think it’s talked about in a wider spread and range of students,” she said. “Students are talking about it in ways where they see it’s harmful to friends and them.”

Earle said that campus resources and policies have improved since the early 1990s, citing improvements in Dick’s House counseling and centralization of resources.

“In the past, if a student came for ward to talk to somebody outside of this office, they would have had to go to their dean to ask for academic accommodations and then to residential life to switch rooms and then maybe even to another department,” she said.

“Now it’s centralized, so it really helps with all those things.”

For instance, the College now has a Sexual Assault Response Team that helps students who have been assaulted access resources and work with the College about accommodations, Earle said.

Strubble said the College could improve its reporting mechanisms and must place an emphasis on preventing repeated of fenses.

The College currently receives information on sexual assault from Safety and Security and the Judiciar y Committee, but beginning this summer, the College will employ an external investigator to prepare a report to a committee and will encourage expulsion for cases of sexual assault involving penetration.

Earle said that the proposed policy change demonstrates the impact that students have had on the discussion about sexual assault at the College.

“Students were ver y active in pushing it positively for ward,” she said. “I think that students can organize and constructively make things happen.”

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Students indicate support for new policy, with some reservations FROM NEW POLICY PAGE FV6

adjudicate sexual assault cases.

Yale University, Har vard University and Columbia University have an external investigator, as does Dartmouth, but this person does not adjudicate sexual assault cases — administrators or staff members at the universities determine responsibility for cases.

Five other Ivy League institutions — Brown, Columbia University, Cornell, Penn and Yale — use the “preponderance of the evidence” standard to determine sexual assault sanctions.

Princeton University’s standard of proof mandates that the complainant put for th a “clear and persuasive case,” while Harvard employs several standards across its schools, all of which are more stringent than the “preponderance of the evidence” standard.

At Penn, an administrative office is responsible for investigating sexual misconduct cases, while at Columbia, a Universityaffiliated designee appointed by the Assistant Director conducts investigations.

Other Ivy League institutions use committees to investigate sexual assault incidents and pre-

side over disciplinar y hearings.

These committees are typically composed of some combination of administrators, faculty and students.

T wenty of 21 students inter viewed by The Dar tmouth

“What we hope this will result in is an increased confidence in the way we adjudicate these cases and an increased credibility around the system, all of which will feed into creating community.”

- Charlotte Johnson, Dean of the College expressed general support of the policy.

“The policy shows that Dar tmouth is r eally serious about [sexual assault],” Jonathan Katzman ’17 said.

Shayn Jiang ’15 said that the proposed policy will deter potential aggressors, and Kimberly Mei ’17 said that the policy should have existed beforehand.

“There isn’t any reason to have people not feel safe on campus,” Meghan Hassett ’15 said.

Vanny Nguyen ’17 said he opposes the College’s plan of employing an outside investigator to examine and adjudicate sexual assault cases.

“The way I see it, it’s easy for the College to just expel people without proper evidence and dissociate themselves from potential rapists,” Nguyen said. “I think the law should investigate and determine guilt first, and then the College can adjust consequences accordingly.”

Of fice for Civil Rights’ 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter notes that the “preponderance of the evidence” standard is the required standard of proof for violations of civil rights laws and thus the “appropriate” standard for investigations of sexual harassment allegations. Five of the 21 students inter viewed said that an alleged perpetrator should be expelled if and only if the investigator knows with total certainty that the individual is guilty, not on the basis of

whether or not the person is more likely than not to have committed sexual assault.

Hassett cited the “preponderance of the evidence” standard as a main reason that she believes there are arguments against the sexual assault policy, but she ex-

“I am a firm believer that one of the reasons sexual assaults do not get reported is because our system is biased against victims.”

- Meghan Hassett ’15

pressed support for the standard.

“I am a firm believer that one of the reasons sexual assaults do not get reported is because our system is biased against victims,” she said.

Subur Khan ’17 said she agreed.

As sexual assault is an underreported crime, it is unlikely that people will bring for ward false

claims, she said.

“It takes a lot to report one,” she said.

Arora’s research found that students at peer institutions, echoing their counterparts at Dartmouth, expressed concer n over the “preponderance of the evidence” standard, with some fearing that the standard would allow individuals charged with sexual assault to be punished too easily.

The revised practices will go into effect summer term, Johnson said. The administration plans to educate the community about the policy before implementation, Remy said.

Remy noted that the proposed policy is clearly labeled a draft, and that the administration plans to revise the policy in the coming months after gathering input.

On March 14, Hanlon distributed a letter requesting feedback on the proposed policy. Only four comments were posted on the Improve Dartmouth website, and the Office of Public Affairs could not provide the number of comments received privately.

Mei is a member of The Dartmouth staff.

Michael Qian, Sera Kwon and Amelia Rosch contributed reporting.

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The Dartmouth

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Sources caution against Center establishes‘points of connection’ firm data conclusions between various campus resources FROM DATA PAGE FV4

said. “Somebody needs to voluntarily come forward.”

David Lisak, a nationally recognized forensic consultant who has guided rape prevention and response policies on college and university campuses, said that the data gathered through the Clery Act reports may not serve as a helpful tool for comparing institutions.

“From a researcher’s perspective, Clery data are not usable as cross-institutional comparative data,” Lisak wrote in an email. “That said, if Dartmouth’s numbers are, on the face of it, significantly higher than other, similar institutions, that should certainly be grounds for a very careful, very comprehensive investigation of the situation at Dartmouth.”

Over the past months, Dartmouth has undergone considerable national scrutiny for its handling of sexual assault. The College has made headlines in national media outlets for struggling to combat sexual assault on campus.

Lisak said that the attention Dartmouth has received does not necessarily point to an especially high level of sexual assault at the College, noting that schools can receive media attention for any number of “random” reasons, like high-profile court cases, student activism or the whims of a prominent journalist.

Students from Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Williams College, Harvard University, Brown University and Columbia University expressed varying opinions on the issue of sexual assault on their respective campuses.

In nearly every interview, students expressed the opinion that sexual assault is a national problem on college campuses.

Columbia sophomore Zoe Ridolfi-

Starr, is a member of No Red Tape and Columbia’s Coalition Against Sexual Violence, two groups fighting assault through protests and by issuing policy recommendations, respectively. Ridolfi-Starr said that while sexual assault was a problem at colleges nationwide, she was heartened by Dartmouth’s sexual assault policy proposal released in March.

“This is distinctly different than what we see [at Columbia], in that we see Dartmouth actively and specifically discussing student proposals,” RidolfiStarr said. “That’s been for us one of the harder issues.”

Max Nesterak, a member of the class at 2013 at Swarthmore College, said that while sexual assault is a problem at Swarthmore, it isn’t unique to the campus.

“In colleges across the country, administrations do not understand how to appropriately respond to reports of sexual assault in a way that ensures the emotional health of the survivor, the general safety of the campus and the rights, so to speak, of the perpetrator,” he said.

Nesterak reported on sexual assault for his campus newspaper, and his personal opinions do not reflect the paper’s views.

Yale sophomore Michael Herbert was elected Yale College Council president on a platform emphasizing the importance of combatting sexual assault. He said Dartmouth, like Yale, suffers from a problem of perception when it comes tl/o sexual assault.

“Dartmouth has the reputation of being the ‘Greek Ivy,’” Herbert said.

“People aren’t going to hear stories about the good things fraternities do — people are going to hear the worst stories.”

Sara McGahan, Sera Kwon and Sean Connolly contributed reporting.

FROM CENTER PAGE FV7

domain, Pedlow wrote. She said that any decision to restructure or reorganize SPCSA would come from students on the committee.

Pedlow said a period of necessary adjustment accompanies any change. Since CCAP will expand sexual assault prevention resources, it may increase the relevance and importance of assault prevention on campus, she added.

“This [center] has been a consistent recommendation from the Student Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault for at least two years,” Matzkin said. “It’s not random.”

The College has divided sexual assault resources into four categories: education, response and support, prevention and accountability. CCAP will direct its efforts toward developing new prevention programs such as the Dartmouth Bystander Initiative, Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson said.

DBI is a sexual assault prevention program that trains bystanders to recognize and intervene in potentially dangerous environments.

“A person who has been sexually assaulted or someone who even

knows someone who has been sexually assaulted is more likely to report if they are engaged with the issue in some way, if they are at the table, if they are involved,” Johnson said.

The center intends to achieve its mission by establishing “points of connection” among students, alumni, faculty and staff at Dartmouth, Johnson said. The center expects to cultivate relationships with current campus organizations, such as the Dickey Center for International Understanding, Rockefeller Center and the Center for Professional Development, she said.

CCAP will strive to provide new resources as well as consolidate some positions in hopes of creating a “hub for prevention efforts,” Johnson said.

Prevention efforts currently fall under the jurisdiction of the office of student health promotion and wellness, Johnson said.

For example, SAAP, which acts through the office of student health promotion and wellness, has directed prevention and support resources since the organization’s inception in 1989. SAAP will transfer its prevention efforts to CCAP

and focus primarily on response programs, director of health promotion and student wellness Aurora Matzkin said.

SAAP also functions as a programming coordinator, organizing programs such as Sex Signals, VWeek and other events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

SAAP will continue its role and does not anticipate falling under the domain of CCAP, Carrow said.

While CCAP’s focus on prevention manifests a desire to get “in front” of the issue, Carrow said that it is important to continue to provide support services through SAAP. Childress said she and Carrow will be collaborating with the new staff for CCAP and others on sexual violence prevention and response efforts.

She said she expects to see many shifts in the structuring of resources, but as Johnson will soon leave the College, it is still unclear where those shifts will occur.

“It’s going to be something that we’ll see guidance from our new leadership and the president on how to go from here,” Childress said.

Sera Kwon and Sara McGahan contributed reporting.

SUNDAY 5/18/2014 1:00 - 4:00 P.M. Kemeny 004 Copies of previous years’ exams are in the Undergraduate Lounge, Kemeny 100A. Please contact Sergi Elizalde or Erik van Erp if you have questions. No registration required. Any Dartmouth freshman can just show up and take the exam.

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Friday, May 16, 2014

Majority of respondents link Greek system with sexual assault FROM SURVEY PAGE FV8

major influence on respondents’ approval of the College’s handling of sexual assault reports. Forty-three percent of affiliated students said Dartmouth handles sexual assault “better” or “much better” than most other schools, compared with 34 percent of unaffiliated students. Forty-six percent of affiliated students and 49 percent of unaffiliated students said Dartmouth handles sexual assault “neither better nor worse” than most other schools, while 11 percent of affiliated students and 17 percent of unaffiliated students answered either “worse” or “much worse.”

Respondents who know someone who was assaulted on campus were over five times as likely to express disapproval of how the College handles sexual assault reports.

At an invitation-only summit in April, Hanlon highlighted the creation of the Dartmouth Bystander Initiative and the new sexual assault policy proposal as important steps in combating sexual violence.

“This is progress, great progress, but we must not confuse it with success,” he said at the summit.

Members of Greek organizations have the option of undergoing two one-hour DBI sessions or two onehour Movement Against Violence

sessions. A full DBI training session lasts six hours.

Only 22 percent of respondents said that most Dartmouth students either probably or definitely would spend six hours at a DBI training session.

Student body president Casey Dennis ’15 said he hopes to see participation become a standard across the student body, but Dennis and Assembly vice president Frank Cunningham ’16 both acknowledged that many students may not have the time to participate in DBI training. Dennis said collaboration within the Greek system via individual members, the Inter-Fraternity Council and Greek Leadership Council could facilitate training.

Both Dennis and Cunningham emphasized that students must drive the initiative for it to be successful.

Two thirds of survey respondents said they thought sexual assault occurs with equal frequency at the College and peer institutions. Eighteen percent of students said sexual assault occurs much more or more frequently at Dartmouth.

While about 14 percent indicated that the College is worse or much worse at addressing these issues than peer institutions, about 39 percent of students indicated that Dartmouth is better or much better at combating

ERIN O’NEIL/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Affiliated students were more likely to respond that the Greek system had no correlation with sexual assault. sexual assault than its peers. Even though more respondents said the College is comparatively better, the high number of students expressing disapproval of Dartmouth’s handling of sexual assault reports indicates that the student body recognizes existing imperfections.

Recently, the College proposed a new sexual assault policy, which tasks an external investigator with preparing a report about sexual misconduct complaints and mandates expulsion for certain forms of sexual misconduct.

Nearly all students — 88 percent — supported this clause of the proposed

SPOTLIGHT

policy, with 56 percent indicating strong agreement.

Johnson said the new sexual assault policy is designed to create a “climate of reporting,” and will go into effect starting summer 2014.

Sara McGahan and Sera Kwon contributed reporting.

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Ivy League investigations may yield insight for the College FROM TITLE IX PAGE FV5

dent in which Columbia students listed names of alleged sexual assault perpetrators on bathroom stalls as an example of how students are gaining more awareness of the “real danger on campus.”

“I think it’s an expression of people’s real fear and desire to protect others, which has never been apparent in such a blatant way before,” she said.

Princeton’s Title IX investigation began in 2010, when a New England School of Law professor filed a complaint alleging that Princeton’s burden of proof for sexual assault cases was higher than the maximum standard mandated under the “Dear Colleague” letter, among other claims, the Daily Princetonian reported.

Princeton’s investigation has received less attention on campus than at other Ivy League institutions, Princeton sophomore Nathan Eckstein said.

Investigations at Dartmouth More than 30 Dartmouth students and alumni alleged Cler y Act violations of sexual assault, hate crimes, bullying, hazing and gender-based, racial and religious discrimination in May 2013.

The same month, Department of Education initiated the Title IX investigation of the College — a move that sets Dartmouth apart from its peers, as the government opted to investigate the College on its own.

“The Department of Education is investigating Title IX investigations based on sexual violence more than it ever has in its history,” Park, the attorney, said, attributing the surge in investigations to increased student activism.

Although the Office for Civil Rights arrived on campus this past

January to investigate Dartmouth’s compliance with Title IX, neither investigation has been completed.

Investigations can last several years.

When students announced the Clery Act complaint, Anna Winham ’14 said at a press conference that she sought to emphasize the pervasive culture of silence, hatred and violence at the College.

“The campus reaction to [the Real Talk] protests against sexual assault, racism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, cis-sexism and sexism proved that all these issues are intertwined, and that rape on our campus, as in other war zones, is a tool of violence used to keep people in line,” Winham had said.

Winham also said that Dartmouth does not provide a safe environment for its students.

Nastassja Schmiedt ’15 said at the event that although she reported she was a victim of sexual assault to administrators, she was often discouraged to go through the adjudication process.

Winham and Schmiedt failed to respond to multiple requests for comment over the past weeks.

Schmeidt said each of her friends has been affected by sexual assault or harassment, either personally or by knowing a close friend.

Park said that the conclusion to Yale’s investigation illustrates that the Office for Civil Rights often works with the institution to settle investigations by proposing remedies, including bolstered preventive measures. She stressed that investigations do not mean that institutions are necessarily out of compliance with federal regulations.

Since last year, the College and student organizations have taken several steps to revamp official policies on sexual assault.

This winter, the College an-

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Complaints or investigations have been filed or opened against five institutions. nounced the creation of the Center for Community Action and Prevention, slated to open July 1. In March, the College proposed a new sexual assault disciplinary policy, which will go into effect this summer.

“What motivates President Hanlon’s administration’s decisions around sexual assault is, what can

we do to promote the safety of the campus, to make students feel comfortable coming forward and reporting sexual assault when they occur,” Anderson, College spokesperson, said. “There is going to be external things that are happening, but we’re focused on what’s in the best interest of the students, the

faculty and the staff that are on this campus.”

He added that policy change over the past year marks a continuation of former College President Jim Yong Kim’s administration, including Kim’s creation of the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault.

Park said that federal investigations also allow colleges to educate themselves about federal code, the details of which sometimes remain murky. After an investigation is announced, campuses typically see increased conversation among students and faculty about sexual assault, she said.

While Dari Seo ’16 said he believes there was a campus climate change due to the recent investigation, Victoria De Paula ’16 disagreed.

“I think there has been a heated campus climate around sexual assault in general, unrelated to the investigation,” she said. “Honestly I do not think most students really care about the investigation which may be a problem in and of itself.”

She added that she believes the federal investigations jump-started administrative actions, like the recent change to the College’s disciplinary policy.

“Dartmouth is trying to clean up its image,” she said.

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The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

Prevention, Post-Trauma and Policy Looking at campus groups against sexual assault STORY

B y Victoria Nelsen AND Nancy WU

The recent rebranding of Mentors Against Violence to Movement Against Violence, in addition to the upcoming introduction of the Center for Community Action and Prevention, shows the latest stages of the decades-long evolution of sexual assault prevention programming.

The Sexual Assault Awareness Program, Dartmouth’s official arm in combatting assault, oversees many programs that focus exclusively on sexual violence, like first responder training for professors, peer advising and the Dartmouth Bystander Initiative. Coordinators Rebekah Carrow and Amanda Childress facilitate the programs that fall under SAAP’s umbrella.

Alongside the College, students have helped develop sexual assault resources. MAV co-director Murylo Batista ’15 categorized students’ work into three areas: prevention, posttrauma and policy.

The distinction between these areas has allowed various groups to address sexual assault without much overlap, Batista said. MAV emphasizes prevention, Sexual Assault Peer Advisors handle post-trauma response and the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault addresses policy.

The Sexual Assault Awareness Program oversees SAPAs, but not MAV or the SPCSA. SAAP oversees the peer advising program, but not the other two programs.

Movement Against Violence MAV runs facilitations for student groups, aiming to teach students how to prevent sexual assault and dispel harmful social norms through facilitated discussions. The program is mostly directed at Greek houses, but it has recently expanded its reach to other campus groups.

MAV tailors each facilitation to best serve the needs of the participant group in question, Batista said. In fraternities, for example, MAV discusses the environment and behavior in fraternity basements.

Batista said that MAV has a pool of about 35 active members who facilitate sessions.

The recent name change was inspired by a reconsideration of the word “mentor,” Batista said. Because the facilitators follow a peer education model, they do not want participants to perceive facilitators as in position of power as mentors.

The group, a little less than a decade old, was founded by students who perceived a need for enhanced education, support and prevention efforts because of insufficient College involvement in sexual assault issues at the time, former director Holli Weed ’14 said.

The group also possessed few

administrative connections at its inception. While the group continues to be completely run by students, Childress serves as its advisor, Weed said.

Weed added that the current program also features greater student involvement, more efficient trainings and increased use of research from other universities.

But MAV’s curriculum and goals remain in flux as the issue of sexual assault develops on campus, she said.

MAV co-director Jill Horing ’15 said that the program’s goals have narrowed over the years, especially after the implementation of other programs like DBI. MAV no longer incorporates bystander intervention and now concentrates on education and prevention. The discussion-based sessions reinforce the idea that facilitators constitute a community of students speaking with other students, Horing said.

“We’re not just educating people,” she said. “We’re starting a conversation.”

MAV facilitator Kelsey Weimer ’16, trained last fall, said she was attracted to the program because she found that the facilitations employed a particularly interesting approach.

Interactive sessions, Weimer said, pose a series of questions to students.

“Have you witnessed anything that makes you uncomfortable?” “How did your house handle that situation?”

Another activity prompts participants to discuss and arrange social situations on a continuum of violence. The events range from using “you guys” to address a group to stranger rape.

Sexual Assault Peer Advisors SAPA trains students to provide support and resources for survivors of sexual violence, director of health promotion and student wellness Aurora Matzkin ’97 said. Matzkin, trained as a SAPA as a student at the

College, said that the program is still being perfected.

Since the program’s creation in 1991, there has been an effort to emphasize continuing education for peer advisors even after their term-long training, Matzkin said, noting that she faced the same challenge after she had been trained.

“You did one term of training, and then you were anointed a SAPA, and there was no follow-up after that,” she said.

Now, students can take on leadership positions or plan events addressing assault. Some SAPAs also serve as MAVs or on the SPCSA, she said.

There have also been ongoing efforts to create more coordinated training for SAPAs, as students have felt “siloed” from the other peer advising peers like Eating Disorder Peer Advisors and Sexperts in the past, Matzkin said.

Alice Morrison ’14 said she decided to get trained as a SAPA her junior fall because she wanted to be more informed about sexual assault and “do justice” to friends who had chosen to come forward with their experiences.

“I felt like I was hurting the community by not being educated about the resources, about even how to respond to somebody coming to me as a friend saying, ‘This happened to me. I don’t know what to do. Am I okay? What happened?’”

Training, Morrison said, consisted of reading and discussing policy, roleplaying scenarios, talking with organizations like Safety and Security and WISE and planning a SAAP event.

Following the term-long training, Morrison said, some members take on a more public role by planning events like Take Back the Night and Speak Out, while others choose to serve only as interpersonal resources.

tee on Sexual Assault SPCSA, established in 2010 under former College President Jim Yong Kim, is a student-run committee that plans and implements cross-campus initiatives related to sexual violence.

The committee collects and presents recommendations from different campus groups to administrators, faculty, staff, alumni and students.

Recommendations already realized include the Safe Ride program, the Center for Community Action and Prevention and the addition of a second SAAP coordinator.

SPCSA vice chair Carla Yoon ’15 said members shaped DBI at its inception and encouraged other students to get involved following its implementation.

The SPCSA sponsors a mini-grant project, which supports student research on sexual assault. Under the two mini grants last term, Bridget Lynn ’15 researched peer advising groups at Dartmouth, while Silvia Arora ’16 investigated the College’s Committee of Standards process and judicial review processes at peer institutions.

The committee, Yoon said, hosts termly faculty dinners that bring professors together to discuss sexual assault and avenues for them to become involved with first responder training. The committee also holds a symposium every spring to collect community members’ feedback.

The committee receives its funding from the President’s Office, white the mini-grants are funded by the President’s Office and the Deans Office.

Weed said she worked with many campus groups in 2012 to unify efforts to combat sexual assault. Sexual vio-

lence prevention groups collaborated to enhance communication between various organizations.

Since then, Weed said that there has been less overlap between groups.

Women’s and gender studies professor Giavanna Munafo said that the large number of campus resources on sexual assault can create confusion.

“Options are not bad,” Munafo said.

“I just think that, structurally, it’s not clear how they’re connected. Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?”

Eight of the 11 students interviewed

by The Dartmouth expressed confusion over the distinctions between the three core student resources. Some students had not heard of the SPCSA or could not pinpoint the difference between the student groups.

Caleb Caldwell ’17 said that a clear delineation is not necessary because students involved with organizations can direct students to a better resource.

Pranav Vangala ’17 said he believes that the groups should be united under one umbrella. Anna Gabianelli ’16 disagreed but added that the specifics of each group often get lost in translation.

“I do think that the distinction is good because they all have different purposes,” Gabianelli said. “Everybody knows that there’s a huge amount of resources, but there’s so much overlap that people don’t know who does what.”

Batista, who is involved in all three groups, said that the groups are aware of this criticism but that if anyone takes the time to search their websites, the differences become obvious.

Sara McGahan and Sera Kwon contributed reporting.

Student and Presidential Commit-

Angela Davis

Feminism and Abolition: Extending the Dialogue Friday, May 16th | 4 PM | Filene Auditorium JIN LEE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

MAV held its annual “Pong is not consent” barbeque this week.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~grid

The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

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Meet an advocate, UGA and cupcake-maker Senior helps survivors heal and forwards policy SPOTLIGHT

B y MAGGIE SHIELDS

A small crowd gathered in the hallway of the third floor of McCulloch Hall. Holli Weed ’14 sat with her back against the far wall and spoke in a clear, assured voice to her residents. She gestured to the dozen homemade cupcakes with chocolate frosting in the middle of the room.

Weed’s composure and commitment shine not only at the floor meetings she organizes as an undergraduate advisor but also at the public events and private meetings she frequents to confront the issue of sexual assault at the College. Since her freshman fall, Weed has fought to change the campus climate surrounding sexual violence — a topic that many are reluctant to tackle.

Weed grew up in a small rural town in California. The school system lacked comprehensive sex education, and when several classmates became pregnant, birth control remained hard to come by.

The subject of sexual assault was generally taboo. Once Weed arrived at Dartmouth, she decided to participate in Sexperts to promote sexual health and healthy body image.

“I realized back then there were things we could be doing better as a community to support survivors, and I felt like it was no longer ethical for me to be pursuing sex ed,” Weed said. “I promptly switched to sexual violence.”

While remaining a Sexpert, she joined Movement Against Violence, then known as Mentors Against Violence, her freshman winter, and she later became a sexual assault peer advisor and UGA. Her involvement in the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault has also allowed her to formulate campus policy on sexual violence, as when she reorganized the UGA curriculum for sexual assault.

She restructured the sexual violence floor meeting, a component of the First-Year Residential Experience program. Once an old mediation that only contained several instances with a woman as the victim and a man as the perpetrator, Weed’s revamped program is all gender-neutral, with added information about perpetrators’ behaviors as well as the actions they take to test boundaries and target vulnerable individuals. She included more statistics and expanded the scope of sexual violence to stalking violence and harassment.

Over the years, students have simply arrived at her dorm after hearing that she is a good resource through a network of other students, which she said began to form after she had undergone expert training

her freshman fall. This way, she remains accessible to students who need help in residence halls after hours.

“When an individual comes to my room seeking help or information, I feel very honored that the person has sought me out,” she said. “Not the happiest occasion. I try to treat it with sensitivity.”

“After helping someone piece their life back together, after getting a policy passed, it feels like I am standing at the top of Baker Tower.”

- Holli Weed ’14 Conversations, she said, mostly depend on how much a survivor would want to share. Some survivors offer explicit descriptions of sexual assaults they suffered. Others are more guarded. No matter what, Weed focuses on discussing options, such as other contacts to whom she could refer survivors, without swaying survivors on which course to pursue.

“I try to give people back their control,” she said. “I don’t step in and save people.”

Weed believes that sharing her opinions with peers who are not necessarily sexual assault survivors can slowly influence people’s perceptions of sexual violence on campus.

She hopes both to communicate that sexual assault does happen at the College and to educate peers about what constitutes sexual assault.

Interactions with people with divergent perspectives, she said, are some of the most rewarding aspects of her activism. Some reach out to her first to acquire more information about sexual assault and often, misconceptions surface in these dialogues. She added that once in a while, she witnesses instances of victim-bashing, and that she intervenes in those situations and tries to explain in a non-confrontational manner how that behavior poses a harm to others in the community.

“Maybe I have one conversation with them, and I move them an itty bit forward, and I make them more aware of what is going on around them,” she said.

Still, Weed said her activism can become emotionally taxing. Some conversations she has with survivors are especially challenging. When

she stays up through the night with a survivor, she gets exhausted.

“When I see someone hurting, and I know I can’t give them enough support, those feelings are both really hard for me,” she said.

As Weed elaborated on the emotions infused in the stories she heard, she choked up. She paused a moment before continuing.

“No one should feel like the support networks at this college don’t work for them.”

When Weed first became involved in sexual assault activism, she had difficulty taking care of herself while caring for others at the same time, she said. Often, she would be in a terrible mood after staying up all night with a survivor.

She initially struggled to convey her emotional stress to her friends, but this, she said, has gotten easier with improved communication skills and her friends’ understanding and support.

And Weed has focused on self-care, too, allowing herself to have bad days despite what she calls the common expectation that Dartmouth students must be constantly happy.

To unwind, Weed takes walks around Occom Pond, makes art projects with friends and goes mini golfing, roller blading and bowling.

“It might seem like small things,” she said. “But sometimes, you just need to take half an afternoon and do something off campus.”

Weed also participates in several other campus activities, including Alpha Xi Delta sorority, though she said she remains most dedicated to sexual violence issues. She also emphasized that she sees a connection between her activism against sexual assault and her advocacy for body positivity and mental health. She explores these issues as a UGA, as well.

Livia Clandorf ’17, one of Weed’s residents, said that Weed brings dedication and commitment to the role.

Clandorf said that even after a long day, Weed remains ready to support her residents and actively follow the events in their lives.

Weed’s friend and Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault vice chair Carla Yoon ’15 echoed Clandorf’s statement.

“She really emphasizes self-care but really tries to be there and sacrifices her time and her work and her energy for other people,” Yoon said.

In the future, Weed would like to see improved mental health services for survivors and students in general at the College. The College needs to help students deal with various

JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Weed focuses on self care to unwind after the stress of helping survivors. stress factors of life at Dartmouth by offering four-year counseling for those who desire such an option, she said. She also recommended that the College prioritize student health concerns even in situations where a student is not in immediate danger.

She acknowledged that it is difficult to build resources that work for everyone. But she said this realization does not reduce the need for addressing some survivors’ concerns that the College’s networks and policies have let them down.

Still, she stressed that Dartmouth has improved since she started working on sexual assault, especially seen in the addition of the more intimate living learning communities and proposed sexual assault policy.

In fact, Weed expressed optimism that Dartmouth would reduce the prevalence of sexual assault. She said the College’s strong sense of community can inspire students to speak out, making Dartmouth the best place to work on the issue. Her desire to capitalize on this strength motivates her.

Weed said administrators have stayed up late to help her with projects, called to check on her after a hard day and volunteered to come speak at her floor meetings. Faculty have also been a rock, and alumni often phone her to offer assistance.

“When I look at a school like Dartmouth that has so much support,” she said, “I think that we could be one of the first campuses to eradicate sexual violence.”

Weed plans to continue her work in combating sexual violence on campus after she graduates in June. Next year, she will serve as a Presidential Fellow tasked with student life issues, sexual violence in particular. She said she hopes to develop her passion for these issues into a career, potentially working on a college campus in student affairs.

With the suppor t of others on campus, Weed is able to push through the hard parts of her job.

“After helping someone piece their life back together, after getting a policy passed, it feels like I am standing at the top of Baker Tower,” she said. “It’s an amazing feeling.”

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The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

Hennessey’s Strong Stance Living just steps away, alumna speaks for change SPOTLIGHT

B y Priya ramaiah

Martha Hennessey ’76 lives in a small house nestled on a quiet street just off Webster Avenue.

It’s a cozy space with a palpable histor y, filled with family photos and Dartmouth prints.

A vocal advocate of eliminating sexual assault at Dartmouth, Hennessey grew up in this house, nearly a centur y old, as a “faculty brat.” Her father worked as a professor and dean of the Tuck School of Business, while her mother was the first director of the Dartmouth Institute on Canada and the United States.

“I used to walk down frat row to go to school ever y day,” she said.

“Now, it also reminds me ever y day as I drive down the street about what I’m fighting for.”

Hennessey was a member of the first class at the College that included women at matriculation, and her connection to Dartmouth

“If this were a major organization, which it is, and it was on a downward slope, which it has been with admissions and everything else, a major corporation would bring in an unbiased consulting team and analyze every single aspect of this college.”

- Martha Hennessey ’76 didn’t end with her undergraduate education. She married a fellow alum (in the BEMA, no less), and two of their children graduated from Dartmouth. When her parents moved from the Hanover home in 2001, Hennessey and her husband returned to campus.

Since she graduated, Hennessey par ticipated actively on multiple alumni committees, including the alumni council.

This connection to and love for the College drives her to make it a better place, she said, sipping coffee in the breakfast nook of her kitchen as two white dogs — Teddy and Alice, named for the Roosevelts — played at her feet.

“It’s my legacy. It’s my kids’ legacy. It’s ver y much a part of the air I breathe,” she said.

Still, Hennessey’s years at the College were not idyllic.

As a member of the Dartmouth Distractions, an all-female a cappella group now known as the Decibelles, Hennessey said she would often face backlash at performances from alumni who were opposed to coeducation.

“At dinners after ward, alums would look at me and say ‘You’re the reason we’re not giving money to Dartmouth,’” she said. “You have to go through some of that for change. That’s the nature of the beast. And, in fact, if it’s not hard, it’s probably not worth it.”

After she was assaulted in a Dartmouth fraternity in Januar y 1976, Hennessey discovered, both during her time as a student and as an alumna at reunions decades later, that almost ever y female student she knew had similar experiences but did not talk about them.

In 2012, theater professor Peter Hackett ’75 asked Hennessey to appear in his second production of “Undue Influence.” During the per formance, Hennessey acted out and relived her memor y of the assault. She said that the experience of performing, while exhausting, equipped her to discuss her assault with others.

Hennessey’s par ticipation in “Undue Influence” opened her eyes to the prevalence of sexual assault at the College and motivated her to work with other alumni to form Dartmouth Change, an organization that raises awareness and issues recommendations about sexual assault at the College.

Dartmouth Change, founded in spring 2012, aims for a “continued insistence” on getting the College to remain forthright and transparent in efforts to combat sexual assault, said Gretchen Spalding Wetzel ’77, a fellow founding member who knew Hennessey while they were students.

Working with former College President Jim Yong Kim was “ver y fr ustrating,” Hennessey said. She said she had a difficult time communicating the need for sexual assault to be addressed as a systemic problem instead of an isolated incident, and she felt that issues were often swept under the rug.

College spokesman Justin Anderson said that Kim, a medical doctor, understood the complexity and urgency of sexual assault on campus. Kim launched the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault in the first six months of his tenure and hired a second Sexual Abuse Awareness

Program Coordinator.

“I was and remain cautiously optimistic about Phil Hanlon,” Hennessey said, emphasizing her desire to see a thorough external review and subsequent report about sexual violence at the College. “If this were a major

“It hurts too much to be told that I’m making it up or that people are disappointed that I’m angry.”

- Martha Hennessey ’76

organization, which it is, and it was on a downward slope, which it has been with admissions and ever ything else, a major corporation would bring in an unbiased consulting team that would come in and analyze ever y single aspect of this college.”

“Unless we have something that we have to hide, why not do that?”

Administrators need to be willing to put every single aspect of the College on the table for analysis, said Hennessey, and that includes the Greek system. She stressed that Dar tmouth displayed that sort of braver y when it bucked tradition by accepting women — a decision, after all, that allowed her to attend the College.

Spalding Wetzel recalled a Dartmouth Change meeting, at which an organization member suggested that a dean call all students after they report sexual violence and inform them that they have the College’s resources at their disposal. Upon hearing this suggestion, Hennessey emphasized she would have benefited tremendously from such a demonstration of suppor t from the College during her own years as a student, Spalding Wetzel recalled.

These personal experiences have made Hennessey so invested in ending sexual violence on campus, but these same incidents have made it difficult to continue her advocacy when classmates and administrators make light of the situation.

“It hurts too much to be told that I’m making it up or that people are disappointed that I’m angr y,” she said. “There are many times I’ve almost given up.”

Hennessey’s continued push

Courtesy of Martha Hennessey ’76

Hennessey has quit activism several times, but she keeps returning to the fight. for change at Dar tmouth has taken an emotional toll. Many classmates have told her, both recently and when she was a student, that if she really loved her alma mater, she wouldn’t criticize it. Hennessey said she does not en-

“I’ll continue the fight even though there are moments I don’t want to. I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t.”

- Martha Hennessey ’76 joy the anger and discouragement that come with fighting against sexual assault, and she has taken time off from Dartmouth Change.

But her love for the College keeps her in the fight.

Bob Wetzel ’76, another founding member of Dartmouth Change, said that Hennessey’s proximity to campus gives her insight into the school’s daily challenges as

well as events like the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault meetings. At the same time, he said, being so close to the issue of sexual assault on campus and yet feeling unheard can often feel like banging one’s head against the wall.

“We all have our own ways of dealing with that fr ustration,” Wetzel said. “We have to.”

In times of discouragement, Hennessey said, she focuses on the activities that sustain her, like talking to current Dartmouth students and visiting her young granddaughter.

“But then I see my granddaughter and think, ‘Well, the only way you’re going to Dartmouth is if we get this fixed!’” she said, laughing.

Ultimately, family underpins Hennessey’s dedication to improving Dartmouth despite the demoralizing periods.

“What makes me feel most validated is when my daughter, who’s a ’09, tells me how proud she is of me for fighting for Dartmouth,” she said. “I’ll continue the fight even though there are many moments I don’t want to. I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t.”

The Dartmouth

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Friday, May 16, 2014

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A ‘Mama-Bear’ in Cop Clothes Sergeant brings warmth to fight against assault SPOTLIGHT

B y KALIE MARSICANO

Ladies, if you want to defend yourself against a male sexual aggressor, you have exactly two options: grab him by the genitals and twist, or gouge out his eyes. Well, that’s what Safety and Security sergeant Rebel Roberts was instructed back in her own college days, and the advice didn’t sit well with her. Roberts recognized that while these certainly were two options, they were by no means the only two. And Roberts worried the this-or-that presentation horrified and alienated many of the other women in the room.

That day, Roberts took away a renewed sense of purpose and a resounding message: “We need to do more.”

And so she has. Today, Roberts stands behind three decades of consistent, substantial change that she has wrought at Dartmouth. When she arrived at the college in 1983, there was little appreciation for how to construct buildings with safety in mind, no campus blue-light system and no rape aggression defense courses.

Roberts works primarily as a sergeant for Safety and Security, and she has special training as a certified sexual assault and bias-based crime investigator. For her position, Roberts must rush to the scene of an incident right after it is reported, which draws her back to campus at all hours of the night and frequently necessitates overtime work. Additionally, Roberts acts as the unofficial liaison to Dartmouth Emergency Medical Services, a student-run and student-staffed life support unit that responds with Safety and Security to medical emergencies on campus.

Although Roberts has an office in the Safety and Security campus headquarters, her typical day is anything but static. While supervising patrol, Roberts circuits all of campus, including affiliated buildings and properties like Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the organic farm. Roberts’s role as supervisor also requires her to oversee all the reports Safety and Security files during her shift, but other than that, she has freedom to choose where to offer assistance.

Roberts might check in on a call and provide backup, oversee events on campus or stop along the route if she finds an individual in need of help — more likely, though, she’ll find a student who looks like they could use a ride and invite them to hop in.

In the hour we spent together, Roberts transported four individuals to three different destinations, all in the midst of overseeing a vehicle accident report and responding to a student who had received a laceration near the Class of 1953 Commons.

“This is a job where you can’t really

plan your day,” she said.

Roberts has also worked extensively with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design to reshape campus with safety in mind. In conjunction with CPTED, she drove the effort to install and expand the blue light system in the late 1990s. Roberts also oversaw and corrected the blueprints of the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center, ensuring that everything from the placement of windows and lights to the physical orientation of the building gives students a clear vantage point so that a potential attacker cannot approach unseen. Other projects with CPTED included installing ample lighting down Tuck Drive and regulating the placement and size of decorative hedges on campus, especially those beneath ground-floor windows, so that predators cannot take cover in bushes.

With Roberts’s deep love comes shared joy, but also shared suffering. Although Roberts has seen and engendered substantial success, it’s difficult to see that positivity when you’re knee-deep in sexual assault investigation, Roberts said. No matter what, she said, there’s never a good ending when it comes to responding to sexual assault.

“My faith and the people that I’m close with really mean everything to me,” she said. “I would say that those are the two things that really get me through.”

And Roberts’s primary concern isn’t her own well-being. Throughout her efforts, Roberts has generally found positive and productive relationships across campus and the community.

“I think everybody has a wish list of what would be their ideal, perfect way to solve problems,” Roberts said.

While her own wish list has not been fully completed, “some of the things that I have to say have been listened to and addressed,” she said.

Her humility, as colleagues say, is part of what makes Roberts so invaluable to the individuals whose lives she has changed and to the Dartmouth community at large.

Since joining the Dartmouth community, the College has quietly driven change from behind the scenes without drawing a lot of attention to herself, said philosophy professor Susan Brison, who arrived at Dartmouth two years after Roberts in 1985.

“She’s strong and powerful like a woman in Safety and Security should be, but she’s also very approachable, and very warm and kind,” Brison said. “That’s a difficult combination to achieve.”

In the past, Brison has taught women’s and gender studies courses that address sexual violence, and she

and Roberts have collaborated over the years on various sexual assault committees.

Brison cites starting the rape aggression defense classes for physical education credit in 1996, which continue at the College to this day, as one of Roberts’s most notable accomplishments.

“It’s no secret that at the time, the administration did not want to allow women to do this,” Brison said, explaining how some administrators saw the gender-exclusivity of the course as a violation of Title IX. But Brison said that, as a recent sexual assault survivor at the time, she felt more comfortable learning defense techniques in a female-friendly environment.

RAD, an international program that teaches both physical selfdefense and strategies to reduce vulnerability and avoid risky situations, began as a rape prevention program for women. Today, offshoot programs such as RAD for men, children and seniors also exist, but at Dartmouth, Roberts only officially teaches “RAD for Women” as a course for PE credit.

Roberts has also offered the course through various campus organizations. During her sophomore fall, Brittany Garcia ’11 took “RAD for NAD,” organized through the Native Women’s Group.

“What struck me about Rebel was, she looks really sweet,” Garcia said.

“But then when she starts teaching you in RAD, she just changes into this really fierce momma-bear-type person.”

For Garcia, what began as a student-instructor relationship with Roberts evolved into something deeper when, during a class demonstration, Garcia’s long-suppressed memories of her own sexual assault came rushing back.

Garcia had volunteered to help Roberts demonstrate how to get out from underneath an attacker while lying in bed or on the ground, unaware of the physical and emotional reaction that being in the position would elicit.

“The moment she crawled on top of me, those memories resurfaced,” Garcia said. “I didn’t know what was going on at the time. I got really anxious and felt like I was going to panic for some reason, and I didn’t know why.”

Roberts felt Garcia tense up and rolled off, Garcia said. As the details and emotions associated with the memories returned, Garcia’s personal turmoil escalated. Over the next two years, Roberts proved instrumental in not only supporting Garcia as she sought resources at the College, but also encouraging her to take a medical leave to “heal, away from Dartmouth,” Garcia said.

As Garcia finishes up her last term

JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Roberts teaches RAD courses and works with CPTED to create a safer campus. as a Dartmouth student, she has observed significant campus changes, which, in large part, she attributes to Roberts’ advocacy efforts.

“The Dartmouth I’ve come back to, I feel like it’s much more aware of sexual assault and violence,” Garcia said.

Roberts emphasizes the need for students to feel comfortable coming forward to faculty and staff at the College. After working as the interim Sexual Assault Awareness Program coordinator in 2008, Roberts recognized and acted on a need for an additional SAAP coordinator.

These days, it feels more and more like survivors of sexual violence can come forward without shame, fear or being rebuffed by the community, Garcia said.

Jennifer McGrew ’13, the community outreach coordinator for the Center for Professional Development, also came away from Roberts’s course with much more than self-defense education. McGrew said that taking RAD enabled her to speak about sexual assault to others — a stark contrast with her former discomfort discussing the issue, which she said stemmed from her experience as a survivor.

“I thought it was a battle I had to tackle myself,” McGrew said.

Working with Roberts in RAD empowered McGrew openly to fight against and raise awareness about sexual assault.

McGrew and Roberts developed a friendship beyond the classroom and even discovered a shared passion for photography. As a graduation gift, Roberts shot McGrew’s senior photos.

Roberts’s compassion and concern has not gone unnoticed by Matt Sattler, ’14, director of training for Dartmouth EMS, who has worked with and learned from Roberts since freshman year. Sattler said Roberts organizes casual dinners between Safety and Security and EMS to facilitate a strong relationship between

the officers and the students.

Ariel Low ’14, who also met Roberts through Dartmouth EMS, echoed this appreciation for Roberts’s constant and genuine compassion.

“Rebel, every time you see her, she gets a big smile,” Low said. “It’s rare that you meet someone who has that big of a heart, that they can really care about all the students they meet.”

Even if the majority of students do not recognize or interact with Roberts on a personal level, she has made a lasting impact on those that have.

“I think anyone who ever met her is never going to forget her,” Sattler said.

Roberts said she consistently attends and supports events such as Take Back the Night and #NoFilter because she values the relationships she has formed with individual students so highly. Roberts’s presence at these events has proven to students the importance of attending empowerment events for victims and survivors, Low said.

As far as resources go, Roberts would like to see more of everything — from education on risk reduction and self-defense to more support for survivors, both in the immediate and long-term aftermath of a sexual assault. Roberts also hopes to work toward a larger variety of viable social options for the evenings, which would include adding more food venues on campus, more diverse social options and extending the hours of facilities such as the gym later into the night.

“It’s my hope that everyone in this community is respectful and caring toward one another,” Roberts said.

But, she said, holding people accountable to the hurt they cause others is also important.

For Roberts, a happy ending will not emerge until sexual assault ceases to be a problem on campus. Until then, Roberts’s unflagging compassion continually drives her forward.

“I’m one person doing the best I can, for what I hold dear in my heart,” Roberts said.

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The Dartmouth

A CAMPUS FACING VIOLENCE

Friday, May 16, 2014

“It’s My Story, and It’s Yours” Exploring how art can help heal Story

B y AIMEE SUNG

“I don’t think you want to hear what I have to say, but I’m going to tell you anyways. I’m going to tell you a stor y. And it’s my stor y, and it’s yours. But it doesn’t belong to either one of us.”

“Undue Influence,” a College production, begins with a performer from the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble saying these words.

Art is a powerful mode of communication. When someone has a stor y to tell, artistic creativity helps convey passion and sincerity.

Art can breach emotional barriers and break down the wall of taboo topics.

That’s why some students, faculty and staff at the College have opted for art to give a voice to sexual assault sur vivors, opening space for conversation in silence.

Using art to discuss sexual assault isn’t unique to Dartmouth.

Many colleges across the U.S. have sexual assault awareness campaigns that include performances.

Nearly ever y Ivy League institution, including Dartmouth, has shown “Stor y of a Rape Sur vivor”

by A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit performance group that employs art as a therapeutic tool.

Of course, each college will have a dif ferent take on these performances, approaches shaped by campus climate and the interpretation of students involved.

Repeatedly producing a play does not detract from the power of the piece. If anything, it emphasizes the flexibility and adaptability of art as a mechanism of communication.

Still, Dar tmouth’s programming actively seeks out student voices. In addition to an annual production of “The Vagina Monologues,” students staged “Voices: An Original Production,” which sought to depart from what some students perceived as the heteronormative focus of “The Vagina Monologues.” “Undue Influence,” presented in 2011 and 2012, demonstrated and analyzed sexual assault at the College.

V-Februar y In 2000, Dar tmouth joined the global V-Day movement, a campaign that uses art and other educational events to empower women and end violence against them. Programming for the College’s annual V-Week celebration, which takes place in late Februar y in various college across the nation.

This year, the Center for Gender and Student Engagement had “V” stand for “Voices” rather than “Victor y,” “Violence” or “Vagina,” to “highlight the different back-

grounds and experiences of the Dartmouth community.” V-Week was also extended to a month-long campaign, renamed V-Februar y.

CGSE student coordinator Sandi Caalim ’13, who directed “The Vagina Monologues” and co-directed “Voices” this year, said that V-Week in the past was characterized primarily by “The Vagina Monologues.”

This year’s committee aimed to represent “all self-identifying women’s voices and bring up intersecting issues related to sexual assault, such as classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia and so on,” Caalim said.

While “The Vagina Monologues” was performed as usual, additional performances like “Voices” focused on the experiences of underrepresented minorities of gender identity and sexual orientation outside the conventional binaries. “Voices” presented 33 different stories of sexual assault submitted by Dartmouth students, Caalim said.

Jessica King Fredel ’17, one of the three “Voices” directors, said publicly sharing stories of sexual assault fosters a sense of empowerment and community.

Caalim said that it is time

“I felt angry, like I’d been duped in a way.”

- Peter Hackett ’75, theater professor to move on from “The Vagina Monologues” and capture the reality of the issue through more comprehensive, original works, like “Voices.”

“The Vagina Monologues” raised awareness about sexual assault but was not comprehensive, Caalim said. For example, some raised the argument that the play only portrays a static idea of womanhood, while others argue that it does not address sexual assault in the queer community, she said.

“Undue Influence” In spring 2010, theater professor Peter Hackett ’75 asked his directing students to choose and underscore a theme in a production of “The Tempest.” But when Hackett challenged his students to clarify what power meant to them, one of the six female students in his class burst into tears. She said she did not know what power represented in her life but that she could tell him what being power-

TREVELYAN WING/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Sandi Caalim ’13 appears in last February’s performance of “Voices,” part of V-February. less meant.

The conversation that ensued shook Hackett to his core.

“I had no idea any of this was going on,” Hackett said. “I felt angr y, like I’d been duped in a way.”

The student said she had been sexually assaulted on campus and that she felt powerless as a woman at Dartmouth. Hackett was shocked to discover that the other female students in the class could identify with her sentiments.

Ford Evans, a former Dartmouth Dance Ensemble director, and Hackett had been searching for a topic for a collaborative piece. They decided to elaborate on the issue of sexual assault on campus through theater. “Undue Influence” was staged in the Hopkins Center in May 2011 and again the following year.

“Undue Influence” drew upon Dartmouth’s culture and threaded together varied sexual assault experiences on campus, examining sexual assault as a phenomenon on campus rather than a collection of sur vivors’ testimonials.

“Some of the cast were victims themselves,” Hackett said, “And the cast collectively decided they didn’t want it to be testimonials from victims but an over view of the entire phenomenon.”

The choreography itself explored how people interact in settings like fraternity basements and at parties. Through dance, the performers capture sexual tension in these settings and the influence of alcohol.

Hackett and Ford included more

voices, especially those of adults, in the performance’s second version in 2012. Hackett performed, piecing together quotations of Dartmouth’s administrators from press releases and into a monologue.

Genevieve Mifflin ’14 joined the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble as a freshman, and “Undue Influence” marked her ver y first piece at the College. Mifflin said she realized that the Dartmouth culture she experienced through the performance resembled reality.

“It was difficult to be analyzing these things on an artistic level in one space, and being a freshman and experiencing them with my peers in another space,” Mifflin said.

Hackett said that the cast initially struggled with integrating the issue of sexual assault into dance and was unsure how to portray the pain associated with sexual assault. The breakthrough came when each cast member created a character with a fictitious name, ethnicity and identity. The distance between self and character allowed for greater freedom of expression, he said.

In the condensed video version of “Undue Influence” uploaded to YouTube, psychological and sociological aspects of sexual assault are summarized through flashes of quotations and statistics.

“In all-male groups, such as athletic teams and fraternities, the traditional feminine and masculine roles are reinforced and rape myths tend to be more widely ac-

cepted,” reads one quotation that bursts onto the video.

“There is no causal connection between drinking and sexual assault,” reads another.

Mifflin said that adding a layer of the pain inherent in sexual violence in “Undue Influence” was challenging. All of the performers related to the pain in one way or another, whether through personal experience or vicariously through the narratives of those around them.

“Creating an artistic piece is not

“It was difficult to be analyzing these things on an artistic level in one space and being a freshman and experiencing them with my peers in another space.”

- Genevieve Mifflin ’14 a linear process, and that’s where the collaboration comes in,” Mifflin said.

The per formers collectively struggled more with the content of “Undue Influence” rather than the ar tistic element, she said. Fortunately, the production sparked a meaningful conversation within the cast, which ultimately translated into the reactions of the audience.