Image Politics

Your article on Abby Tassel's resignation ("Tassel Resigns, Students Cite Frustration," April 6) fails to give a concrete explanation of the "political" problems faced by sexual assault advocates, so allow me to spell it out. Since victims of sexual assault can only be helped if they report the crimes committed against them, an early and necessary step of advocates is to encourage reporting. A successful campaign to do so, of course, increases the number of reported sex crimes dramatically, which in turn increases the numbers for the College itself. Naturally, this is bad for the College's all-important image. A few colleges have undertaken drives to increase reporting coupled with extensive publicity campaigns to make known the reason behind the increase in reported sexual assaults, but, not surprisingly, our administration lacks the spine for such an endeavor. The Dartmouth administration sees the work of sexual assault advocates such as Tassel as counter to their own interests. It is no wonder she resigned.