Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part series examining sexual abuse toward women at Dartmouth.
When Dean of the College Jim Larimore expressed his concerns about sexual assault to a group of sorority girls in 1999, one woman replied, "You don't need to worry, because we look out for our sisters."
In response Larimore asked, "But if you can't join an organization until your sophomore year, who's looking out for the first-year women?"
"I got back a set of wonderful, bright young women, seeming to suggest, 'It's not our problem,'" Larimore said.
Larimore saw flaws in their logic, and still believes that all Dartmouth students should help protect one another from sexual assault, a term defined by the Dartmouth College Handbook as intimidating conduct of a sexual nature, non-consensual contact with an intimate part of the body or forced sexual intercourse when no consent is given.
"In my mind, it's their problem. It's the problem of every man and woman, every faculty, staff, and student on campus. It's just not right that we would turn a blind eye to the mistreatment of someone based on whether or not we know them," Larimore said.
The first five to six weeks of Fall term is the period of highest vulnerability to sexual assault for freshmen, according to Larimore, but this is also a time when freshmen girls do not know many other girls who can look out for them.
"One of the problems at Dartmouth is that there's a large disconnect between upperclass women and first-year women, because once you join a sorority you automatically have a network of upperclass women," Libby Hadzima '06, a sexual abuse peer advisor, said. "Before you have the opportunity to join a sorority, women tend to go only to male-dominated social spaces. As a result your interactions are with other first-year students and men who are usually older."
Larimore said he agreed that this is a problem, and said it increases the need for College women to look out for each other.
"The truth of the matter is, in the locations where someone might be at the greatest risk, I'm not there. [Director of Safety and Security and College Proctor] Harry Kinne and his staff are not there. What we really have to do is be able to rely on students to look out for themselves and look out for each other," Larimore said.
Some students and faculty noted that one reason bystanders do not intervene in potentially dangerous situations is because sexually abusive behaviors are commonplace within the social scene.
"I think that it is an atmosphere that people accept, and they don't think twice about it, so most people do not say that they feel threatened," Meredith Raucher '06, Mentors Against Violence chair, said.
Larimore has a similar view of Dartmouth's social scene and said the tolerance of sexual abuse on campus is unacceptable.
"I expressed concern about what I thought people accepted and condoned here that would get you fired if it happened in the workplace, like being groped at a party. Too many students accept that as normal here or just a part of the social scene," Larimore said. "I think it's terrible that anybody should be subject to that in any social space."
The high frequency of sexual assault on campus has also hindered men's ability to stop the problem.
"Dartmouth, being such a male space, allows for a lot of comfort in male students to just sit into their behavior and into their beliefs, and not question them when, a lot of times, they could be far from appropriate. When they observe behavior that is inappropriate in other men, they won't question it, or they'll accept it as the norm or something that can be done," SAPA Thiago Oliveira '06 said.
Director of Counseling and Health Services Mark Reed said he believes that most male students would never perpetrate sexual abuse, but that the social scene can encourage the few men who would do so.
"Guys in groups will say things that sound sexist, misogynist, will sound supportive of objectifying women when they themselves would never rape or assault a woman. But that guy sitting in the room who would do it, hears that as, 'See, other guys support what I think or what I do,'" Reed said.
The apathy among students towards sexual abuse that Larimore sees on campus bothers him, especially given its long-lasting effects.
"[Sexual abuse] can be an irrevocable, life-changing experience -- it is a big deal that on any given night, people who have the power and ability to intervene and to do something don't. It's a big deal that people might have become so numbed to things that they see happening, that they start to accept it as normal or forgivable," Larimore said.
To draw awareness to and reduce the incidences of all types of sexual violence on campus, students formed Mentors Against Violence last spring.
MAV will begin meeting with students this term to educate the community about what constitutes sexual assault against both men and women and how it can be prevented.
During training sessions for MAV, participants were asked to picture the woman they care most about in the world being abused at a party while a bystander did nothing. The question was raised, "I would jump through walls to help out this person, why wouldn't you?"
"I think it's a lot easier to pinpoint [sexual abuse] when a victim of said behavior is somebody that [a male bystander] knows and is close to. A guy who thinks 'x behavior' is acceptable will become a lot more likely to notice that it's unacceptable when his sister or a female friend of his is the victim," Oliveira said.
Essentially, the short time it takes to intervene may have a great impact on someone else's life, Larimore said. The effects of sexual assault on a victim are serious and long lasting.
"I don't think you ever really get over being assaulted because you are violated as an individual and it shapes you in every way," SAPA intern Aya Caldwell '06 said. "[It] happens if you were directly assaulted or one of your roommates or friends [is assaulted]."
Effects of sexual assault can include isolation, drug and alcohol addictions, eating disorders, poor choice of future partners, sexual promiscuity, depression and self-abuse, according to Leah Prescott, Coordinator of the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program.
Prescott added that sexual assault can cause some victims to withdraw from Dartmouth completely.
The most common reaction to sexual victimization is to blame oneself. Oliveira confirms that during his time as a SAPA, he was surprised about how accurate training was in regards to the victim's tendency to blame herself. Especially at Dartmouth, where many of the sexual abuse cases involve alcohol, victims see their actions as the cause of the problem, when in fact the perpetrator deserves the blame.
Many campuses further this concept of blame by focusing on what the victim could have done to avoid the situation, but Prescott pointed out that Dartmouth focuses on prevention and intervention as well as risk-reduction. This way, students are less likely to blame themselves.
SAPA, which held panels in first-year residences during orientation, counsels victims of sexual abuse after a sexual assault and raises awareness of sexual abuse. MAV will focus on the responsibility of the perpetrator and bystander.
Larimore praises the work being done on prevention, but still thinks that the focus on the responsibility of the victim should not outweigh the attention given to the perpetrator's responsibility.
"There's way too much commentary aimed at what a person could have done to be less at risk or to have avoided a particular situation. On some level, there may be some value in looking at that, but you do have to take a look at the bigger picture. Sexual abuse can happen to anyone. The majority of victims are women. The people that could change this are men," Larimore said.
