For years, administrators have looked student advocates against sexual assault directly in the eye and said mandatory expulsion for rape will never happen. It was too complicated. There were legal issues. Alumni wouldn’t support it. It was a nice idea, but it was ultimately out of their control.
It’s amazing, it seems, what a slew of bad press can do to political will. After tumultuous months of protests, a federal investigation and a staggering 14 percent drop in applications, the administration and the Board of Trustees somehow managed to do the impossible. Stricter punishments for sexual assault are a welcome change, and we applaud the efforts that went into passing them. Still, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the administration is far better at reacting to image crises than taking the preventative action our community needs.
There is a groundswell of support on this campus to end sexual assault. We saw this just last term when hundreds of students stepped away from their studies and braved the freezing cold night to stand in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault. The only reason we have yet to transform that night into progress is because most students find the issue so nebulous and overwhelming that they don’t believe they can make a difference. But this isn’t true. In fact, the administration developed and thoroughly promoted a six-hour bystander intervention training specifically designed to help students identify high-risk situations and equip them with the skills and confidence they need to prevent assault. Unfortunately for the safety of our peers, the administrations’ lackluster email nomination system has yielded a thin roster of trained students.
The administration makes a huge mistake by not meaningfully tapping into the energy of the student body. Late last summer, Student Assembly drafted a proposal to engage hundreds of students each year in the fight against sexual assault. We recommended that administrators partner with faculty to attach a PE credit to the interactive six-hour program, and we also asked the Greek Leadership Council to make completion of the training a prerequisite for recruitment. After months of difficult meetings and negotiations, the administration agreed to a substantially watered-down version of our proposal with no credit and a one-hour, lecture-based training.
The reason for this change is plain as day. A short lecture means the administration can cram more students into a single room. They have to host fewer sessions, hire fewer engaging facilitators and spend fewer employee hours conducting trainings. What frustrates us most, though, is by increasing class sizes and foregoing small group interaction, any element of experiential learning disappears. This isn’t the approach we take to undergraduate teaching, yet it is somehow our approach to educating students about violence prevention. To save money, they’ve removed the part of the program that helps students learn best. Where are our priorities?
The administration is full of compassionate individuals who care deeply about students, but they have unfortunately settled for the cheaper solution that is the easiest to coordinate. We cannot approach our biggest collective problems with fainthearted half steps. Rather, the serious challenges that lie ahead demand a more robust partnership between administrators and the student body. If administrators need our help ending sexual violence, then they come into our spaces and ask for it. For example, it would be incredibly powerful to see President Hanlon step into Greek houses and residence halls to articulate his vision for bystander intervention, lay out a meaningful way for students to participate and inspire them to make the College’s troubles their own.
Yes, many larger societal issues are at play when it comes to sexual assault. At a school like Dartmouth, though, we stand a better chance than most to eliminate that kind of violence. A small student population like ours brings tremendous potential to hold each other accountable. Our highly organized social scene is perfectly situated to develop and spread new social norms. A critical mass of students can make bystander intervention as much a part of our fabric as blitzing and flair.
We might be young, but we are not children. The solution to ending sexual assault will never be to lecture us. The answer, instead, is to work with us.
Adrian Ferrari ’14 is the student body president. Michael Zhu ’14 is the student body vice president.
