Tag Archives: Wesleyan University

Quick Hit: Students at Wesleyan Have Sex

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In case you didn’t see it, check out this fabulous video students at Wesleyan University made to support Planned Parenthood. I would editorialize, but I think their message (below the video) says it all.

A message from students at Wesleyan University in Connecticut:

In order to “balance the budget” the House of Representatives recently announced the intention to strip all federal funding to Planned Parenthood. This is unacceptable. It’s time to face reality: many young people have sex, and need to know how to stay safe and healthy. Even those who have chosen to wait still need to know how to be safe and healthy when begin their sexual activity. This extreme ideological measure threatens our youth’s ability to choose their own future.

In many parts of America, Planned Parenthood is the only place young people can go to learn about safe sex, access contraceptives, or have a simple question about “down there” answered.

With all the rhetoric centering on “government waste,” Congress’s refusal to close multi-billion dollar corporate tax loopholes and instead eliminate essential, multi-million dollar sexual health programs is beyond hypocritical.

We are starting a student movement to make sure elected leaders know: Americans have sex, and we stand with Planned Parenthood.

Campus News Catch-Up

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I’ve been a bit behind the ball on my news round-ups, so there’s a lot to catch up on…

Let’s start off with the good stuff! The students who worked so hard to get a sexual assault policy for the City University of New York system are getting some recognition from the administration. Students for a Greater CUNY recently updated their CUNY Policy Tracker, which was an amazing tool while they ran their campaign. Students currently working on policy change should check it out.

So proud of students at SUNY Geneseo who have, with their staff and admin allies, scheduled a campus-wide sexual assault teach-in in March. How awesome does this sound!?: “The SAT will address both truths and widespread misperceptions about campus sexual assault. Most importantly, the SAT will promote informed and constructive discussions among faculty, staff, and students that may inspire and inform new programs, policies, and procedures and empower participants to help solve this problem in our community.” We did a training at Geneseo last spring, and it’s really excited to see them moving forward.

There’s a great article in the Skidmore News about the school’s revised sexual assault policy, which goes into effect this month.  This article makes it sound like a lot of amazing improvements were made. And it’s great to read that students were very involved in the entire process.

Wesleyan has created a really excited new position on campus, the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) intern. The SART intern is a student role, and is a “liaison between the administration and students who wish to report sexual assault.” The intern is a completely confidential resource for students—survivors and perpetrators.

Students at Dartmouth are brainstorming about what role the administration should play in combating sexual assault.

I really want to hear the sexual assault presentation given at Texas Tech University—it’s in talk show format, and the counselor who created it, Erin Snyder, sounds pretty great. Case in point: “I think sexual assault is a problem on every college campus…What I do is try to prevent it by giving students information on what is healthy in a sexual relationship.”

On to the (really) bad stuff.  A lot of press space has been given to the terrifying story of a Central Washington University house party that sent 12 students (11 female, one male) to the hospital and left others ill. Students at the party told police and reporters that they thought “roofies” were responsible, either put into a bottle of vodka that was made to make mixed drinks, or put into pre-made party drinks. The police were called by students who had left the party, after their friend was extremely sick. The Police Chief noted that when the police arrived at the house, there were sick students everywhere and no one at the house had decided to call the police. It’s worth mentioning I think that CWU’s sexual assault policy does not have an explicit amnesty policy stating that students who report assaults won’t be penalized for something like underage drinking. This is a good example of why it’s important for students to know they have that protection.

Amanda Hess wrote a really good piece on the 11 DAYS is took the University of Virginia to alert students to the sexual assault of a student who was attacked while walking home.  UVA should really know now about the importance of timely intervention. This isn’t acceptable.

Apparently the University of Illinois still hands out rape whistles.

Ms. Blog and Shakesville have both covered the distressing case of the Michigan State University basketball players who were accused of rape but are not being charged with rape, despite the fact that one of them admitted to investigators that the victim didn’t want to have sex. In response, a number of students have formed a Coalition Against Sexual Violence on campus.

Finally, last week I wrote about how within three weeks at the University of Minnesota three women reported assaults at three different frat parties. The school frats responded by banning alcohol at frat parties for the immediate future. Since then, the school paper has been the site of some interesting discussion, about a poor editorial choice in publishing a cartoon about the assaults and the need to fight the real causes of sexual violence.

Monday College News Round-Up

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If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time (you’re the best!) you might remember the De Anza rape case. The case in which three women were ready to testify saying that they witnessed a girl being raped at a De Anza college party (and tried in to stop it) but for some reason, the county never asked them to give grand jury testimony and the case was dropped for lack of evidence. Well, apparently it only gets worse, as yesterday’s news reports that:

The Santa Clara County crime lab never tested some physical evidence seized in the De Anza alleged gang-rape case after the district attorney’s office notified the lab that “no further testing was needed,” a crime lab supervisor has testified in an ongoing civil case. That untested evidence, according to a written report submitted by a crime lab examiner, included clothing, a comforter, a vomit-covered paint can, and a sheet from the hospital examination of the alleged victim. In sexual assault cases, such evidence often is tested for DNA that could link the accused perpetrators to the victim.

Last week Feministing published a guest post from three student activists at Wheaton College (MA) who have made some very articulate and appropriate demands from their school in regards to reforming the sexual misconduct policy. Similarly, Wesleyan University students, alumni, and parents have joined forces to demand that the school create a staff position dedicated to sexual violence.

The University of Maryland is starting up a new mandatory sexual assault prevention education program for incoming students next year. There aren’t details on the program but “it will likely be incorporated into freshman orientation and be similar to the university’s online alcohol education program, AlcoholEdu.” Does anyone have any experience with online modules like AlcoholEdu? I haven’t seen one yet, and hope to fix that this summer, but my knee-jerk reaction is that something like sexual assault prevention requires personal interaction. Or maybe I just need to get with the way of the future…?

The word at Wesleyan

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This editorial in the Wesleyan student newspaper highlights the struggles that campus activists face in gaining important reforms to university sexual assault polices and resources, but it’s also a great lesson in using the media for your movement.

When trying to build a student movement on campus, it’s critical to get the word out, so kudos to this student(s) for writing to their school paper. Many students feel it’s a waste of time to write to the paper because no one will read it, or they are reluctant to attach their names to a public statement, but with school papers being published online, your words can have a longer-lasting impact, and won’t just be thrown away (or hopefully recycled).

If you’re proactive and thoughtful about using the media, it can be one of your greatest assets as a student organizer. An editorial like this can prime the campus for activism to come and help gain support from various segments of your community.

Hopefully this thoughtful and well-written editorial will serve as a call to the Wesleyan community to take swifter action to improve sexual assault resources on campus.

And hopefully it will encourage you to use your school newspaper to get the word out about the reality of sexual assault on your campus.

Contact SAFER if you’re interested in learning how to build an effective movement on your campus – we believe the power of student voices can make a difference on any campus.