General Discussion

niyad

(113,596 posts) Sat Jul 18, 2015, 02:21 PM Jul 2015

Student Activists Shouldn’t Be Solving Problems on Campus Without Support

Student Activists Shouldn’t Be Solving Problems on Campus Without Support

The fight against sexual assault on college campuses began with the people on college campuses. It began with survivors and student activists, rallying for change in their academic environments. Too often, those same voices that were among the first to cry out for change are excluded from the conversations that dictate change.

However, while it is absolutely necessary that the voices of students be heard when debating how best to improve campus climates, it seems that more and more often student activists are expected to do school administrator’s jobs for them. Indeed, sometimes it seems like we have to choose between being a student and an activist: between having our concerns taken seriously, seeking justice for survivors, and being an 18, 19, or 20-year-old.

After attending several seminars about campus sexual assault activism this summer, and having the opportunity to speak to activists from schools all over the country, it has become more clear to me that colleges everywhere are taking the If-You’re-So-Smart-You-Fix-It route. In other words: rounding up all the student activists and demanding clear, concise, and feasible answers to questions like well, what should we do?

What bothers me about this approach is not that administrators are asking for the inputs of students. Of course, we’ll have answers at the ready: throw the assailant out of school, reword the sexual assault policy so that it reflects the reality of campus sexual assault, not the myths, provide resources for survivors. These are all ideas that college administrators need to hear, and ideas that student activists have been shouting about since the beginning.

What bothers me is that it seems to be a trap. Students don’t have access to budgets, so we are unfamiliar with the expense or logistical issues associated with consent or bystander intervention training. For example, students may not necessarily have legal backgrounds, so we may not be able to provide specific edits to the policies that will make them airtight.

. . . .

http://feministcampus.org/student-activists-shouldnt-be-solving-problems-on-campus-without-support/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FeministCampusBlog+%28Choices+Feminist+Campus+Blog%29

1 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Student Activists Shouldn’t Be Solving Problems on Campus Without Support (Original Post) niyad Jul 2015 OP

That's what happens when you play gotcha. Igel Jul 2015 #1

Igel

(35,362 posts)

1. That's what happens when you play gotcha.

Reply to niyad (Original post)

Sat Jul 18, 2015, 04:20 PM

Jul 2015

"We'll do this."

No, that's sexist.

"Okay, we'll do this here."

No, that's sexist. You are enabling rape. You're evil.

"Fine, let's try this over here, then."

You're letting serial rapists oppress our community. Stop it, you sexist pig.

"Then how about that over there?"

Are you seriously going to suggest that we stand by while you allow frat boys to trample our human rights and oppress women, denying our dignity and college education?

"Okay, what do you suggest?"

Why do you think we should come up with a solution? That's your job.

I say this because when I was in grad school in the '90s the administration had a committee to revise their sexual harrassment/assault policies. They'd been revised a few times--the guy I appointed to the committee showed me the older policies and talked to me about proposed changes to policies for in the dorm, in off-campus university housing, on campus but not in housing, for policies involving inter-student relations entirely off campus but at student-related events (frats) or unofficial events (student party off campus). He got money for an independent survey to be done to help him. That was '95. They had new policies, and nobody liked them, so a few years later they went back to the drawing board for another grab at the ring. That was in 2000-01. It's now 2015, and the policy and procedure's been revised a time or two since then.

I'm sure my school wasn't unique. After 40 years of "we've tried this, this, this, that, this here, that thing there," and getting input every time for the last 20 years, I'd be a bit frustrated, too.

Reply to this discussion