Tag: The Middlebury Campus

The Campus: “More is Needed to Combat Rape Culture” by Editorial Board (3/14/2019)

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Description:

Prompted by The Map Project, The Campus Editorial Board makes several recommendations regarding how to fight rape culture at Middlebury, including new in-person trainings, making reporting sexual assault easier, and changing party culture on campus. Here is the text from the article and a link to the posting.

Creator:

Editorial Board

Date:

3/14/2019

More Is Needed to Combat Rape Culture

By The Editorial Board

March 14, 2019 | 6:00am EDT

We would like to commend the Map Project created by It Happens Here (IHH) as a crucial step toward increased awareness of sexual assault and harassment on our campus. While the number of incidents represented on the map may come as no surprise to some students, the map is nonetheless an important call to rally the Middlebury community against rape culture. It also demonstrates a clear need for additional preventative measures to protect students from assault and harassment.

The concept for the Map Project is simple: an aerial view of Middlebury’s campus populated with a series of red dots, each one representing an instance of sexual assault or sexual harassment that has occurred on campus. To populate the map, students anonymously submitted data about instances of assault and harassment to IHH through a go-link posted last fall. By offering anonymity, IHH empowered survivors to share their experiences without losing their privacy or having to endure the process of formally reporting traumatic experiences. 

The largest concentrations of red dots on the map appear in notoriously problematic buildings on campus, including Battell and Atwater Halls A and B, where athletic teams often host open parties. Since many parties on Middlebury’s campus are closed, Atwater parties are often the default social space for first-years who don’t have alternatives on weekend nights. It seems likely that the combination of an upperclassman living space and first-year partygoers contributes to a predatory sexual environment. Notably, the space with the second-largest number of red dots is Battell, a first-year dorm. This suggests that the online training intended to teach incoming students about consent and discourage them from committing sexual assault and harassment is not as successful as it ought to be in protecting first-years from assault and harassment by their peers. 

Outside of residential and party spaces, even academic locations like Twilight and Axinn contain red dots, revealing just how pervasive sexual assault and harassment is at the college. If students are unable to occupy the spaces on campus that are explicitly devoted to education without fearing assault or harassment, then Middlebury is failing to fulfill its most basic purpose: to be an environment conducive to learning.

Another student reaction to the Map Project exhibition in Davis Family library last week.

Currently, the majority of on-campus resources available to assault survivors are student-led, such as SPECS, MiddSafe, the SGA’s Sexual and Relationship Respect Committee (SRR) and IHH. While we commend these organizations for their work, we also recognize a clear need for additional administrative support to more effectively address the issue of campus-wide sexual misconduct.

We ask that the administration take the Map Project as evidence that the Green Dot sexual assault prevention program is limited in what it can accomplish. Although Green Dot’s bystander awareness training initiatives are an important first step, its organizers would likely be the first to admit that it does not change the culture at the heart of sexual assault and harassment. And the fact that the vast majority of the map’s dots appear in social spaces suggests that even when bystanders are present near instances of sexual assault, they do not reliably intervene. A real social shift needs to occur in order for cases of sexual assault and harassment to approach zero. Students may not always know which of their friends have sexually assaulted or harassed others, but many know which of their friends behave “badly” at parties or demonstrate unhealthy attitudes about sex and relationships behind closed doors. Those students are the ones most in need of productive conversations with their friends about consent and respect. Bystander intervention can help in potentially dangerous situations, but difficult conversations among friends — and the absolute social unacceptability of harassment and assault — will be required to end the minimization of consent and trivialization of assault and harassment that contribute to rape culture.

We recommend that the college implement a new anti-sexual assault training program that requires students to learn the nuances of sexual harassment and assault in-person rather than online. The current electronic educational program students undergo prior to their first year is too easy for a student to click through without internalizing its message. 

As a more immediate measure, we also think the new program could place a greater emphasis on the punitive consequences of committing assault. Perhaps if more students understood and feared the disciplinary repercussions of sexual violations, the overall number of incidents would decrease, at least in the short term.

Of course, emphasizing the consequences of committing sexual assault or harassment will be meaningless if the college does not make the process of reporting less difficult. Some students who report their experiences of sexual assault become so overwhelmed or distraught during the process that they simply leave Middlebury. While we know there are no easy ways of changing this system, we know that the more intimidating this system is, the more difficult it will be for students to come forward.  

We also recommend that the administration explore the option of updating the college’s weekend programming to provide students with additional options other than drinking. Middlebury’s isolated location means that weekend activities for students are quite limited, oftentimes encouraging a party culture based on binge drinking. Programs like the free Friday film are a good start, and we think additional programming on Friday and Saturday nights could give students alternatives to drinking heavily and heading to Atwater.

We would also like first-years to have more opportunities to host their own parties rather than constantly being shuffled into upperclassman environments. First-year students should have more room to party among themselves to properly acclimate to college rather than immediately jumping into older, potentially more dangerous settings.

The college has often prided itself on its relatively low number of sexual assault and harassment reports as documented in its annual safety reports. But these statistics are misleading — the majority of sexual assaults on this campus go entirely unreported, which means that even IHH’s Map Project is not a complete tally of on-campus sexual misconduct. We hope that IHH’s map has revealed the extent of on-campus misconduct to the Middlebury community, and that meaningful institutional  and cultural progress follow as a result.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/more-is-needed-to-combat-rape-culture/

The Campus: “Map Project Marks Locations of 108 Sexual Assaults and Harassments” by Caroline Kapp (3/7/2019)

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Description:

The Campus covered the second rendition of The Map Project, which showed 108 “red dots” and was displayed in Davis Library. Several students spoke about their reactions and the urgency they felt about combatting sexual assault on campus. Here is the text from the article and a link to the posting.

Creator:

Caroline Kapp

Date:

3/7/2019

Map Project Marks Locations of 108 Campus Sexual Assaults and Harassments

By Caroline Kapp

March 7, 2019 | 6:00am EST

Red dots cover the map of Middlebury’s campus. Nine on Battell, four on Proctor and one each on Axinn, Twilight, Munroe and the Admissions Office. Each dot represents one person’s experience of sexual assault or harassment. There are 108 in total. 

These instances were put on display in Davis Family Library last week as part of the Map Project, an initiative by It Happens Here (IHH). Students contributed to the map by anonymously submitting instances of sexual assault and harassment via a go-link last fall. Each incident was then demarcated by a red dot on the building in which it happened. 

IHH is a group of student activists that raises awareness about sexual assault and works to support survivors in their healing. Its medium of choice is storytelling, and it allows survivors to remain anonymous. In doing so, IHH avoids many of the challenges that typically prevent survivors from coming forward. 

This is the second rendition of the Map Project, which was first conducted in 2013.

Battell and both Atwater Halls were among the most reported sites of sexual assault, according to the map produced by It Happens Here.

“The Map is terrifying. It is heartbreaking,” read a description beside the Map.

Observers were invited to share their reactions on sticky notes displayed on an adjacent bulletin board. The reactions expressed sadness and consternation over the prevalence of sexual assault at Middlebury that the map revealed. They included:

“Disgusting.”

“Saddened and sickened that this happens at our college.” 

“Looking at this map is really scary.”

“How does Midd let this happen???”

“Rape culture is real.”

“Rape culture is everywhere.”

“I think a lot about the strength the people who work closely with It Happens Here have because looking at this makes me panic but I know it’s important work.”

Students could write and post comments on a board next to the map.

Last Friday, IHH leaders Taite Shomo ’20.5 and Grace Vedock ’20 facilitated a conversation to discuss reactions to the Map, proposed Title IX reforms, how sexual assault is being enabled at Middlebury and what can be done to dismantle campus culture surrounding sexual assault.

To start the discussion, the students and faculty members in attendance introduced themselves and explained why they chose to attend the discussion.

“One of those dots is mine,” Vedock said.

Included in the conversation’s main themes was the air of complacency surrounding sexual assault on campus. Participants said they felt the school’s treatment of sexual assault is often reactionary, rather than proactive. 

“The Map Project makes visible and undeniable a problem that is so often brushed aside by the people on campus who can choose not to see it,” Rebecca Wishnie ’20, who attended the discussion, said in a text message to The Campus.

Participants emphasized that students must do more to prevent sexual assault than putting Green Dot stickers on their water bottles or attending IHH. They also pointed out that sometimes perpetrators attend IHH, which does not absolve them of their actions. 

“This map is a testament to the fact that Middlebury’s Green Dot training and other programs do not address the full scale and range of the problems of rape culture and sexual violence,” Wishnie said. She said that programs like these often center the problem around party culture and substance use.

“This logic perpetuates a culture that blames survivors for entering such spaces and neglects all of the other places and ways that rape culture manifests, rather than recognizing the cultural shift in which we must all participate in order to make this campus safer,” she said.

They also addressed issues with defining sexual assault, rape and consent. Many survivors struggle to determine whether their experiences “count” as assault, and students raised the possibility that some perpetrators may not be aware of what they did.

Some attendees were surprised by the frequency of sexual assaults shown on the map. Others were not.

“When I was putting the map together I was not surprised,” Shomo said. “This in some ways was the worst part.”

“For people that have been assaulted it’s not surprising,” Vedock said. “For people that know people that have been assaulted it’s not surprising. But if you don’t fall into either of those groups maybe it is surprising. In a very un-malicious way, I want people to not be able to unsee the map.”

They explained that most of the work being done on campus is by survivors themselves. Survivors are being forced to support themselves and each other with little assistance from the school.

“It’s a huge burden logistically and emotionally no matter who you are, but especially if the issue is personal,” Shomo said. Shomo and Vedock emphasized that it is important for people who are not survivors to get involved.

Their main message: students need to show up and people need to care, even if they have not been personally impacted by sexual assault.

“You should care because people are people, but you should also care because it’s your friends and your family members and your classmates,” Shomo said. Unless everyone commits to dismantling rape culture on campus, Vedock pointed out, the dots will not change.

The Map Project can be found at go/ihh/. This Spring It Happens Here will take place on April 18 at 8:00 p.m. in Wilson Hall.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/map-project-marks-locations-of-108-campus-assaults/

The Campus: “Map Project Marks Locations of Sexual Assault on Campus” by Ben Dohan (11/1/2018)

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Description:

After an IHH organizer, Taite Shomo ‘20.5, had begun to advertise the go/link for students to submit locations on campus that they’d been sexually harassed or assaulted, she spoke to The Campus about the project’s history and goals. Here is the text from the article and a link to the posting.

Creator:

Ben Dohan

Date:

11/1/2018

Map Project Marks Locations of Sexual Assault On Campus

By Ben Dohan

November 1, 2018 | 5:58am EDT

Signs reading “go/mapproject” appeared across campus last week, advertising a link that leads to a form where respondents can identify where they have been sexually assaulted on campus.  

The goal of the project is to visualize locations where sexual violence has occured on campus. It Happens Here (IHH) began the map project in 2012, placing a map with red dots paired with a selection of anonymous stories on display in the atrium of Davis Family Library.

Taite Shomo ’20.5, one of the organizers of IHH, led the effort to revive the map project this year. 

“The reason we decided to bring the map project back now is because of all of the student activism on campus, as well as the activism around the country about sexual assault,” Shomo said. “I’ve also been looking for ways to make IHH larger than just a once-a-semester event, and this was one way to continue to raise awareness about sexual assault at Middlebury aside from the regular events.”

The map project reflects the reality that sexual assault remains a major problem at Middlebury.  This reality is what drove the protest that took place at the Pather Day parade against Middlebury’s handling of sexual assault. One of the protestors at the Panther Day protest was holding the 2013 map.

“The map is powerful because it gives people a visual of how pervasive and prevalent sexual assault and harassment are on this campus,” Shomo said. Recent campus security reports have recorded no more than 25 reported instances of sexual violence per year — a figure that IHH organizers believe is in fact much higher.

“The objective is to get people to consider how much of a reality assault and harassment are here,” Shomo explained.

Annie Blalock ’20.5, president of Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM), echoed the same sentiment. 

“There’s that one story that you have in your head that you saw on the news, and then looking at a map like that, you think ‘that’s this one red dot here’ and then you’re like ‘oh, there’s hundreds of red dots, every one of those is a story like that,” Blalock said.

Although she is not involved with organizing the map project, Blalock is an enthusiastic supporter. IHH and FAM engage with many overlapping issues.

“There’s an obvious tie between feminism and raising awareness of sexual assault and holding perpetrators accountable,” Blalock said. “We are now living a culture where people who formerly were silenced by our society and the systems in place that silenced victims, are being given the space to speak out.”

In the original map project, which was completed in early 2013, most submitted sexual assaults occurred in party hotspots such as Atwater, social houses, KDR and Palmer, as well as other residence halls, especially underclassmen dorms. However, sexual violence can happen anywhere, as victims reported incidents in both the McCullough Student Center and the Freeman International Center as well.

“I think it’s an interesting perspective to gain,” said Blalock, reflecting on the benefit of locating the the incidents of sexual violence on a map. “Walking through a place like Allen and being like, ‘Someone was assaulted here.’”

According to Shomo, the map from this year will be formatted in the same manner as the previous map. However, Shomo added that organizers may need to make the map bigger because they are accepting reports of both sexual assault and harassment, whereas the 2013 map only dealt with sexual assaults.

“I would be surprised if we see any of the campus on the map, as opposed to it just being all red dots,” Blalock said.

The 2013 Map Project details sexual assault at locations on campus.

The go/mapproject survey contains two questions. The first asks in which residence halls respondents have experienced sexual assault or harassment. The second asks in which other buildings, including dining halls and academic buildings, respondents have experienced sexual assault or harassment.

“Filling out that form itself could be empowering for people because they feel involved,” Blalock said.

She also believed that some people would still not feel comfortable submitting the form, although it is anonymous.

“Even with all the reports that this map project gets, it’s not going to be the whole number of assaults or reports of harassment.”

Between 2013 and 2015, some members of the college community were concerned that IHH’s events and advertising were triggering to students. Others were worried that the map project would stigmatize certain buildings on campus, but Shomo was not concerned about this.

“I think that the maps will show that sexual violence happens in so many of the buildings on campus that I’m not concerned about it sending a message that assault only happens in some spaces,” Shomo said.

In a 2013 Campus article on the map project, Luke Carrol-Brown ’13 responded to the criticism that the project stigmatized certain locations on campus. 

“The Map Project has never been about identifying danger zones on campus,” he said. “That would stink of emphasizing victim responsibility instead of placing accountability where it should lie: in the hands of the individuals who perpetrate these crimes. The Map Project is about coming clean with a problem that so many of us deny or disregard, putting the human impact of this epidemic in visual form and driving empathy amongst survivors.”

In January 2014, The Campus published an editorial titled “It Happens Here: It’s Time to Evolve.” In it, the editorial board argued that the map, IHH events and signs reading “It Happens Here” could be powerful triggers that hurt survivors, and urges them to adjust their strategies. 

Student organizers of IHH published an op-ed in January 2015 addressing the conversation surrounding the potential triggering effect of their work. They acknowledged that though “these criticisms weigh heavily in our minds,” “there must be spaces for survivors to share their stories if/when they’re ready,” and that “if we are to continue to hold these events, we will continue to need to advertise. In our minds, relegating survivors’ experiences to the margins of this campus has never been and will never be an option. 

“We raise consciousness that It Happens Here in the hope that one day, It won’t.”

Blalock was concerned about the lack of institutional support for survivors of sexual violence at Middlebury, but saw the Map Project as a resource for students.

“This is as much a tool for survivors and victims of assault or violence or harassment because it could be cathartic, it could be building that community, it could be feeling like a part of something or feeling not alone, but I think it’s as much a resource for survivors and victims as it is for bystanders or people who have not had a situation like that,” Blalock said. “One survivor is not alone, they are one of many people that have been victims of perpetrated violence.”

The submission form will remain open until Nov. 16.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/map-project-marks-locations-of-sexual-assault-on-campus/

The Campus: “College Disciplines Dunn”

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Description:

This Campus article discusses the results of the Middlebury administration’s judicial process against Dunn. The article states how and why the college issued official discipline to Dunn.

Creator:

Catherine Pollack

Date:

February 14, 2018

College Disciplines Dunn

By Catherine Pollack

February 14, 2018 | 8:53pm EST

Elizabeth Dunn ’18, who on Dec. 12 posted a list on Facebook accusing 36 current and former male students of sexual misconduct, has received official college discipline in the form of a letter in their file.

Official college discipline is a permanent attachment to a student’s file and must be reported if a student is asked whether they have received college discipline. It is also reported to the parents and guardians of the student.

“I’ve received official college discipline in the form of a letter that goes on my permanent record, for violating the respect for persons policy and obstructing a Title IX investigation (i.e. not sharing the names of survivors),” said Dunn, who uses they/them pronouns.

Dunn declined an interview with The Campus. However, they did participate in an interview with Seven Days last month before the college had reached a disciplinary decision.

“I could be facing suspension or expulsion. Middlebury judicial affairs has refused to take anything off the table right now,” Dunn said at the time of the interview.

Warnings, reprimands and probationary status, which are issued to students who commit nonacademic general offenses, are not a part of a student’s permanent record. These offenses are followed in severity by official college discipline and then suspension, which are permanent on a student’s file.

Official college discipline results from actions that violate Middlebury’s standards and policies. The handbook also states that further disciplinary action will likely result in suspension.

The handbook states, “Official college discipline is intended to encourage immediate improved behavior, and acceptance of responsibility and growth by establishing this incident on the student’s permanent record.”

Dunn told the Seven Days reporter that although they are applying to law school, they are not concerned with the discipline on their record hurting their chances of being accepted. Dunn said their backup plan is working in the Bronx public defender’s office.

Dunn said they stood by their decision to post the list.

“This harm is being done by, like, specific people and by specific individuals, and if we want to move toward a conversation about, like, healing and accountability and growth, there needs to be some acknowledgment that harm was done,” Dunn told Seven Days.

Bill Burger, the college’s spokesman, told The Campus that he could not respond to questions related to an individual student’s case.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2018/02/college-disciplines-dunn

The Campus: “Middlebury: Where White Supremacists, but Not Survivors, Are Worthy of Free Speech”

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Description:

After Dunn posted The List, they met with a campus judicial officer who requested the names and contact information of the people who had contacted Dunn with reports of sexual misconduct. Dunn refused. After returning from winter break (Dunn posted The List during finals week), the judicial officers informed them that they were facing official college discipline for violating college policy. Shortly thereafter, past and present Middlebury It Happens Here leaders, wrote an op/ed in solidarity with Dunn. The op/ed questioned why white supremacists (Charles Murray for example) had the right to free speech at Middlebury, but not survivors or women of color (Dunn and Addis Fouche-Channer among others).

NOTE: There appears to be discrepancy between the creator listed on the PDF of the article on the original Archives of Dissent page and the author listed on the current Campus site. The pasted article below is from the current Campus site. The original PDF is attached as well.

Creator:

Middlebury’s It Happens Here team (alumni and students): Maddie Orcutt (’16), Jingyi Wu (’17), Luke Brown (’14), Michelle Peng (’15), Morgan Grady-Benson (’18), Katie Preston (’17), Kristina Johansson (’14), Taite Shomo (‘20.5), Shariell Crosby (’16)

Date:

January 24, 2018

Middlebury: Where White Supremacists, but Not Survivors, Are Worthy of Free Speech

By Félicia Tapia

January 24, 2018 | 6:50pm EST

Since its founding in 2012, It Happens Here has provided an anonymous storytelling platform to highlight survivors’ voices. As we have engaged in this work, we have also acknowledged that survivors don’t owe anyone their stories, and that sharing one’s experiences with sexual violence can come at a high personal cost.

As the former and current leadership of It Happens Here at Middlebury, we’re writing this letter to stand in solidarity with Elizabeth Dunn and condemn the recent actions of Middlebury’s Judicial Affairs Office, as were discussed in the recent article “Student Accuses Over 30 Men of Sexual Misconduct on Facebook.” Liz’s actions do not stand in isolation, but follow in the footsteps of the #weknowwhatyoudid campaign at Morehouse and other institutions of higher education. By sharing the names of campus perpetrators, Liz did what is desperately needed; they highlighted that while campus survivors are often hypervisible, those who repeatedly and systematically violate boundaries (read: perpetrators) maintain an all-too-comfortable invisibility. Long before terms like “the whisper network” emerged, it has been important for people (and for women and queer folks in particular) to share information about sexual predators to protect each other.  We were collectively horrified to learn from Liz that the Judicial Affairs Office has threatened to move forward with disciplinary action against them, and that, according to Liz, they are demanding that Liz share the names of the survivors who confided in them. It is perhaps worth mentioning here that as a student, Liz is not a mandatory reporter under Middlebury’s Policy Against Sexual Misconduct, Domestic and Dating Violence, and Stalking.

The interconnectedness of this recent incident and the events that followed in the wake of white supremacist Charles Murray’s visit to campus cannot be understated. In both instances, the Judicial Affairs Office threatened disciplinary actions upon women of color, which effectively punished them for exercising their freedom of speech against those who maintain power and privilege. In the case involving Addis Fouche-Channer, such accusations amounted to racial profiling. Indeed, the lines between the Judicial Affairs Office and the Communications Office are becoming increasingly blurred as the administration consistently (and visibly) panders to donors and alumni by being “tough on crime” and shutting down negative perceptions of Middlebury.

At It Happens Here, we have always (and will continue to) stand in awe of survivor-activists like Elizabeth Dunn. We’re encouraging alumni and parents who are similarly horrified by the treatment of Addis Fouche-Channer, Elizabeth Dunn and others to call the Office of Advancement and let them know that you won’t be donating to Middlebury College until the Judicial Affairs Office reforms what we consider the overpolicing of women of color (and of black women in particular) and corrects actions that support white supremacy and rape. The Office of Advancement can be reached at (802) 443-5217 or via email at supportmiddlebury@middlebury.edu.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2018/01/middlebury-where-white-supremacists-but-not-survivors-are-worthy-of-free-speech

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The Campus: “Student Who Posted ‘The List’ Faces Discipline”

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Description:

This Campus article discusses Middlebury’s judicial process against Elizabeth Dunn, who posted The List.

Creator:

Elaine Velie and Catherine Pollack

Date:

January 24, 2018

Student Who Posted ‘The List’ Faces Discipline

By Elaine Velie and Catherine Pollack

January 24, 2018 | 7:52pm EST

The student who posted a “List of Men to Avoid” on Facebook last month, Elizabeth Dunn ’18, is now facing disciplinary action after the list prompted a judicial investigation into potential violations of college policy.

According to Dunn, administrators said it was “highly likely” that Dunn would face official college discipline, which entails a letter in a student’s permanent file and is seen as one step before suspension.

The list included the names of 33 current and former male students who were labeled with sexual misconduct charges ranging from “emotionally manipulative” to “serial rapist.” Dunn said the list was compiled from “a group of 30 to 40 survivors,” and that none of them had given Dunn consent to reveal their names to the school.

Dunn said the charges stem in part from not sharing the names of those survivors with the judicial office. The college’s Respect for the Authority of Middlebury Officials policy says that students are expected to “cooperate fully” in the disciplinary process and “any student, whether a party or a witness, who refuses to cooperate” in the disciplinary process may be “subject to discipline.”

The college’s spokesman, Bill Burger, responded on behalf of several administrators who were asked to comment on the college’s action since Dunn posted the list on Facebook.

“Students are required to cooperate with conduct investigations once they have been identified, by themselves or others, as having relevant information,” he said.

Although Burger would not comment on whether the judicial office requested a list of names from Dunn, when asked why the office would want to know the names of the students who provided names for the list, he said: “Middlebury is committed to supporting survivors of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct and to reducing sexual violence in our community.”

The Respect for Persons charge was addressed in an email sent to the community on Dec. 15. The email addressed students placed on the list, encouraging them to reach out to judicial deans if they felt they were falsely accused. The email mentioned that the college had received many questions in regard to violations of the Respect for Persons policy.

The policy states that “Middlebury expects all students, as members of the College community, to respect the dignity, freedom, and rights of others.” This policy prohibits defamation and “violation of another’s privacy.”

When asked questions about the nature of the college’s investigation, Burger said, “It would be inappropriate to discuss a specific conduct investigation. It is important that all aspects of our investigations are conducted thoroughly, fairly and confidentially.”

When asked what jurisdiction the college has over allegations made online, Burger said, “Middlebury’s written policies are very clear that our community standards apply broadly and not only to actions that physically occur on our campuses.”

While the college has begun to take action in this case, Dunn said, “There isn’t a precedent for a situation like this, so there are a lot of directions Middlebury could go in with the judicial process. Maybe that looks like me being suspended or expelled; maybe that looks like community conversations facilitated by the college; maybe that looks like restorative justice.”

Speaking to the college’s current judicial system, Dunn said, “The question I have is whether the current approach Middlebury uses fulfills the needs of students in the safest, healthiest and most respectful way possible. I think the list itself is an indicator that a large number of people are disillusioned with the processes Middlebury currently has in place to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct.”

Burger said: “We know that challenges exist on our campus and at all colleges and universities and we will continue to work with students, faculty, staff and outside organizations to do more and to continually improve our efforts to make Middlebury safer for all members of our community.”

Dunn said the list should not be viewed as an isolated incident but in the context of current events.

“We exist in a political and social moment in which survivors are pushing back against a culture of silence, violence, and invalidation. The list could and should be contextualized as part of broader movements against sexual violence, such as the shitty men in media list, the Me Too hashtag, and other forms of activism.”

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2018/01/student-who-posted-the-list-faces-discipline

The Campus Editorial: “How We Move Forward After ‘The List’”

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Description:

This Campus editorial discusses the aftermath of The List and addresses many community opinions of it, both positive and negative. Ultimately, this editorial urges people to “believe and listen to women, acknowledge when and how we’re complicit, and work hard to bring justice to this issue.”

Creator:

The Campus Editorial Board

Date:

January 24, 2018

How We Move Forward After ‘The List’

By The Editorial Board

January 24, 2018 | 6:56pm EST

As our campus entered finals period a month ago, a list, inspired by the #MeToo movement, was published on Facebook. This list cited many male students, approximately 35 of them, as being complicit in gender-based violence, describing each of their behavior in parentheses next to each name. The list looked like this: “John Doe (rapist), John Doe II (sexual harassment, emotional abuse), etc.”

The Facebook list has spurred further dialogue about sexual assault, patriarchy and sexism on campus. #MeToo, among many efforts in Hollywood and other spaces to empower women to come forth and speak out against abuse they have experienced, puts the list into context.

The time is apt, and long overdue, for society, and our community specifically, to critically assess the ways we tacitly condone sexual assault and violence against women. For too long, women have suffered abuse from men and few systemic steps have been taken to name or address it.

This paper’s fall editorial, “It Happens Everywhere,” touched upon how our community needs to do more to prevent harassment and abuse done onto women. Clearly, sexual assault happens on our campus. Regardless of how we feel individually about the actions of the person who published the list, that choice highlights the broken nature of situation on campus.

Someone in our community felt compelled to compile this list of men who are allegedly guilty of sexual violence on multiple occasions, not to mention all the unnamed men. It’s also important to note that not all of the aforementioned survivors consented to having their stories shared, a fact that demonstrates yet another troubling aspect of the situation.

One common critique of the list is that the publisher did not authenticate claims because survivors who spoke out against the listed men were not named, nor was an accompanying narrative about the incident. It is unfair to ask survivors to make themselves so publically vulnerable and risk their health and safety. They do not need to reveal themselves. They did not ask for the abuse they experienced; they are not required to publicize their pain.

No doubt it was jarring for all of us to see the names of those we know on that list. As members of this community, our indignation is colored by the anecdotes of our friends and peers who say the college’s legal system has failed them.

While we understand that the legal framework (particularly Title IX) is central to the operation and responsibilities of the administration, we are frustrated by the way in which it prioritizes careful legal-speak over empathy. Issues of sexual violence are treated like legal complexities, as ambiguous gray areas, and often eclipse the actual experiences of survivors.

Though the school has advocated its judicial processes and reporting procedures, these are not for everyone. There are other roads to healing for victims of sexual violence, including Parton’s counseling center and MiddSafe. To speak of one process as the predominant form of support fails to accommodate the nuance of these situations.

The way society reproduces notions of patriarchy and bestows young boys with sexist, problematic understandings of sex and intimacy needs to be part of the framework. These same notions of patriarchy persist at the college, so the college could help students unlearn these insidious lessons through more thorough sex and consent education for first-years. Once such work is incorporated and built upon, then perhaps Middlebury can better support those who have experience sexual violence, and prevent it in the first place.

But the college’s orientation program cannot be the only place where this issue is addressed. Students have a responsibility to end rape culture on this campus. We need to set new standards for how we uphold ourselves in our interactions.

We already have such a framework for understanding microaggressions and cultural appropriation. Many of us come to Middlebury without a sufficient understanding of these issues, but we quickly learn what actions or statements are offensive. Calling out these instances is a part of our campus culture. Indeed, we students have the collective power to establish norms and to hold each other accountable when they are broken.

Much of the dialogue surrounding the list has been raw, in part because it affected, directly or indirectly, so many people on this campus. As we decide where to go from here, our campus should move forward with nuance and intentionality. Let’s believe and listen to women, acknowledge when and how we’re complicit, and work hard to bring justice to this issue.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2018/01/how-we-move-forward-after-the-list

The Campus: “Student Accuses Over 30 Men of Sexual Misconduct on Facebook”

Harper NicholsLeave a comment

Description:

This Campus article describes The List being posted around campus and on Facebook during finals week, and the first responses from administrators. 

Creator:

Ethan Brady

Date:

December 23, 2017

Student Accuses Over 30 Men of Sexual Misconduct on Facebook

By Ethan Brady

December 23, 2017 | 10:42pm EST

A Middlebury College student posted a “List of Men to Avoid” on Facebook last week, publicly accusing 33 current and former male students of sexual misconduct.

The list originally contained 16 names, but was added to throughout the day Wednesday, Dec. 13, until it was removed from Facebook. Beside each name was a brief description of the person’s alleged actions, ranging from “emotionally manipulative” to “serial rapist.”

“Feel free to dm me more names to add to this status because I could really give a f[—] about protecting the privacy of abusers,” the student, Elizabeth Dunn ’18, wrote in the post, adding a heart emoji.

It is unclear how many people submitted names to Dunn. The Campus is withholding the names of accused students because it could not independently substantiate each claim.

Physical copies of the list were posted in prominent locations around campus, including dining halls and dorms. The printed lists had “#ME TOO” emblazoned in large letters. The appearance of the list shook a campus engrossed in final exams just as students were preparing for winter break.

The list drew explicit parallels to the recent spate of sexual misconduct allegations that have forced the ouster of famous people from positions of power, including Harvey Weinstein and Sen. Al Franken — though none of the current or former students named are public figures.

“Something that’s been weighing me down for a while, especially after the #metoo movement, is how incredibly visible survivors can be, and yet how invisible the ones who violated our boundaries remain,” the student wrote in the original post. The student lamented seeing “people associate with those who have perpetuated this violence as if nothing has happened.”

The list appeared days before actor Matt Damon drew heated criticism for saying that “there’s a spectrum of behavior” when it comes to sexual misconduct, and that “patting someone on the butt” should not be conflated with rape. Earlier this month, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rejected that view, saying, “You need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is O.K. None of it is acceptable.”

At Middlebury, the list described some students as “serial rapist” and others as having committed “sexual harassment.” One student was described as treating “women but especially Black women like shit.” Another was said to have made “fetishistic, racist, sexual comments about Black women.”

The list concluded with this: “Here’s to not being complicit in 2018.”

The college responded the next day by advocating its judicial process. Katy Smith Abbott, outgoing dean of the college, said in an all-campus email on Dec. 14 that sexual misconduct should be reported to the college’s judicial officers, Karen Guttentag and Brian Lind.

“We have a dedicated professional staff with enormous expertise in handling these cases,” the email said.

Smith Abbott’s email was co-signed by Baishakhi Taylor, her interim replacement beginning Jan. 1.

The deans later sent a second email addressing concerns about the list’s public and unvetted nature.

“Public allegations should not take the place of our established procedures,” the deans said on Dec. 15. “These procedures exist to encourage reporting, to ensure that allegations are investigated thoroughly and confidentially, and to see to it that all parties are treated fairly.”

The deans also encouraged people who think they were “falsely accused of misconduct in a public forum” to contact the judicial officers.

The officers would “gather information from any student who makes a complaint that a policy has been violated, will evaluate the information to determine which policies may be implicated, and will ensure that the conduct is addressed through the appropriate process,” according to the deans.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2017/12/student-accuses-over-30-men-of-sexual-misconduct-on-facebook

The Campus: ““Pregnant in Middlebury, VT:” Fake Abortion Clinics and the Right to Accurate Information”

Harper NicholsLeave a comment

Description:

This opinion piece by Toria Isquith, published in the student-run newspaper The Middlebury Campus, discusses crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), specifically the one housed in Addison County. The article explains the dangers of CPCs and provides the reader with information on a student-made website that is a guide for pregnancy resource information not connected to CPCs.

Creator:

Toria Isquith

Date:

November 29, 2017

The Campus: “Vagina Monologues Beyond Convention”

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Description:

This Campus article describes the first ever performance of “Beyond the Vagina Monologues,” a version of “The Vagina Monologues” that was first adapted at Middlebury by Rebecca Coates-Finke ‘16.5 in 2016. The article includes a description of all of the content and performance changes in the adapted play, and why these changes were made. “Beyond The Vagina Monologues” has continued to be changed and adapted at Middlebury since 2016 to reflect each new cast.

Creator:

Leah Lavigne

Date:

March 2, 2016

Vagina Monologues Beyond Convention

By Leah Lavigne

March 2, 2016 | 7:06pm EST

On Feb. 25-27 in the Hepburn Zoo, The Vagina Monologues returned in its third consecutive year at the College, but the fresh form and delivery of the play, renamed Beyond the Vagina (Monologues), explored changing definitions of femininity and womanhood in an inclusive and ambitious showcase of thought-provoking narratives.

In an effort to start a conversation about previously taboo subjects like female genitalia, sexual stigmas and violence against women, writer Eve Ensler ’75 compiled a theatrical celebration of vaginas and femininity based on two decades of interviews with over 200 women spanning age, ethnicity, nationality and sexual experience. Premiering in 1996 in New York City — and shown in a limited run in the same year at the Mahaney Center for the Arts — the resulting piece, The Vagina Monologues, featured a candid exploration of anatomical and sexual awakenings,  feminine shame and historical and societal gender oppression through one common subject: the vagina.

After a five-year off-Broadway run and a subsequent national tour, the worldwide popularity of The Vagina Monologues continued to grow after the exposure of a Madison Square Garden engagement and an HBO television adaptation. In 1998, Ensler established V-Day, an organization originally staffed by volunteers whose mission demands that violence against women and girls must end. Since the organization’s inception, the number of annual February V-Day productions has grown to 5,800 worldwide, the proceeds of which benefit shelters and rape crisis centers to further V-Day’s mission. All of the proceeds from the College’s production were donated to WomenSafe, an Addison County organization working toward the elimination of physical, sexual and emotional violence against women.

Though The Vagina Monologues remains a global phenomenon 20 years after its debut, the play has garnered significant criticism for representing a largely white, cisgendered, heterosexual perspective that portrays a dated view of femininity and womanhood. Director, producer, script adapter and lighting designer Rebecca Coates-Finke ’16.5, who has worked on three consecutive productions of The Vagina Monologues, wanted to create a performance experience that addressed these criticisms and expanded the play’s reach and relevance. After launching the 2014 show with a student monologue and introducing an accompanying booklet of student voices in 2015 to make the production more Middlebury specific, Coates-Finke embarked on her most ambitious interpretation of the show’s potential with this year’s Beyond the Vagina (Monologues).

“I wasn’t satisfied with just doing the play as it was anymore and I was curious as to whether or not it was possible to use the script to undermine some of the central issues with it in a new play,” Coates-Finke said. “I believe that a show can’t be feminist if it can’t reflect the context that it’s in, and in that way it [The Vagina Monologues] does allow itself to become irrelevant over time because it keeps repeating the same story even when culture has shifted.”

Featuring an all-student ensemble of 16 cast members and six American sign language interpreters dressed in black and shades of red, Beyond the Vagina (Monologues) was presented in the round in the Hepburn Zoo, encouraging an interactive and physical performance style that — like the content of the text — did not allow for audience complacency.

In addition to familiar aspects like a compilation book of eight monologues written, edited and illustrated by students and performances of nine monologues from the original piece — including Anna Hoge ’19’s confident and unapologetic rendition of “Hair,” an exploration of the societal pressures placed on women to modify their body hair for ‘beauty’ and Jenne Meneses Montiel ’19’s Spanish-infused interpretation of “My Angry Vagina,” a condemnation of female medical treatment and the proliferation of consumer products implicitly shaming female bodies — Coates-Finke incorporated outside speeches and materials to shatter the limitations of the original text.

Early in the show, an audio-recording of transgender writer, speaker and activist Julia Serano’s piece “Cocky” played over the loudspeaker as American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter Julia Desmarais ’18 offered an emotive translation on a darkened stage. As a transwoman who did not have genital reassignment surgery grappling with her position outside of traditional gender definitions and the constant threat of physical violence, the juxtaposition of Serano’s candid voice to the quietly gripping visual translation left the audience momentarily stunned by the interplay of raw emotion and articulate narrative in the piece.

“One of the main criticisms of The Vagina Monologues is that it’s biologically essentialist, so what it does is it uses the vagina to talk about the experience of being a woman, which ends up leaving a lot of people out in terms of conversations about sexism and devaluing the feminine,” Coates-Finke said. “I wanted to complicate that because there are many trans women who have not undergone surgery. I wanted to use the audio of Serano’s piece to recognize the fact that there was nobody in my cast who identified as a trans woman and to acknowledge that there are some people not in the room whose voices still need to be heard.”

The inclusion of ASL interpretations of each piece, as well as an increased commitment to physical performance and a greater incorporation of multimedia, augmented the thematic changes to contribute to an overall tonal shift toward inclusivity, innovation and open discussion.

Each audience member was asked to write their own definition of femininity on a piece of paper upon entering the theater, and the responses encapsulated a shifting view of femininity as a measure of power, self-esteem or choice rather than a static biological assignment or reinforced social construct. Coates-Finke discussed the reflection that three years of engagement with The Vagina Monologues has prompted.

“I have learned so much more about femininity and what my gender means from people who are a-gender or gender queer or trans women because there is something very powerful about acknowledging in some ways that there is a little bit of choice involved in how you get to identify your gender and how you can change and enact that every day,” Coates-Finke said.

Another striking addition to the show was Stella Boye-Doe ’19’s nuanced rendition of “Respect,” written by critical race theorist and founder of intersectionality Kimberlé  Crenshaw for the V-Day production A Memory, A Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer. The piece confronts the history of America’s simultaneous capitalization and oppression of the black vagina. Asserting that the United States was built on the backs — and through the wombs — of slave women, the piece offers startling statistics about a continued lack of progress and respect, including the fact that rapists of black victims receive, on average, one-fifth of the sentence of the rapists of white victims.

Though only a week has passed since this reinvention of The Vagina Monologues premiered, Coates-Finke and the cast have received some positive feedback.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been thanked so much for doing a show before, and other members of the cast have had similar experiences,” Coates-Finke said. “It has been really powerful to hear about people who were skeptical of the show because of previous criticisms and decided to see it for themselves. I think I was worried about not having gained the trust of the people I really wanted to be in the room, so I was glad to see that people were trying it out even if in the past it hadn’t been what they wanted it to be.”

In its ambition to expand its scope and explore shifting conversations on femininity and gender, Beyond the Vagina (Monologues) undermined many of the contradictions inherent in its original form, incorporating deft artistic decisions to present a piece unique to its time and place. Coates-Finke’s presentation is a vision of what The Vagina Monologues could be, and it is my hope that the play can continue to push its own boundaries in years to come.

On Friday, March 4, Coates-Finke will be discussing her process in writing, producing, and directing Beyond the Vagina (Monologues) at 12:15 p.m. in the Abernathy Room.

Link: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2016/03/vagina-monologues-beyond-convention