Dear DePauw University,
I'm one of your students, a senior who has only a few months left of my undergraduate career. Four years is a long time to spend in one place. It's enough time for lots of things to happen.
Four years of walking across campus, to classes during the day and parties at night.
Four years of unwanted advances from people, who don't seem to know what "no" means.
Four years of hearing men, your students, talk about the vile things they want to do to women, who are also your students.
Four years of holding close my panic-stricken friends who you could not keep safe from those who violated their bodies.
Four years of being terrified to be alone at night, even on our own campus.
Four years of fighting for reform and no response from you.
If you claim to value "all your students", why is it that I no longer trust you to take care of us? Where is the justice for women who are violated EVERY SINGLE WEEK? Why are these issues not discussed in detail during freshmen orientation? Why are men here still allowed to go through recruitment when they have allegations against them? Why have there been no convictions against perpetrators in over ten years here, as though people can violate others and know they will get away with it? Are you too scared to bring up such difficult topics? Or is this just not a problem for you as an institution?
This is not an alcohol issue, as you might think. This is not a product of "party culture". This is a result of people's lack of understanding of consent and the absence of proper justice on behalf of survivors. We as students are so tired of fighting these problems on our own; we need help from the administration to raise awareness, fight perpetrators, and provide actual education to students on sexual assault. But despite all the incidents on our campus, despite all of the students who you didn't protect, you still seem to turn a blind eye to our plight. How can you continue to do this?
Dear DePauw, my regret about graduating so soon is I feel I haven't done enough to make our campus safer. But why am I doing your job for you? You need to show you care about your students, especially those who have been raped or assaulted, because those are the ones you have severely failed. And as far as I can say, the number of these students is increasing every week. I want to be hopeful, but that depends on whether or not you will step up this time. If not, then I am happy to walk across that graduation stage and end my four years of living in fear.
