Our society has those certain, few topics that make people uncomfortable whenever they are brought up in conversation. In these conversations, some people state their opinion and enjoy the heated discussion that follows. If you're like me, you avoid these conversations at all costs. I personally hate talking about politics and racial issues because I believe we are all entitled to have our own opinions and that they should be respected. So, you will almost never hear me discussing my views on the upcoming election or any other controversial topic.
That being said, it is truly a stretch for me to write an article about such a contentious matter, but I believe something needs to be said.
Whenever you hear about West Chester University, you hear about the beautiful campus, the overwhelming amount of student organizations, or the friendliness of the people. It is not a usual occurrence when something negative is made public about my wonderful school. Unfortunately, that changed this last week.
Whenever there is a crime committed on or near campus, the university does not hesitate to send emails (timely warnings) to students and faculty stating scarce details about what happened and asking anyone with more information to call Public Safety. There are never any follow ups after these emails are sent. They are strictly warnings.
This is only my second year at West Chester after transferring in as a junior, yet the majority of timely warnings I have received in the last year were regarding sexual assaults and rape. There were also warnings about a middle-aged man who flashed people off campus.
On September 4th, 2016, the WCU Department of Public Safety sent out an email regarding two sexual assaults that took place during the previous weekend. Both assaults occurred in resident halls, both were committed by acquaintances of the victims, and they occurred within a two-night span of each other.
After these warnings, there wasn't much talk about the incidents around campus, until two days later when the WCU Interim President sent an email to all active students and employees. This email basically stated that we need to be aware of the sexual assaults and violence on our campus and other campuses around the US. The email also provided resources for students to become more informed and even to receive training on how to stop sexual assaults or violence before it happens, as a certified bystander.
While all this is great information, in the third to last paragraph, Dr. Christopher Fiorentino writes this:
“To that end, we will be launching some new efforts to help keep students safe. Starting this weekend, Public Safety will institute safety checkpoints. Officers will speak with groups of students leaving and returning to campus about responsible actions, substance abuse and by-stander responsibilities. Random sobriety checks will also occur throughout the weekend.”
This email caused an uproar with students. I heard students around campus discussing their outrage of the random checkpoints that will now occur on their beloved weekends. There are rumors about what will occur during these checkpoints and if they will actually be done regularly. I, as a twenty-one year old who lives on campus, am not too happy about this new enforcement.
Students were also upset because, in this email, it sounds as if Dr. Fiorentino is basically blaming the whole problem on alcohol. I don't know if you knew this but, alcohol doesn't cause rape. Shocking, right?!
I didn't give the topic of rape culture much thought since I never knew anyone who experienced the misfortune. However, this summer my best friend who goes to college in Ohio told me that her friend was sexually assaulted last school year. Her situation was similar to the ones that occurred on West Chester’s campus recently. The crime was committed in a residence hall and it was committed by a close friend, just like at WCU. She reported the incident but received no benefits or even any closure when the case finally closed six months after. In her case, as well as many others, alcohol was not the reason behind the rape.
After hearing stories like this, it baffles me that someone with so much intelligence, such as an interim president of a university with a doctorate degree, can blame the crimes that occurred solely on alcohol.
Students decided to send a message to the university in protest of their message. Late Wednesday night, 9/7, some students decided to take it upon themselves and put up fliers all around campus to challenge the university. The fliers were a copy of the email Dr. Fiorentino sent to students and faculty and typed in bold letters over the letter “THIS IS NOT THE ANSWER. ALCOHOL DOES NOT CAUSE RAPE.”
These could be seen all around campus including on our beloved ram statue. I am 100% supportive of students raising awareness about the subject and sharing their stance to the university. However, I don’t think printing out a million pieces of paper and, basically, vandalizing landmarks around campus is the right way to do it. I was driving off campus this night and I even saw the fliers on the big West Chester University sign that can be seen off-campus. I believe that makes us as a university look bad because anyone driving on High street that night could see the vandalism.
While discussing the issue with my roommate who shares a similar view as I do, we were discussing other ways the students could’ve still gotten their message across without being so rash.
“The university is responsible, but we as students need to take action too,” my roommate, Lexi Hollkamp concluded.
We decided that the students need to go directly to the source instead of passive aggressively posting things to send a message. Email the president, hold a protest, anything to show your passion that doesn’t make us, as a student body, look bad.
As I was writing this article, the interim president sent out a new email to clarify that he did not mean to say that alcohol was the sole cause of rape. "The concern about alcohol use and its relationship to sexual assault is the inability to receive consent when another person is under the influence of alcohol," Dr. Fiorentino wrote. This is something I'm pretty sure every student knows so his attempt for clarification was not really anything that needed to be said because I don't think the outraged students are going to suddenly change their minds.
I know that the sobriety checkpoints this will not stop students from going out and consuming alcohol on the weekends. I know that they will also not stop the amount of sexual assaults happening on our campus. However, I hope that students will continue to raise awareness on the issue in the right way.
