A Shocking Week on Campus

So all of y'all know I attend college. This week was pretty shocking for all of the students who attend Midwestern. Spring Break was great and all, and we thought coming back would be hectic, but not for reasons we thought.

A Sexual Assault Forum was held this past Monday about assaults and harassments that took place on campus previously, and the students wanted their voice to be heard about the issue. A lot of people I've talked to say that it's something that is ignored on campuses across the United States, and at first I didn't know if I believed it or not.

But after this week, I do.

The forum on Monday started out as any other forum would: the Dean of students welcomed everyone in before the students stepped up to the panel to present their opinions. The Dean of students made an irresponsible remark about the activities that could've happened over spring break (about assault) and then laughed after he said it. That wasn't the best thing he could've said, especially at a Sexual Assault Forum where students were already fired up about the University's lack of care and effort.

Now I myself didn't attend this forum. I heard all of this through the people in my classes as well as the school newspaper, who quoted what the man had said. I took it in stride and looked into it, but when videos surfaced and facts came out about what happened, I knew it was all true. They weren't exaggerating anything.

The Dean of students enraged a lot of female students who spoke at the forum and who were listening to what he said. It didn't show the support they were hoping for. This escalated really quickly too.

The forum left students without answers. In fact, the students, especially females, were certain the University did not care at all that they were having these awful things happening to them. There are several different facts that were brought up at the forum that were ignored or cast to the side.

So on Wednesday, I asked one of my teachers out of curiosity if the staff had a protocol to follow if a student approached them with an issue like this. My professor said no. She told me all staff takes a training video course online, but that was it. She honestly didn't really know what she would do if a student came to her with that specific problem. It began to worry me as I listened to my classmates too, hearing them say there were people on campus with restraining orders filed against a person, yet the RA's weren't privy to the information and had no idea who to keep out and who to let in.

I really began to get worried then.

I also heard that this issue was addressed at the forum, but the faculty said it wasn't necessary for the RA's to know this information. I disagree. If someone was not supposed to be around a certain person by LAW, then the RA's should have the right to know so they can protect their residents.

While I know there's a difference in tactic and approach between students and faculty, the fact that students' safety isn't a high concern for the latter is frightening. Yes, faculty has to go about their investigations carefully, but if there's issues to this extent, why haven't they taken action?

The police on campus aren't helping either. I've heard stories of policeman saying they couldn't come to a girl's apartment to take a boy who was banging at her door, yelling at her to let him in, because the resident didn't call the RA first. But RA's don't know if these people are supposed to be around you or not. Do you see an issue here?

There was also a story told at the forum of a girl who did not report her sexual assault, but when she tried to tell the policeman, he turned off his camera, said, "Boys will be boys," and basically dismissed her. This is very problematic for so many different reasons. If we can't trust our police to help us when we need it, who can we trust? There's a reason less than 5% of sexual assaults get reported, and now I'm seeing why.

An RA I know personally was punished for speaking out the way she did, and it shocked me when I found out what happened to her. A Twitter page that was anonymously run by a student was shut down because of what they were saying. The hashtag #ComplicitMSU has been trending for awhile now and it blows my mind.

This week on campus has been shocking to a lot of people. We're left with a lot of questions and a lot of fear. While not everyone on campus has faced these horrible things, the ones who have have been silenced or dismissed. If the school does indeed care, they need to show they care pretty fast.

What are your opinions on this? If you're in college or even high school, do you have issues like this too? This really has me thinking and I want to know other's opinions too.

This is a brief overview of the information I've gathered over the past week. I won't mention names or details that aren't necessary. There are other ways to gather information about this issue if you want to learn more. This is me expressing my thoughts and concerns, and I want to learn yours.