Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Juliette Grimmett" <>]

"It's so liberating and important for men to understand that they can
actually be friendly to women instead of playing some gender-specific
role, and that women are in most ways the same as they are. I think that
lots of women already know that, but not so many guys do."  -my dad
8/3/07
 
Juliette Grimmett, MPH
Rape Prevention Education Coordinator
NC State University
Women's Center
3120 Talley Student Center
Campus BOX 7306
Raleigh, NC 27695-7306
Office: (919) 513-3232
24 Hour Sexual Violence Hotline: (919)618-RAPE (7273)
Fax: (919) 515-1066
email: 

website: http://www.ncsu.edu/womens_center
 


>>> "Eugenie Nable" 
>>> <>
>>>  10/11/2007 2:28 PM >>>
MCASA's ED, Jennifer Pollitt Hill wrote the following letter to the
editor
of the Baltimore Sun in response to an article they ran.  After she
spoke
with Cortney Fisher and Mollie Monahan, both from UMD and both working
with
MCASA, our staff brainstormed about how to respond to UMD.  

Here's the article, followed by the letter.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.clothesline04oct04,0,1802008.story


 
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

.And all I got was this lousy t-shirt

As the executive director of an advocacy organization for survivors of
sexual violence, it is difficult to witness the absurd drama that has
unfolded around the Clothesline Project at the University of Maryland,
College Park.  How is it that-after seventeen years of hosting the
Clothesline Project with not a single defamation suit resulting from
the
event-the school suddenly wants to limit the ways in which some rape
victims
have chosen to express what happened to them? 

The University is certainly faced with a legitimate legal quandary.
After
all, the issue of free speech versus defamation of character has been
debated time and again in countless different scenarios. However, in
fixating on this controversy, we are forgetting to ask other larger,
more
important questions that have gone unanswered for far too long. Why are
so
many students on the campus being raped?  Why is it that victims feel
that
the only justice they can get is by naming names on a t-shirt?  Which
names
would the school rather not see emblazoned across the t-shirts?  Star
athletes? Student leaders?  Sons of prominent school officials?  Why is
it
that the school seems more concerned about potential liability issues
when
the very real and longstanding needs of rape victims on campus are not
being
met?  

Students are entitled to a campus community that neither condones nor
quietly accepts sexual violence. To foster such a climate, the message
from
the administration must clearly convey intolerance of sexual offenses.
Furthermore, this message of anti-violence must guarantee that victims
will
have options to help them heal, that investigation of alleged crimes
will be
taken seriously, and that perpetrators will be held fully accountable
for
their offenses.  

When the culture of rape is so prominent on a campus that an annual
Clothesline Project becomes a bone of contention - debated well beyond
the
campus grounds - then clearly the real issue must be larger than one
of
exposure and liability.

So, in lieu of creating a t-shirt for the Clothesline Project that
identifies a perpetrator by name, victims will have to settle for a
t-shirt
that reads, "I survived rape at the University of Maryland and all I
got was
this lousy t-shirt".

Jennifer Pollitt Hill, MSW
Executive Director
Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault
1517 Gov. Ritchie Highway, Suite 207
Arnold, Maryland 21012
Phone:  410-974-4507
Fax:  410-757-4770
http://www.mcasa.org ;

 
Eugenie Nable
Communications Specialist
Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault
1517 Ritchie Highway, Suite 207
Arnold, MD  21012

 
410.974.4507
http://www.mcasa.org ;

 

The Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Inc. (MCASA) is the
statewide
collective voice advocating for accessible, compassionate care for
survivors
of sexual crimes, and accountability for all offenders. 

MCASA is a membership organization that includes the state's 17 rape
recovery centers, as well as criminal justice agencies, health care
personnel, other allied professionals, concerned individuals, and
survivors
of sexual violence and their loved ones. MCASA is federally recognized
as
the state coalition and represents the unified voice and combined
energy of
all of its members working to eliminate sexual violence in the State
of
Maryland.