Content warning: sexual assault

Syracuse University is under federal investigation for violating Title IX by mishandling sexual assault cases and failing to protect students. The problem extends far beyond just one investigation. Due to a lack of institutional transparency and the stigma surrounding gender-based violence, our understanding of this issue is based on our collective experiences of neglect, coercion, and trauma. We know that adjudication and hearing processes are insufficient and do not hold perpetrators accountable. We know that, like many other universities, sexual violence and rape culture are sadly common at SU; consent education programming has done little to mitigate the overwhelming environment of misogyny, harassment, and coercion. Bystander intervention at Syracuse University does not address the systemic failure to protect survivors seeking justice (we wonder when members of hearing boards will also be made to understand themselves as complicit bystanders) hidden behind a facade of campus framework improvements, confusing confidentiality policies, and circuitous bureaucracy.

In the style of Columbia University alum Emma Sulkowicz’s Carry That Weight project, and the No Red Tape campaign at Columbia University, we publicly stand and sit with our mattresses on the Quad on Tuesday, October 4^th, 2016 to symbolize the pain and outrage of living in a university community that does not support sexual assault survivors. Of learning at an institution that lets perpetrators walk free while survivors, activists, and our families must bear the injustice silently. Of chanting “it’s on us” when we know that “us” rarely includes perpetrators and their protectors.

We are not here to propose solutions to a problem so exhaustive, and so embedded in student and administrative cultures. We respect the rights of survivors to seek justice on their terms. For those who have found solace in the current system, we hope they will join us and advocate in solidarity with those who could not. We call attention to the issue and to the fallaciously redemptive narratives that dominate university public relations, both at this institution and others.

If you are uncomfortable with our grief and anger, we are glad it is not something you must confront every day. We challenge you to contemplate this discomfort that comes from participating in an institution that prioritizes its marketing and public imagery over some of its most vulnerable community members.

Survivors: we acknowledge you and your pain. You are not alone.

Signed,

Your neighborhood feminist activists
#NoRedTapeSU #MattressesontheQuad #ICanHearYourSilence

Published on October 3, 2016 at 10:31 pm