STAAR hosts rape conference

The University hosted the First Annual Student Conference on Campus Sexual Assault last weekend in Houston Hall. The event was sponsored by Students Together Against Acquaintance Rape and included over 200 representatives from schools as far away as Hawaii and Oregon. Organizers of STAAR, which was founded in 1989 and was one of the first programs of its kind in the country, said they planned the conference following widespread interest in their programs. "We got a lot of requests from other schools for help in starting up their own groups [similar to STAAR]," College Senior Jodi Gold, who coordinated the event with College Senior Beth Kaplan, said. "The response was simply so great that it became nationwide and we decided to organize this conference." The general objective of the conference was to create a student-led think tank which could establish links between various programs across the country. Ann Simonton, coordinator of Media Watch, gave Saturday's keynote address about the way women are portrayed in the media. Saturday and Sunday, workshops were held on rape-related subjects such as alcohol and drugs, sexual harassment, reaching men, self defense and multicultural issues. University Anthropology Professor Peggy Sanday, who led a workshop on gang rape, said that there were many aspects of rape which are not considered in most discussions of the issue, but which represent very serious problems. "We rarely think about male gang rape, for example," Sanday said. "But when pledges get a carrot stuck up their ass that's rape. They get a sense of brotherhood out of it and ultimately a sense of power -- power which allows them to rape again later. Abuse breeds abuse." Among the ideas addressed was that acquaintance rape affects everyone, and thus needs to be dealt with seriously. "We need to create a situation where women don't fear being raped and men don't fear being stigmatized," College senior Will Van Derveer said. "Overall the conference was incredible," Jennifer Goldner, a representative from Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York, said. "It really got the important messages across, such as awareness and communication." STAAR was founded by four students who felt there was a need to provide education on the issue and to advocate the rights and needs of victims. Founding member and College graduate Nick King, who spoke at the conference said, "As a man, I found it difficult to get involved in fighting acquaintance rape, since it was perceived as a woman's issue." "Men, however, play a vital role," he said. "It's very powerful when a man questions another man in an acquaintance rape situation." Raising questions and issues is one of STAAR's main methods of combating sexual assault. Members believe that lasting changes in attitude can be achieved through self-questioning as opposed to lecturing. "It's very easy to stand on a stump and tell people what to think," King said. "It's much more effective to get people thinking for themselves. Several STAAR members said that they themselves were living proof of the effectiveness of self-questioning. Only after extensive self-examination had their attitudes truly changed. In addition to setting up workshops, STAAR has presented at the National Conference on Campus Violence in Baltimore, trained campus police on how to deal with acquaintance rape and worked with the administration in establishing the University's first-ever policy on acquaintance rape. Many at STAAR feel that this is just the beginning. "It's time to deal with more and different issues such as gender roles, socialization, masculinity and femininity," Gold said. STAAR would like to get as many people involved as possible, including minority groups such as blacks and Latinos, which it has had trouble reaching in the past. "Ultimately, it's the students' responsibility to bring about change," Gold said. "We're the only ones who can build a community of intolerance to rape."