Set against the backdrop of a large banner displaying the signatures of students pledging not to condone violence, members of the University community spoke out against sexual assault for the second time this semester last night in the Penn Women’s Center.
The second “Sexual Violence Speak Out” was hosted by the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women and One-in-Four, an all-male group dedicated to eliminating sexual violence, in light of the sexual assault reported this weekend, the third involving Penn students this semester. The rape was reported at an off-campus party on the 4000 block of Walnut Street early Sunday morning.
Attendees — including College senior and PCUW Chairwoman Rosa Cui, College senior and One-in-Four President Josh Pollack, PWC Violence Prevention Coordinator Jess Mertz, College junior and Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention member Liat Fleming-Shemer and PWC Director Felicity Paxton — gave brief speeches, which were followed by an open-mic discussion about sexual assault.
A few attendees offered their opinions about the issue of sexual assault on campus, inspiring an emotional, and at times heated discussion about the role that alcohol can play and where responsibility should lie.
After the discussion began, several attendees walked out, and those who remained engaged in a conversation about the perception of sexual assault on campus.
“What was productive is that the campus saw that there was work to be done,” said Pollack.
He emphasized that their goal was to educate people on and change “victim-blaming” attitudes.
According to Paxton, the event “let us know that there are students who care passionately about this issue,” and even though the cause for the event “is not good, the fact that we are here is good.”
She added that the discussions continued long after the event had formally ended.
Cui said she began to organize the event early Monday morning, shortly after she was informed of the assault.
Upon hearing about the assault, the PCUW board was “outraged that the incident happened again,” said Cui, adding that she “felt really powerless.”
She added that she wanted campus members to be able to discuss the rape immediately after it occurred.
If the event had been postponed until after Thanksgiving break, she said, any reaction would have lost its meaning.
“People tend to push these events to the back of their heads if there’s no immediate response,” she said. “We wanted to have this event before people just forgot about it.”
The goal, Cui emphasized, was the same as that of the first Speak Out last month — to recognize that sexual assaults do happen, to support survivors and to encourage survivors to report incidents of sexual assault.
Pollack agreed that if survivors don’t report sexual assaults, the issue cannot be addressed because “nothing can be done [about sexual assaults] if nothing can go on record.”
Pollack also noted that “people still don’t understand the prevalence [of sexual assault].”
“We really have a tragic opportunity with what’s happening to create some kind of momentum to make this a campus-wide issue that’s taken seriously,” said Pollack. “No one wants it to happen.”
Cui agreed. “We are here to condemn sexual assault as a community,” she said.
“If it’s going to happen, we need to do something positive, so that at the very least some kind of progress can be made,” Pollack said. “The next person who might have been affected can be spared from this.”
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