- http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-rape-on-campus-20141119
- NYTimes: Does the University of Virginia Have a Culture of Silence Around Sexual Assault?http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/does-the-university-of-virginia-have-a-culture-of-silence-around-sexual-assault/?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
- http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/uva-temporarily-suspends-fraternities-in-response-to-rape-allegations/90097?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
- More fallout: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/us/rocked-by-rape-report-university-of-virginia-to-hold-special-meeting.html?emc=edit_th_20141125&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=25414714&_r=0&referrer=
- More fallout: The Board of Visitors met yesterday and vows to reform the culture: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/us/university-of-virginia-officials-vow-to-combat-campus-rape-problem.html?referrer=
Q: relatedly, do we have a problem with drinking on our campus, which could lead to bad decision-making?
Q: what role might student-athletes, as campus leaders, play in creating a safe & healthy environment on campus for all students?
We do not have a problem with sexual assault on our campus, atleast to my knowledge. I've never heard or seen any sexual assault acts ever here on Thomas More's campus. It is sick that campuses around the globe have many reports of sexual assault and rape in which most cases never get to justice and the victim feels like they cant do anything. We do not have a campus culture that allows or encourages rape or sexual misconduct and i believe we are the totally opposite. When it comes to drinking, every campus has it. To be honest, when people drink here it somewhat is binge drinking because the opportunity to drink only really comes to the weekends. Big campuses have opportunities to drink everynight and that is why drinking here can be considered binge drinking because we go all out on one night and try to reach a high level of being drunk. I do not believe it has become a problem but it could. At any point binge drinking can cause alcohol intoxication resulting in death if not taken to the hospital. All drinking leads to bad-decision making if you drink enough. Thats how it is. Student athletes can be leaders and encourage everyone to be safe. While it is impossible to get rid of drinking, student athlete leaders can look out for all parties and ensure excessive drinking, sexual assault and other bad decision making processes are not happening. This will aid the development of a healthy environment for all those that attend Thomas More.
ReplyDeleteTo my knowledge I am almost positive that we do not have a problem with sexual assault on our campus. I think this is because we are a small catholic, private, liberal arts college and those type of people who do those nasty things will not be able to attend and stay at this prestigious college! Now at a bigger college or university, absolutely I think there is a huge problem with these types of cases. A majority of these cases are due to drinking and drugs because in college that is just apart of the atmosphere(meaning drinking and drugs). With drinking comes bad decisions and sexual assault is one of those bad decisions which are unacceptable. I do not think that there is drinking problem at Thomas More, but there is going to be drinking by many students each weekend. That is just college! There is drinking going on at Harvard every weekend too! This is where a Student-athlete can come into effect as being a role model! Other students may look up to student-athletes and if the student-athletes are preaching and practicing safe behavior then hopefully the student body will follow.
ReplyDeleteI read the entire Rolling Stone article about the assault and rape culture at the University of Virginia and was absolutely repulsed. Quite honestly, I could not believe that such crimes were being committed in the United States and going unpunished. It is easy to view the news and hear about the atrocities at the hands of the ISIS or the North Korean government, but these are taking place halfway across the world. It is far more disconcerting when such actions take place in a city like Charlottesville—only a six-hour drive away—and at an institution as a renowned as the University of Virginia.
ReplyDeleteAs was the case with the academic fraud at the University of North Carolina, I am circumspect that the University of Virginia is the only culprit in this matter. Undoubtedly, this rape culture is far more systemic and affects many other institutions. The statistics speak for themselves with respect to how some sources report that one in three women will be sexually assaulted or raped at some point during their collegiate time. Fortunately, I do not think that Thomas More College belongs in a category of institutions that deserve such a label. Perhaps because we are small or because we are faith-based, the prevalence of such incidences seems very low and during the totality of my time here, I do not believe that I have ever heard of sexual assault taking place on our campus. Likewise, as a result of the work of campus safety and others, I do not believe that our college has any sort of institutional alcohol-related problems. This may or may not be the case off-campus, but by and large, I am pretty confident in the decision-making abilities of Thomas More College students!
This article as a whole to me represents a pinnacle of investigative journalism. Critically, the author visited the campus and was able to include actual student commentary about the matter. At the risk of being further disgusted, I would be interested to know the statistics about how often sexual assault was taking place at UVA, as—I may be wrong—I do not think any were included, though the lack of data may be a result of the deliberate obfuscation or manipulation by the institution as mentioned in the article. I think that these statistics—though also probably difficult to obtain as a result of reluctance on the part of victims to come forward—in addition to anecdotal evidence would be helpful in further understanding this matter.
Obviously something needs to be done about rape and sexual assault at colleges around the US. I dont know where anyone would begin to resolve the issue. The best answer I have is to not put yourself in the situation where you may be by yourself at a party. Always have more than one friend with you to ensure the safety of yourself and friends.
DeleteI do not think that there is any problem with sexual assault on our campus because if we did we would for sure hear about it. This is probably because we are a catholic institution and we are also very small where not everyone stays on campus. But at a bigger college there are these problems that happen quite often and that is mainly because of drinking. Drinking can lead to anything and it can be very unpredictable. And at Thomas More i think that it matters who's perspective you look at. Some students at the school have drinking problems but I don't think that the student body as a whole has a drinking problem. i think that our campus is as safe as it can be for being a college, but some student- athletes may be able to be more of a role model by not going out and binge drinking every night and showing people how to have a good time without drinking every night.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sad to hear a story such as this one. I don't think we have any problem with sexual assault on campus though, Thomas More is a very small college with no on campus housing besides dorming. I agree with Tyler, a bigger college leads to more people being able to make decisions such as this. I don't really think overall TMC has a drinking problem, there aren't parties every night to go to or bars to walk to. But individually I have no idea, none that I know of. I feel like athletes do a good job as role models here at school.
ReplyDeletedo we have a problem with sexual assault on our campus? Do we have a campus culture that allows or encourages rape or sexual misconduct?
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that in anyway that we have a sexual assault problem on this campus, in my opinion the school is to small for a problem like this to come up. everyone know everyone and if this was to happened it would be know by everyone really fast.
I also do not believe that we have a culture on campus that would ever think about allowing something like rape or sexual assault, even if it did happen in know way would anyone that I know at this school condone this.
relatedly, do we have a problem with drinking on our campus, which could lead to bad decision-making?
ReplyDeleteI do not think that there is a drinking problem on this campus, do we drink on this campus yes we do. but were college students there would need to be concern if we weren't drinking on the weekends. Over consumption of alcohol does lead to some bad decision making I agree, I do not think that alcohol goes hand in hand with rape though. If a guy has a plan to rape a girl he will eventually end up doing it whether she is drunk or not, if the girl is completely hammered and cant function obviously that would make it easier for him I guess. A guy that is willing to rape a woman is messed up in the head and there is really not to much that you can do about it.
Just as Phil said, It is really sad to hear stories like this, but unfortunately it does happen more often then people realize and want to admit. At Thomas More, at least as far as my knowledge extends, I do not believe that we have anything sexual assault related. I feel like because we are a very small school, things like that CANT happen due to the fact that it would spread like wildfire. Nothing goes unnoticed at TMC, and I feel like that is the same at all small schools.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Phil when it comes to the drinking. I believe that, you know, it's college. People are going to go out and drink and have fun, not only here, but at every college across America. I think the binge drinking may be also related to the way one was brought up. If your parents were alcoholics, it would be harder to avoid the binge drinking then say alcohol not being in your life.
I feel like at least at Thomas More, the student-athletes are not considered as much of role models to each other as it would say, OSU. At TMC, there are so many of us that are student-athletes that do we really look up to each other. However, when talking about a bigger campus, the student-athletes should be considered role models and should create and show the other students of the college a safe and healthy environment.
As far as sexual assault goes, I don't think that Thomas More College is of concern. Being such a small school with no off campus housing is probably the reason for this. Bigger schools that have housing for students could fall victim to this type of crime because it is more feasible to get away with. At thomas more we have security in our dorms at night where as housing off campus does not. No one would be able to regulate these type of "frat" parties leaving anyone that walks through the doors susceptible to this type of assault. As far as drinking goes, Thomas More is still a college and like the victim in this article many students are looking for a release from high school and their parents. Students at this college still drink but the size of parties are reflective of the size of our student population. Parties don't consist of 100's of kids and everyone knows everyone. Although some may become overly intoxicated, friends are nearby to make sure smart decisions are made. Also as stated above, parties don't happen every night and no bars are really within walking distance so drinking during the weekdays is not a problem. As far as student athletes go, as April stated, there are a lot of us. We make up a lot of the student population and therefore just look to each other. In larger schools the student population greatly outweighs the student-athlete population. In this case the students have athletes to look up to. However I still feel that it is a good idea to lead by example and keep a safe and healthy campus environment.
ReplyDeleteDo we have a problem with sexual assault on our campus? Do we have a campus culture that allows or encourages rape or sexual misconduct?
ReplyDeleteNo we dont have a problem with sexual assault on our campus because it is a small campus and not really that many off campus houses and the fact that all of the dorms on our campus are always monitored to protect from this. Bigger schools have this problem because they be in bad neighborhoods or may not have enough security to monitor the whole campus. No, we dont have a culture at TMC that encourages rape or assault. I say that because of all the security and monitoring we have and the curfews in the dorms.
I don't think we have a problem with sexual assault on campus. Since it is so small majority of people either know almost everyone or see them as some point throughout the week, so if a sexual assault every happened its not like someone could get away with it.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say drinking is a problem either, are there people who drink under age? yes but you have that at every school. I haven't ever heard of anything crazy happen in my 4 years here because someone was under the influence of alcohol. so I wouldn't say it leads to bad decisions that lead to the law getting involved.
student athletes can at times be role models to incoming freshmen, so as long as they re setting a good example people will follow in their footsteps.