Last Thursday morning, I awoke excited about the change that is about to take place on campus regarding the college’s policies on sexual assault. Because of a productive meeting that took place the day before, I was finally convinced of the sincerity of the efforts of President Pelton and administrators such as Dean Ludman to help support sexual assault survivors and prevent future assaults. I was extremely happy that agreed that sexual assault is a serious problem on our campus that needs to be combated. Unfortunately, my excitement quickly waned when I realized I wasn’t waking up to a supportive student body. Instead, I discovered an extremely insensitive op-ed written in the March 21st issue of The Berkeley Beacon by Trelawny Vermont-Davis, the Opinion Section Editor of the paper.
I believe that the article she published not only twisted the meaning of Willie Burnley’s article on the race problem at Emerson (which you can read here), but it also targeted a newly formed campus group, Emerson Stopping Sexual Assault (ESSA), saying that both the article and the group degrades the school’s character.
While speaking about the way Burnley’s article and ESSA have sullied Emerson’s name and scared potential students away from attending our college, Vermont- Davis wrote, “but before we drive them away by publishing stories and clogging newsfeeds with reasons not to be here, let’s remind ourselves that great things happen at our school, and we mustn’t hold Emerson wholly accountable for the unfair world we live in.” What confuses me about her opinion is that activist movements do not scare away potential students. Actually, they often do the opposite. Students who are passionate about ending sexual assault and racism will be excited about seeing college students’ efforts to combat the same issues. They will be inspired by these students’ collaboration with the administration and willingness to initiate change on campus. Prospective college students know that both racism and sexual assault are issues faced at all United States universities and not exclusively at Emerson. It’s foolish for Vermont-Davis to say that the members of ESSA and Burnley aren’t aware of this.
Vermont-Davis has a fair point highlighting that it is not directly Emerson’s fault for the racism or sexual violence that exists in our world. However, she forgets to point out that several African American students on this campus have witnessed acts of racism committed by members of the Emerson community and that dozens of women, as demonstrated by various Emerson Confessionals, have been sexually assaulted by both Emerson students and unaffiliated persons. The college is responsible for the violence that is perpetrated and fostered on this campus, and yet as of right now, no college officials have designed and/or founded campaigns against racism or sexual assault. This is a sign of a large problem.
Vermont- Davis is 100% right when she stated that we shouldn’t hold Emerson wholly accountable for the unfairness of the world. What she misses, however, is that both Burnley’s article and ESSA have not and do not directly blame Emerson for the violence they are working towards combatting. Rather, they are placing responsibility on the college to react to student pleas for help and improve our educational community. It may not directly be Emerson’s fault that several people were sexually violated on and off campus or that students first handedly witnessed members of the school community using their “white privilege” in unacceptable ways. Still, it is the college's responsibility to foster student activism and help promote change for both problematic issues.
As one of the main leaders of ESSA, I am proud to say that our campaign has made a giant step forward in our search for administrative support. We have set up more meetings with Dean Ludman about initiating consensual sex programming and prevention efforts at the school. We are also planning a panel discussion, co-sponsored by the president’s office, on sexual violence that will be similar to the gun violence panels that the college is currently sponsoring. As the creator of the original ESSA Facebook group, I can honestly say that I do not believe that any of the above-listed achievements would have occurred without the backing of 200+ facebook supporters. The administration and President Pelton are more likely to react to an issue if they see that it is prevalent in the community and meaningful to a large number of students than if they’re approached by just a single student asking for change. The popularity of the Facebook group, as well as its efforts to combat violence, helped attract the college’s attention and urged administrators to step up and fight these issues in collaboration with the college’s students.
It deeply bothers me that students such as Vermont-Davis cannot see that activism campaigns require a large backing of interested activists. In her article, Vermont- Davis states, “but in the context of social media protests and viral online articles, we should tread softly.” My question for Ms. Vermont-Davis is: How can you “tread softly” when speaking about extreme issues such as rape and racism? Treading softly will accomplish nothing. If Willie Burnley and every supporter of the ESSA campaign had treaded softly, than both causes would not have received the college’s recognition. I am well aware that social media-initiated campaigns and viral magazine articles can become negative propaganda for college institutions, but from my own experience, it seems to me that this college cares more about the activism happening on campus than how they are viewed by potential students.
During the March 18th meeting with President Pelton regarding ESSA, Pelton spoke about how he believes that doing the right thing comes before promoting the college through P.R, which includes supporting student social media outlets. He also spoke about his views on our community’s false faith regarding our progressiveness. He said that Emerson is progressive, but just because we are accepting in certain areas of diversity and social justice does not mean we are finished working towards creating an ideal academic community and social environment. Vermont-Davis’s article proves that President Pelton was correct in this belief. Many students do not understand how important it is that we continue to improve our community in all directions of social action. We must not just congratulate ourselves based on the issues we have already combated in the past, but continue to point out our college’s flaws in order to move forward and further improve our community. Issues such as sexual assault and racism are in need of student and administrative attention, and if a Facebook group or viral magazine article can make that happen, why not accept that?
Sarah Tedesco is a quirky freshman journalism student who wants to one day be the Associate Director of a nonprofit organization that works to end sexual assault victim blaming in the media. She is obsessed with crazy reality television shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians as well as drinking large amounts of coffee. She is from Sarasota, Florida. She enjoys crushing on Justin Bieber and is not embarrassed by her love for teen pop idols.