A student demonstration was held on the Breezeway on Friday at 12 p.m. to protest the University’s lack of transparency regarding sexual assault complaints. An article published by The Huffington Post on Thursday spurred senior Mats Dreyer to organize the protest.
The article revealed that Hopkins did not disclose information about the report of an alleged gang rape that took place in the house of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (PIKE) in March of 2013. The article also accused the University of violating the Clery Act, which would require such information to be shared in a timely manner with the campus community to allow community members to make more informed safety decisions.
“I organized this because of the University’s lack of transparency regarding the events of sexual assault. The University has been keeping information from us regarding sexual assault events in our community, and we feel as though students are unsafe because they are not informed enough to make decisions about their safety on campus,” Dreyer said.
“We would like to see Hopkins informing the community of sexual assault — and not just if Baltimoreans sexually assault students, which is when they tell us, but also when students are the aggressors so that we can make informed decisions about our safety.”
Somewhere north of 200 students turned out to protest, and almost 500 were listed as attending on the protest’s Facebook event.
“[I’m at this protest today] because its time we make our voices heard regarding the way Hopkins treats events of sexual assault in our community. The administration’s lack of transparency is appalling, especially considering what The Huffington Post has revealed about the past year’s events and how Hopkins never revealed it to our community,” senior Liz Gomez said.
While the protest held Hopkins at fault for its lack of transparency, many protesters agreed that the problem is much more widespread.
“The culture of silence — not just at Hopkins, but that the entire country is seeing and even all around the world — we need to put a stop to it. It’s just ridiculous,” junior Geena St Andrew said.
“This isn’t the only event of this kind of nature. There are acts of violence whether it’s sexual or normal assault that we just don’t get reports on. This isn’t a Hopkins-isolated problem. But you have to start the conversation somewhere, and if we can start a movement either just here at Hopkins or hopefully across the nation, that would be a great triumph,” junior Eric Ryberg said.
Students agreed that the University’s motivation in not revealing sexual assault claims on campus is to protect its reputation.
“There’s been a sign going around [at the protest that reads] ‘truth over reputation.’ And it seems like everything that the school’s been doing has been just to maintain its reputation. People who are victims and survivors of sexual assault don’t need to have a great school in the top tier. They need to have a school that protects [them] and does not support sexual assault and covering up victims,” St Andrew said.
Ryberg compared the University’s actions to those of other universities that have dealt with sexual assault scandals.
“In my opinion [the administration] is trying to avoid a Duke lacrosse crisis. It’s ridiculous because this sort of thing happens at all top-tier universities. People need to speak up so this terrible tragedy doesn’t have to happen,” Ryberg said.
Dreyer saw the University’s actions as not only ethically wrong, but hypocritical.
“I would want the Hopkins community to follow its motto, which I think should be reflective of how our University works, which is “the truth will set us free,” and not just in the sense of academic knowledge, but also in the sense of being informed in our community and being able to have a positive safe environment to study in,” Dreyer said.
Students anticipate the University’s response to the protest.
“I’m sure there’s some pull [with the administration]. I know that the vice provost had contacted Mats [Dreyer] this morning, so they are aware that this is going on on campus. Whether or not they actually take action to respond to the students’ desires is left up to them since they have the power,” senior Shelby Quinn said.
Students were hesitant to blame any one administrator or fraternity in the case described by The Huffington Post’s article. Most instead held the entire University accountable.
“I had issues with the [Huffington Post] article, with the way that they framed it. I think they took a really easy narrative, which is demonizing the fraternity, demonizing the administrator. It’s way more complicated than that,” junior Anne Lin said.
“The issue that all of us are taking is mainly the fact that the school has kept silent about this. We’re not trying to demonizing Dean Boswell or PIKE, even, but to point out that our school has not been telling us things like this for a very long time, and that’s what’s not okay.”
Julia DeVarti and Ben Schwartz contributed reporting.
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