Last week, the Sexual Assault Resource Unit (SARU), a student advocacy group, began putting up signage around campus to recognize the Red Zone. This period is defined as the weeks between Orientation and Halloween (or Thanksgiving), during which sexual violence is most likely to occur. Campuses nationwide are reclaiming these weeks as a time for activism against sexual violence.
SARU, which supports survivors of sexual violence and seeks to end rape culture, maintains a 24/7 hotline for crisis support and resource connections.
SARU co-presidents Reah Vasilakopoulos and Deeya Bhattacharya emphasized their goals of promoting consent culture through signage with slogans such as “yes means yes” and “be a better bystander.”
“Rape culture is something a lot of people will turn themselves off to because they’ve heard it so many times before, but instead reframing that to be more focused on how you can do things more positively, how you can treat your friends better, how you can treat your relationships better — things that are more tangible and approachable for students,” Vasilakopoulos said.
Vasilakopoulos criticized how college campuses often approach conversations on sexual violence.
“A lot of campus narratives are talking about this distinction between what’s legal and what’s not legal. Focusing on alcohol and party behaviors is inherently a victim blaming tactic, and it does not acknowledge the agency and the choices of the people who are perpetrating sexual violence,” Vasilakopoulos said.
Michael Vidal, co-chair of the SARU hotline, echoed Vasilakopoulos’s sentiments.
“We want to make sure that survivors have as much support and as open a space as possible, and that at the end of the day, what you wear and what you drink isn’t what’s committing assault,” he said. “It’s really just people taking advantage of those situations.”
Vasilakopoulos explained that first-year students are particularly susceptible to sexual violence during the Red Zone because they have not yet developed a strong support network or an understanding of the campus environment.
She added that most acts of sexual violence are perpetrated by an acquaintance or a friend, which can put freshmen at heightened risk.
“Especially at a time when freshmen are meeting so many people and have a lot of acquaintances who they don’t actually know very well, those connections, and the ability to trust someone who you don’t know very well, can be harmful,” Vasilakopoulos said.
Senior Bridget Chen, co-founder of Wings, believes that there is an implicit connection between encouraging sexual violence awareness and Wings’ own goal of disseminating menstrual health awareness.
Both organizations attempt to dissolve the stigma surrounding their respective issues and encourage active and productive conversations.
“Better understanding health and equity behind a bodily process of women and other menstruators, can actually be a form of empowerment,” Chen wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Knowledge about periods is power and fighting for gender and menstrual equity is fighting for control over what’s rightfully yours — much like how it can be a fight for reclaiming your body after being a victim of sexual violence.”
Bhattacharya underscored the importance of fostering inclusivity during Red Weeks. She stated that SARU has met with Advocates for Disability Awareness to examine how people with disabilities experience more frequent gender violence due to their disability.
She believes that these discussions are beneficial to all parties involved.
“Having more intersectional [discussions] across groups that don’t interact a lot is good for everyone to see that not everyone’s experiences are the same,” Bhattacharya said. “But at the end of the day, we all want the same consent culture that promotes healthy sex.”
She also stressed that the education surrounding sexual violence should continue beyond Orientation Week and Bystander Intervention Training (BIT).
Similarly, Vasilakopoulos advocated for the University to promote conversations of consent culture throughout students’ time at Hopkins.
“Students are at risk at experiencing sexual violence, not just in their freshman year, but continually during their whole time here and outside of this campus,” Vasilakopoulos said. “We know that sexual violence doesn’t only happen in one year, so why are we only educating people in one year?”
Because promoting consent culture requires promoting a new way of thinking, Vasilakopoulos argued that the University could better utilize their resources in support of this direction.
“If you’re talking about changing the way people behave and act towards one another, you can’t get that done in one or two sessions of a couple hours. That needs to be continued work to grow together as a campus,” she said. “I think the University could do a better job, especially with their new position, the Vice Provost of Student Health and Well-being, in mind. They could very much think about making more regular consent and sexual education, and incorporating survivors into the way they do that.”
Senior Chanel Lee, co-founder of Wings, shared similar sentiments. They argued that in driving cultural change, sustained outreach is necessary, as many survivors coming from cultures in which there exists a lack of healthy discourse surrounding sex may be compelled to remain silent about their experiences with sexual violence. Thus, it is imperative to provide inclusive outreach and competent resources to people from all cultures.
Chen added that she believes the mandatory conditions surrounding BIT perpetuates disengagement from students.
“During O-Week, there are plenty of presentations, but because [its] design is information- and presentation-heavy, it is too easy to compartmentalize and disengage with the information because — among all the other important information — there isn’t any indicator that this information is any more important,” Chen wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Bhattacharya stated that the mandatory sexual violence workshops during O-Week and BIT could be structurally altered so that students would view them as educational opportunities rather than obligations. She proposed having smaller group discussions with facilitators and providing people options for when to attend would further engagement in these conversations.
Vasilakopoulos said that educating specific groups about sexual violence would further highlight the importance of safe sex practices.
“If you already have set groups of students who you know are comfortable with one another, you can use those connections they have with one another to reframe your workshop to make it relevant in some way to what they do on campus,” Vasilakopoulos said.
Similarly, Lee posited that targeting Greek Life and other student organizations when promoting awareness would be beneficial, as this can help provide students with a sense of personal accountability.
“We need students to act as leaders in their own organizations and perpetuate standards of consent and a culture of consent in their respective social circles,” they said. “Along with general education and information of resources, these programs should teach students how to become effective advocates for themselves and confident educators for others.”
The SARU hotline number is 410-516-7887.
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