You and 614,101 others like this.614,101 people like this.Sign Up
to see what your friends like.
Like Us On Facebook
You and 614,101 others like this.614,101 people like this.Sign Up
to see what your friends like.
With the instances of reported sexual assaults increasing across college campuses, various administrators have received criticism that they aren’t doing enough to prevent and combat sexual violence against students.
So at Columbia University, people are taking matters relating to on-campus rape into their own hands.
In response to an op-ed published in the daily paper that asked “What would you do if you found out someone you knew had definitively sexually assaulted someone?” an anonymous presumed-student has been writing the names of alleged assaulters on the school’s walls.
The list, scribbled in black pen and titled “sexual assault violators on campus,” originally identified four individuals when it first appeared in the women’s bathroom in Hamilton Hall last Wednesday.
Judging by the list’s handwriting, it appears to have been scrawled by multiple people, as if affected students can add the name of an attacker when they see these lists on campus.
Janitors have apparently been instructed by the school to scrub these lists off the walls as soon as they emerge.
Many of the lists aren’t even up for a full 24 hours, students are reporting. For some students, like Columbia Lion editor Sean Augustine, this “cover up” doesn’t sit too well.
“These people who are writing the names are writing the names in a women’s bathroom, I think [because] they are trying to inform other women of these people who they felt [are] a danger to others on campus, and the fact that the university is doing a cover-up operation — it bothered me.
In order to combat the short-lived nature of these public lists, some students have taken to
printing and disseminating flyers with alleged rapists’ names.
They identify those who have been deemed “responsible by the university,” as well as suspected “serial” attackers.
One of the individuals identified on the flyer was a writer for Bwog, Columbia’s campus blog, which actually had previously printed one of these lists online.
Since his name was released, Bwog announced that the individual was asked to resign immediately due to a “conflict of interest.”
I understand Columbia’s awkward position in all this — the university likely doesn’t want any negative press as a school trying to prevent its students from being informed and aware of those who have had sexual assault charges leveled against them.
But allowing some students’ names to remain on walls identified as sexual assault perpetrators with no additional explanation or evidence to corroborate their wrongdoing is probably a liability.
Still, it’s exciting (although not surprising) to see students care so much about reducing sexual assault and improving fellow students’ safety that they’re taking matters into their own hands with unconventional methods for raising awareness about this issue.
Katie Gonzalez is a contributing writer covering fashion and feminism. Katie graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Middle Eastern Studies and currently lives in Haifa, Israel, splitting time between academic research and scouting for “The Middle East’s Next Top Falafel Wrap.” She enjoys a hot cup of green tea and a Joan Didion novel to take the edge off her aggressive online shopping addiction. Follow along on Twitter and Instagram: @KatieGonzalez12
Earlier this month, Elite Daily had the privilege of sitting down with the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington. Huffington...
In yet another attack against women’s rights, one Sudanese national has been sentenced to public flogging and will be eventually be hanged for marrying a Christian man. In Khartoum, the female doctor was sentenced to “apostasy” and therefore subjected to death. Under the country’s sharia law, the 26-year-old Meriam Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim, was […]
If you’ve ever been smooshed in a crowded Subway car, or grinded up on by some rando in the club, then you’ve likely lamented the lack of personal space that is the norm for being a woman in a big city. But thanks to a new smart invention, you can say “back off” without having […]
Ever wonder why women feel the need to Photoshop, pluck, primp, and never simply just… embrace? Taryn Brumfitt is on a mission to get women to change the way they think of their bodies, and convince them to accept the imperfections instead of trying to change or feel bad about them. In her new documentary, […]
“There are only three things women need in life: food, water, and compliments.” – Chris Rock Amen, Chris! Compliments are great. And yes, many women can’t get enough of them. However, something that might seem like a perfect, first-date icebreaker may make a dramatic turn. Many ladies are awesome at twisting words into something demeaning […]
I said it once and I’ll say it again — F the club. Yup, F it. It’s an overrated pit of despair, comparable to a circle of hell in Dante’s “Inferno.” It’s a crowded, crowded place filled with incredibly drunk people pretending to have a great time. You can’t hear sh*t, you can’t see sh*t […]
When one woman loaded a photo onto Imgur, she never expected such a positive response. User Kamuri posted a picture of herself and her new husband on the site, with the caption: I know I’m not a pretty girl but I’ve never been so happy in my life. And instead of recycling that negativity, anonymous […]
To paraphrase Scott Siepker, this video’s creator, cancer is too busy ruining lives to pay attention to reason or logic, so the Iowa based filmmaker took a different approach to get his point across: having cancer patients yell obscenities at the camera. The video was created in part as a fundraiser for The Leukemia and […]
These kids can move. In footage from the Israeli Salsa Congress & Holy Land Salsa Tour (because of course this is a thing), you can see these child duos absolutely kill it on the dance floor. Shaking it more aggressively than you’re planning to this Friday, these kids execute their choreographed dance perfectly, complete with […]
Booming and blazing are so 2010. The new cool way to get high is “Beezin,” or the act of putting Burt’s Bees lip balm wax on the eyelids. According to Fox-25, kids say that the sensation causes disorientation similar to being drunk or stoned and even strengthens their attention spans. But Dr. Brett Cauthen told […]
With warmer temps finally gracing the East Coast, it seems like everyone is coming out of the too-long winter hibernation mode. And naturally, because we all really are just a bunch of animals, this means more sex. According to various studies, May is one the horniest months for both men and women alike. It’s not […]
Although this grandma missed her own senior prom dance due to the second World War, she had a chance to attend the important rite of passage after her great-grandson insisted that she be his date. Delores Dennison tried to convince Austin to take a girl his own age to the prom, since she wasn’t much […]
There are tons of theories out there on what caused the blow-up between Solange and Jay Z. There’s been a lot reported on the subject, and it seems like we have a pretty good idea about what happened in that elevator. But, unless we hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, we can’t know for […]
