At commencement in December, a sizable amount of students, parents and staff gathered to protest columnist George Will’s speech.
But less than a handful of students made an appearance at an informal event to write letters to President Lou Anna K. Simon and others about the issues that still remain.
The popularity of the issue may have died down to some, but many students continue to seek answers about how MSU is handling sexual assault, in addition to feeling betrayed by Will speaking and receiving an honorary degree at the fall commencement.
And while all this plays out against the backdrop of a federal investigation pending against MSU, a group of students met to write letters and discuss their concerns on the topic of sexual assault Tuesday night.
“We’re all sort of disgruntled about different aspects of student policies that are being handled by the Board of Trustees and President Simon, that we don’t feel our needs are being met,” Genomics and molecular genetics senior Alexis Weber said.
Weber said she organized the discussion because letters can be an effective way of communicating an important message.
“I think a lot of people don’t feel like their voices are being heard and I don’t think a lot of people know how to make changes,” Weber said. “I think writing letters will help promote changes being made.”
She said she would be writing multiple letters to editors, newspaper outlets, Simon and possibly other officials.
Weber said the letters might contain changes students would like to see regarding the development of a more standardized way of handling sexual assailants.
“Based on what I’ve found, there isn’t a standard,” Weber said. “I’ve heard different things from a couple people based on personal testimonies about how their case was handled. But for the most part, it’s difficult to find out what their standard punishment is.”
She said the lack of sexual assault counselors is also a topic needing to be addressed.
With such a large student body, zoology senior Megan Kastelen said the limited number of sexual assault counselors is astounding.
“To me, that perpetuates rape culture,” Kastelen said. “That’s saying it’s not a big deal.”
Kastelen said overall, she thinks the biggest issue students face regarding sexual assault is transparency.
“Rape culture is a problem and our university should be progressive and taking those initiatives to inform their students, not waiting for students to be in that situation themselves and then be like, ‘Oh, what do I do?’” Kastelen said.
The group will be having a follow-up meeting to discuss and peer edit the letters in the near future.
