About 40 members of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence rallied in President Lou K. Simon’s office this afternoon, criticizing the administration for not taking action around recent alleged sexual assaults on campus.
The group rallied in Simon’s office for about 10 minutes before going to the Board of Trustees room for a meeting with Lee June, vice president of student affairs and services, and other university staff.
June said he and his staff had been working to set up a meeting with the coalition this semester after the group sent a letter to Simon a few months ago, but the group did not identify a leader to contact, he said.
The meeting today was a productive first step in getting some of the group’s issues resolved, he said.
“They didn’t know some of the things that we were doing and they raised some things we need to look at,” June said. “It was a good interchange.”
The coalition presented the university a list of nine demands, including asking the university to investigate all allegations of sexual violence on campus, investigate the functionality of the emergency “green lights” across campus and ensure students are aware of all the on-campus resources available to them if they are a victim of sexual harassment.
June said he agreed to meet with the coalition again within the next two weeks. He plans to go over the specifics of the Department of Student Life’s Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Prevention Program that is now a mandatory workshop for all incoming first year students.
“Many people in the room were not aware of that,” June said, adding that any input the group has about ways to better the program would be taken into consideration.
The protest stemmed from an alleged sexual assault on campus in late August that allegedly involved two basketball players. Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III determined no crime was committed in the case and declined to press charges.
Coalition member Mitch Goldsmith said MSU is not doing enough to investigate sexual assault cases on campus.
“I think we finally got the recognition for the cause it deserves,” Goldsmith said. “We made the point clear to the administration that until we see justice for this specific survivor and all survivors on campus, we won’t be operating business as usual.”
Coalition member Alyx Ross said while she has read the university’s policy against sexual harassment, it was not easily linked to the university website and took her 45 minutes of searching to find.
“I feel like it’s almost hidden on purpose,” she said.
Goldsmith said he hoped MSU took away the message that “silence is betrayal” in the investigation of rape cases.
“Hopefully we will engage in some serious dialogue that will result in serious action,” he said.
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