Every Boston University student can help in the prevention of sexual assaults on campus, four speakers told about 200 people last night at Jacob Sleeper Auditorium in the College of General Studies.
“Everyone in this room can not only prevent sexual assault but can also help somebody who has been sexually assaulted,” said Dr. Judy Pierson, a licensed psychologist who was one of the keynote speakers of the event.
Sponsored by the Chi Phi fraternity, Silence the Violence featured a panel including Pierson; Daryl DeLuca, the Boston University Director of Judicial Affairs and Student Safety Programs; Suzanne Strickland, a Wellness Center Project Manager; and Sgt. Jeff Burke of the Boston University Police Department. Each spoke on a different aspect of prevention and help to victims of sexual assault.
“Don’t lend yourself to being a victim in the first place,” said Burke, BUPD’s Rape Aggression Defense instructor.
Both Burke and Strickland talked about rape prevention, highlighting the importance of programs such as RAD. However, while stressing the importance of RAD DeLuca also noted that the “attacker was the women’s date in more than one-half the attacks.”
Burke also gave the legal definition of both rape and consent.
“When we talk about consent, you have to have willingness from both parties. If you’re intoxicated, under the law, you cannot give consent. If you go to a party, and there’s some concoction in the punch, that only the girls are drinking, not the guys, and you have sex, that is not giving consent. If you are under the age of 17, you cannot give consent,” Burke said.
Following their definition, Burke and Strickland demonstrated the difference between giving and not giving consent.
“There’s no middle ground; you are either responsible for [rape], or you’re not responsible for it,” DeLuca added.
Following the keynote speeches, the panel was asked questions by the audience, which was made up of mostly fraternity and sorority members.
“It made me question a lot of things. It makes you aware of some of the legal issues that are considered,” said Andrea Catalanotti, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who attended the forum. Catalanotti and all other new sorority and fraternity members were required to attend.
“It’s important to acknowledge these feelings of depression and moodiness,” said Rebecca Love, a senior in CAS and sorority organizer. “I think that it identified with a lot of issues that women aren’t aware of, such as what a rape was. Even I didn’t know what exactly a rape was.”
DeLuca addressed ways to report a rape on campus, while Pierson, who serves as a rape counselor, addressed the issue of who to turn to on campus after a rape has occurred. Pierson urged students to turn to her if an issue arises, adding, “I am the safest person on this campus for a victim of sexual assault to talk to. By law, I have to maintain confidentiality.”
Pierson also suggested students speak to someone they’re comfortable with, even if it means waiting to report the incident to authorities. Her discussion also prompted a student to ask what to do if someone is aware a rape has occurred, but has not been reported.
“If you are sexually assaulted, please, if you don’t report it to us, go to the emergency room and get that rape kit, at least your own piece of mind,” Burke said.
Pierson also spoke at great length about how to avoid feeling shameful and how to help a friend who has been a victim of sexual assault. She also spoke about the process of “dissociation,” which she called “the psyche’s way of shutting down, of not feeling anything.”
Dissociation, according to Pierson, is what most often causes victims to stop fighting during the actual rape. “People go numb in response to pain,” she continued.
“Three-quarters of the women who had been raped had not called what happened to them rape,” Pierson said, also addressing the connection between dissociation and shame and how to prevent either from occurring.
“The easiest way to combat shame is, well, to understand dissociation, but also to know that no one ever, ever has the right to force you to have sex,” Pierson said. “Shame and self-blame are the biggest barriers to getting help.”
Satyan Shah, the president of Chi Phi and a junior in the College of Engineering, said the original goal of the evening was to dispel the stereotype that “frat guys rape girls.”
“For our part, it’s a frat thing … it sends a message to students that we care about these things,” said Andy Geiger, a junior in the School of Hospitality Administration. “The fact is that if it has happened to you as a female, you need to know you have options.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
