[GPSCC-chat] Fw: UPDATE: Dartmouth

[John Thielking]

Please call the number below to protest the Rape Guide. The message machine is not yet full.

John Thielking


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Nita and Shaunna, UltraViolet" <info at weareultraviolet.org>
To: John F Thielking <pagesincolor at yahoo.com> 
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2014 8:50 AM
Subject: UPDATE: Dartmouth
 


 
Dartmouth is feeling the pressure and issued a response to our petition. But words are not actions, and Dartmouth must act. Will you call the Dartmouth Board of Trustees and tell them we aren't going to stop speaking out until Dartmouth takes concrete action?
	* Board of Trustees' Secretary Marcia Kelly: (603) 646-2221
Click Here  
Dear John,
Dartmouth is clearly feeling the pressure. After nearly 50,000 UltraViolet members like you signed the petition demanding Dartmouth get serious about rape culture on its campus, the school issued a statement.
In it, Dartmouth administrators said they proposed a change to the student code of conduct to strengthen punishments for sexual assault.1 But words are not actions, and Dartmouth must act.
Students are calling for the "rape guide" website to be blocked on campus and for nothing less than expulsion of students who commit sexual assault. Dartmouth students need concrete actions, not proposals. If we don’t keep up the pressure on Dartmouth, the code of conduct changes may never happen. And the student who posted the “rape guide” that led to a female student being sexually assaulted may just get a slap on the wrist.
Now that we know we've got Dartmouth's attention, we need to step up the pressure to get real results. Will you call the Board of Trustees and let them know that we’re not going to stop speaking out until the university acts?
	* Board of Trustees' Secretary Marcia Kelly: (603) 646-2221
Then, please report your call here, so we can track our impact together.
It’s taken years for Dartmouth to even begin to address its rape culture problem. Students have staged massive protests, several sororities boycotted Rush Week, and advocates even interrupted a prospective student presentation to demand the campus get serious about sexual assault.2
A Dartmouth theater teacher was advised to cancel a performance because the performers might be attacked on the same message board that the “rape guide” was posted to. And classes had to be cancelled because rape culture protesters were being threatened on the site.3 It’s only now that the school is getting a lot of bad press and being investigated by the Department of Education for violating Title IX that Dartmouth is beginning to act.
Because it has reached the level of national crisis, President Obama and the White House have committed to changing the staggering statistics of sexual assault on our college campuses. 1 in 5 women has been sexually assaulted or raped.4
But if we're going to change this, we must show campuses that there are high costs for condoning rape and assault on campus. Dartmouth is starting to feel the pressure, but we can’t let them off the hook until they take action. Other universities are watching, and if they see us letting up on Dartmouth, they won’t get serious about sexual assault on their campuses.
Will you call the Board of Trustees and let them know that we’re going to keep up the pressure until Dartmouth takes concrete action against rape culture on their campus?
Thanks for taking action.
--Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Malinda, Adam, Gabriela, and Holly, the UltraViolet team
Sources:
1. Statement from Justin Anderson on Ultraviolet's Petition on Sexual Assault at Dartmouth, Dartmouth Office of Public Affairs, March 11, 2014
2. Dartmouth Student Says She Was Sexually Assaulted After Website 'Rape Guide' Named Her, Huffington Post, February 27, 2014.
3. Ibid.
4. A Renewed Call to Action to End Rape and Sexual Assault, White House Blog, January 22, 2014 
________________________________
 
Want to support our work? UltraViolet is funded by members like you, and our tiny staff ensures small contributions go a long way. Chip in here. 

You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org/attachments/20140314/19b2cf34/attachment.html>