First Open Community Forum Discusses Sexual Assault

On Nov. 7 students and faculty gathered in Crossroads Café for the first monthly Campus Open Forum event. This month’s forum, organized by Dean of Students Shirley Collado, Student Government Association (SGA) President Charlie Arnowitz ’13 and Student Co-Chair of Community Council (SCOCC) Barrett Smith ’13, focused on discussion of on-campus sexual assault and policy.

The concept of an open forum event was first proposed by last year’s SCOCC, Luke Carroll-Brown ’13, who collaborated with Collado last spring to plan the event after identifying the need to create a space and time on campus for students to engage each other in serious discussion.

“We were talking last spring about our collective wish to gather students face-to-face once a month in an open forum to engage in issues and topics that are important to them,” said Collado of the decision to create the Campus Open Forum events.

This month’s topic of sexual assault was chosen by Arnowitz and Smith, following the suggestions from the Community Council, SGA and other students who demonstrated an interest in learning more about the College’s resources in the wake of an open letter written by a sexual assault victim printed in the student newspaper at Amherst College.

“What we’re really after is cultural change, trying not just to tweak things that already exist and build on what we already have, but really trying to be creative and imaginative in saying, ‘What would a campus look like that would be completely devoid of these issues, and how do we get there?’” said Director of Chellis House Karin Hanta in her introduction at the forum. Hanta also serves as head of the Sexual Assault Oversight Committee (SAOC).

Following a brief introduction by Hanta with three student members of the SAOC as well as a brief speech from SGA Director of Health and Wellness Addie Cunniff  ’13, the evening’s participants broke into small groups to discuss questions addressing sexual assault on campus.

The small group discussions led to conversations regarding the lack of role models and larger discussion surrounding sexual assault on campus. Some of the student participants suggested creating a discussion similar to MiddUncensored, an event normally held at first year orientation, but instead tailoring it to upperclassmen conversation.

“We don’t have a lot of role models on campus” said Alex Strott ’15, speaking to one of the impediments to opening conversation about sexual assault. “Without role models, it is difficult to find people to lead conversations on serious topics.”

“It’s important to draw on people in the community and what they want to discuss at these forums. It’s all about giving more voices and having discussions that we wouldn’t normally be having,” said Smith.

Participants at the November event were asked to submit future forum topic ideas before leaving. After submitting their suggestions, many attendees lingered afterwards to continue their conversations.

While November’s forum was well-attended, finding ways to motivate members of the community to attend future forums is a concern for Arnowitz, Smith and Collado. The forum organizers anticipate that identifying widely-appealing and relevant discussion topics as well as spreading awareness of the events will be key to the forums’ success.

Open forum events will be held for one hour, once each month. Topics will be dictated by student submissions and shared by email.