K(no)w is The College of Wooster’s student-run sexual respect and anti-rape culture advocacy group on campus. Formally, we host various sex positive and consent programming. Last year, this included Sex Week, Sex Ed Week, Ten Points of Light, Take Back the Night and a screening of The Hunting Ground. Informally, we communicate with administrators about changing practices on campus to be more supportive of survivors and preventative of any future sexual violence. This can manifest in meetings with the administration and Board of Trustees and in involvement in campus policy making. We also communicate directly with survivors to help them locate any resource. We answer questions they may have, as we are not mandatory reporters, and ask questions we may not know the answer to on behalf of survivors to the Title IX office. Last year was particularly challenging for k(no)w because the College was understaffed in many of its offices, which made it challenging to meet with members of the administration.
While hosting Sex Week in February of this year, an anonymous complaint was made about two panels of the art wall put up by k(no)w to promote the week’s programming. One panel had cartoonish, comical sketches of genitals and breasts, including a flying vulva and a penis with a top hat. The other panel included information about the clitoris along with an anatomical drawing of the nerves of the clitoris. The anonymous report asserted that the information and drawings were offensive and distasteful.
We were told to remove the panels because they violated campus harassment policy, though nude images for educational purposes is exempt from such violations. The purpose of the panels was to destigmatize genitalia and provide information about the clitoris, which is often excluded from health classes to deny people with clitorises the rights to pleasure and undermine their amazing biological capacity to achieve it — but the removal of these panels only reinforces what we had hoped to correct.
In order to promote campus safety and community awareness about the threats that surround us, k(no)w attempted to work with the administration to create a notification system that would update people about any act of violence on campus. Notification systems for sexual assault allegations are widely practiced by colleges and universities around the country. The only information shared would have been whether the incident occurred in a dorm, in an on-campus house, or off-campus, when the incident occurred, when the incident was reported and how it would be classified within the Scot’s Key. K(no)w thinks such an initiative is important because our community should be aware of potential threats to our peers’ safety and comfort. After various promises and unfulfilled deadlines, the administration informed us that this practice would not be adopted.
We are a small group of driven, full-time students putting on programming that at many other colleges is hosted and supported by the institution itself. It is discouraging, therefore, to encounter issues like these so often when we are already under-supported by the College. However, we are beginning a new school year with new members of the administration who seem more supportive of our club and survivors on campus. We are in the process of setting up meetings with Dean Scott Brown and President Sarah Bolton to discuss ways to improve our campus. Even a response to our request for a meeting is an improvement from last year. We are hopeful that the College is about to make great strides in the right direction and we wish to be a part of that progress.
Cassie Huye, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at CHuye17@wooster.edu.