Do Students Really Care? The Normalization of Assault at UAlbany.

Most people would tell you that sexual assault and harassment is a bad thing. But who’s actually standing up?

Erin Odell

You may have heard the statistic that one in five women are sexually assaulted before they graduate college. Sometimes it feels more like the reverse.

I’ve been lucky- and I hate to use the word in that way. I’ve been “lucky” to not be sexually assaulted ahead of graduating next spring. It’s really not luck, though. These events don’t just happen, nor do the victims cause them. Assaulters have a moral conscience, and make a choice to traumatize their victims. Even worse, most of these cases are caused by people the victims thought they knew and could trust.

This isn’t a new topic. As girls, we’re taught growing up to be hyper-vigilant, especially around men and drinking. I don’t think it hit me just how frequent the issue was until my sophomore year, when someone we thought was our friend (for over a year) raped my roommate. I then realized half of my friend group had already been assaulted in the past. I saw how the offender’s campus organizations and other friends stuck by him as I watched my friend spiral due to her trauma. More and more moments kept opening my eyes to the gap in knowledge here. At this August's summit for student organization leaders, we were presented with an image of terms related to Title IX. A fellow student leader asked, "What does catcalling mean?"

I’ve seen a guy post about false allegations towards himself after grabbing my friend inappropriately in front of me, and seen other victims stand by him. I’ve seen a friend’s assaulter featured in an ad promoting the school. I’ve heard of RAs cornering residents, organizations asking to keep situations silent, boys catcalling on the quads, guys walking into unlocked suites.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean these students are being disciplined for these actions. I reached out to Selwa Khan, one of the Student Association senators. After I spoke at a Senate meeting this past spring about the topic, we spoke for a bit about how it’s not just the institution that can do better- the students need to as well. She proposed a Title IX bill after a student came to the senate about how her submissions kept being denied. Around that time, Khan filed her own Title IX case, against another senator at the time.

Selwa Khan after a SA Senate meeting. Photo provided by Selwa Khan.

“It was somebody that people who are in the student association know of and know about, and they actually knew when he assaulted me. It was like a whole big thing because he went and told everybody,” Khan said. When the unnamed student spoke to the Senate about her experiences, Khan was especially motivated to make a difference.

“I believe it was literally Dylan speaking last, and I was like, ‘I refuse to let that happen.’” Dylan Klein, another student senator, has previously been called out on social media for assaulting someone himself.

“It was one of those moments where I was like, I need to take back the power that this room has over me, because even though he's not there, there's all these people who’ve always supported him and stood by him who are there. The space in general can be really triggering for me a lot of the time.” Khan still serves as a senator, and was recently the focus of an Albany Student Press article after her Instagram post calling out the hypocrisy of people running for senate under the platform of supporting Title IX was brought up in a meeting.

As we continued to speak, Khan told me about how she’s seen someone accused end up in an ad for the school as well; After assuming we had seen the same person, we compared their physical details and came to the realization that there is more than one ad promoting UAlbany with a sexual assaulter. We also realized we’ve both heard of issues at a certain recognized fraternity; One I’ve had a couple of questionable experiences with myself.

I’m not a mandated reporter but sometimes, I wish I was. It’s not my battle to start- especially when helping do so in the past led to the victim being met with some disbelief and ridicule. If any future students read this: Call out your friends when they make others uncomfortable. Remember, the people you are friends with reflect on you.

Notable development in this area: An anonymous Instagram account has recently gained traction after sharing a story of a sexual assault on UA's campus. Since the initial post, more students have come forward with similar stories involving the same offender.