St. Lawrence University students and administrators are making concerted efforts to combat sexual violence on campus with Purple Week events taking place, as well as with modifications to existing school policy. 

Purple Week’s timing is especially pertinent considering recent events that have taken place on campus. On Tuesday, the student body received a warning email detailing a sexual assault that took place on campus, in which the identity of the assailant remains unknown. Students later organized a protest on social media, planning to meet outside of President Morris’s house to ask questions of the administration as well as share their stories. An open forum with the administration as a result of the protest took place on Wednesday.   

A member of SLU advocates, Nazzy Berhane, described the email as “opening a can of worms,” by bringing underlying issues to the student body’s attention. She also said, “for survivors of sexual assault who do actively seek counseling help on campus, a lot of people are having trouble making appointments and it can take weeks or months for them to be seen.”

President of SLU advocates, Stephanie Sauve, proposed some ideas for reform, “I think that if we separated that position that person could be more available to handle Title XI issues.” Sauve also remarked on the school’s response to the protest saying, “I know that the school added another counselor, but another counselor also left. People were talking about being put on hold for the 24-hour hotline, you cannot wait on hold for 24 hours when you have a crisis. You shouldn’t have to be in a crisis to be able to talk to someone or wait 2-4 weeks to meet with them”.

Sauve sees the University taking steps, having met with President Morris to try and “get the ball rolling” on a permanent Title XI coordinators and hopes that the University will try and communicate this better to students. 

Professor Jeffrey Frank, Associate Professor in the Education Department, recently changed the curriculum of his Sophomore Seminar class to include the book Sexual Citizens, which deals with the issue of assault on campus. Frank said, “Coming in I wanted to be responsive to current events like Covid but the protest woke me up to the reality that these other things are still happening on our campus.” Frank sees the reduction of sexual violence in a two-pronged approach, both through prevention where colleges are having honest conversations with students, as well as being more supportive of survivors. 

Students engaged in a forum with faculty on Wednesday night to clarify questions about the Title XI process and work with the administration. Interim Title XI director, Kimberly Hamilton said “The main thing that was accomplished was having an open dialogue and reinforcing the values that we all share.”  Hamilton also said on the forum “I think we need to do more of it, I was struck by the passion on the part of the students, to heard what they had to say, to make sure everybody involved heard what they had to say, the opportunity as well on this side of the administration to hear suggestions about what we might be able to change in the future.” 

Purple Week is held annually and organized by the Advocates Club, an organization that helps support students who are victims of sexual or domestic violence and also hosts training so students can be proactive and able to step into the aforementioned situations. The Dub, a theme house founded to promote awareness of gender and sex issues, hosted Take Back the Night on Tuesday, an event where survivors were able to tell their stories. The Advocates also have organized activities to reduce stress during this time, such as yoga and open discussions.