Dear Anonymous Writer of “Dear Cornell University”

I’m currently a junior attending Smith College. Like you, I was raised in a household that made it clear I am just as capable and deserving of opportunity as any cis man. My gender isn’t a barrier, and I carry that message with me. I wanted to start with our similarities because most of this letter will be about our differences of opinion. I also want to make clear that this letter is not an attack. It is a response. I want to be clear that this letter is a response because I want it to open a conversation. One between you and me. One between two classmates. Two roommates. Two people waiting in a line. Students and staff and faculty and administrators.

Smith is a historically women’s college that currently accepts a gender-diverse student body. I have met some of the most brilliant, passionate, and creative people here, and I believe that being a historically women’s college has attracted phenomenal women, non-binary individuals, and trans folks from diverse walks of life. And much like yourself, I bristle when people flatten this college to being a “girls’ school,” as though the education we receive is secondary to the petty catfights we must endure due to being in close proximity with so many other “emotional” women. I understand your frustration.

However, I take issue with the way you flatten this college. In your portrayal of the heinous events at Cornell University, I fear your criticisms fall flat when you compare Cornell’s administration to our own. You stated that Jane Doe’s horrific experience could never have happened here. In many ways, you’re right. We don’t have frats that host parties like the one she attended, or that cultivate on-campus environments where women must always be aware of their surroundings, of that one brother you shouldn’t leave a drink around, of that one house you should avoid. Toxic masculinity has less of a breeding ground on a campus that doesn’t center men, which you make note of. And you rightfully point out that our administration would never be hell-bent on protecting a cis male student because there aren’t any cis men registered as Smith students. 

I believe the cracks in your argument appear when you act like Smith’s administration wouldn’t be hell-bent on protecting a student. No Title IX office is perfect, and many colleges have failed to take corrective action after sexual assault allegations have been launched. Even when crimes as heinous as rape occur on collegiate campuses, many times victims can feel like they have been denied justice by the very systems they were told would be in place to protect them. Students at Smith have had to interact with administration following assaults, and many have felt let down. The Sophian has even posted a guest essay written by somebody who confessed that ResLife left them in their dormitory for 47 days after they had reported being raped in that very room, and how debilitating it was to feel as though their pain was being ignored. 

We like to believe that that sort of thing can’t happen here. But that line of thinking is dangerous. Believing that rape culture can’t infiltrate or affect students here at Smith is the exact line of thinking that probably led to Cornell facing this current moment. Believing that, in some way, these are abstract atrocities that affect the people out there and not the people in here creates a separation which, in many ways, harms our own neighbors, peers, friends, and community members by denying the difficulties that people may have faced when having dealt with sexual violence on this campus. 

In your piece, you wrote that if Jane Doe had attended a historically women’s college, what had happened to her may not have happened. Maybe you’re right. According to the United States Sentencing Commission’s data from fiscal year 2014 through 2018, 92.1% of perpetrators of all sexual crimes are male. Regardless, most sexual violence comes from an intimate partner or acquaintance, and Public Health research from 2021 has consistently found that gay, lesbian, and bisexual students face an increased amount of sexual violence compared to their heterosexual student counterparts in the same study. Saying that it might not have happened here isn’t wrong, but I think it’s naive. It might not have happened here. It might not have happened at another Ivy League school, at a state school, or at a co-ed liberal arts school. 

Unfortunately, it could happen anywhere, because rape culture – much like you pointed out – permeates every institution we engage with. We all must navigate it, no matter who we are or where we’re getting our degree. We must hold abusers accountable, but that starts with us recognizing how we must hold each other accountable, even at Smith.

Cornell deserves to be sued. Fraternities across the country deserve to be reckoned with. Victims of sexual violence deserve to be believed, just as we believe people who say they are victims of theft or fraud. And Smith students deserve an opinion letter that doesn’t ignore how this institution’s administrations and offices falter.

Thank you, anonymous writer of “Dear Cornell University,” for opening a dialogue, one I believe has been long overdue and one every college and university should be having right now. But believing it could never happen here is how every horror begins, and true change can begin only when we realize it could happen anywhere.

Sincerely,

Lola West ’28