Students Against Sexual Assault sent the following statement to The Sophian following Dean Rowe’s email this afternoon.
SASA stands by the statement that we made. The reforms requested in our demands are necessary for the safety of students at Smith College. The student who made the call to campus police maintains that the incident was misreported in their logs and did in fact pose a serious and ongoing threat to the student body. The version of events that was reported to campus police is very different than the version which they publicly logged. This student chose to use the word “accost” to describe the situation and does not feel comfortable elaborating on the details of a traumatic incident that happened to them in such a public capacity. It would be unfair and insensitive to ask them to do so. That being said, it took great courage for the student to say anything to begin with, and Dean Rowe’s decision to address The Sophian’s article, while maintaining the misreported version of events, and the administration’s failure to address any of SASA’s actual demands, which would be necessary no matter what, are indicative of administrative apathy and refusal to listen to survivors. The emphasis that the Smith community is putting on this individual student’s experience, and their disregard for the need for institutional change that this event revealed, is dangerous. We urge Smith College to do better.
