Dear Kevin Maguire, Jill Zellmer and Mary Pat McMahon,
As student members of Action for Sexual Assault Prevention, we were appalled by the email sent on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 regarding recent drink spiking incidents.
Your email perpetuates the deeply problematic and hurtful action of victim blaming in the following ways. Instead of stating that it is wrong to put drugs in someone’s drink, you told all members of the Tufts community to “take precautions” and use “the buddy system” when in situations where drink spiking might occur. This places all of the responsibility for negative outcomes of drink spiking on victims and potential victims. The responsibility must be placed on the individuals who have spiked drinks, not those whose drinks were spiked. Bystander intervention and precautionary measures are culturally harmful band-aid cures for the deeper problem. The proposed “buddy system” cannot and will not stop people from spiking drinks in the future. The only way to end this illegal activity on Tufts campus is to set a community standard where individuals understand that this is a crime that can have extremely harmful effects on others and do not feel entitled to spike other individuals’ drinks. Moreover, your email failed to give any sort of specificity as to where these incidents occur. While we understand that releasing exact locations would not be appropriate, it would helpful to identify whether there are trends in location, time, etc. (dorms, off-campus housing, Greek Life, etc.).
To meaningfully dismantle this rape culture that clearly still exists on this campus, we must shift from putting the responsibility on victims, to blaming the perpetrators. This email fails to provide any information on how the administration investigating these reports, what potential consequences would be or how you will work to change Tufts’ culture so that actions like these will not be considered acceptable. By not explicitly condemning perpetrators, you have named these behaviors acceptable in an email to the entire Tufts community. You did not say what steps you will take to ensure this will not happen again and how you will act to change the climate of Tufts’ campus.
In addition, you offered no resources for survivors of the drink spiking incidents. This lack of transparent support for survivors perpetuates a norm of shame and silencing and does not foster an atmosphere of support for anyone who may be fearful of reporting. The Tufts community must actively work to ensure all survivors of sexual violence have access to comprehensive support. Considering the recent overwhelming restructuring of the sexual misconduct adjudication policy, it is jarring to us that Tufts is not more proactively advertising the important changes that derived from several Title IX complaints filed against the school.
Between the victim-blaming measures proposed, the absence of information about where these incidents are taking place, and the lack of resource support for survivors of these incidents, you have left students entirely isolated in the face of illegal activity.
As the administrators of a higher education institution, you hold immense power. Your words are influential and have the potential to shape Tufts’ climate. It is your professional and civic duty to ensure that you are using your power to disrupt and destroy rape culture to make Tufts a genuinely safe and inclusive community. You can do better.
By sending you this email, we want you to take action to rectify your previous message. We want you to blame perpetrators rather than victims, explicitly state that perpetrators must stop and explain how they will be punished for their actions, provide comprehensive and accessible resources for survivors, and apologize for the harmful and unproductive email sent out on Feb. 23, 2016. The members of ASAP are happy to meet with administrators to discuss this further if necessary.
ASAP is committed to fostering a culture of consent and communication on Tufts campus in order to dismantle, in part, this very type of victim-blaming language. We hope to foster a more communicative relationship when working with the administration on how to address this issue in a way that supports survivors of sexual violence.
As student members of Action for Sexual Assault Prevention, we were appalled by the email sent on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 regarding recent drink spiking incidents.
Your email perpetuates the deeply problematic and hurtful action of victim blaming in the following ways. Instead of stating that it is wrong to put drugs in someone’s drink, you told all members of the Tufts community to “take precautions” and use “the buddy system” when in situations where drink spiking might occur. This places all of the responsibility for negative outcomes of drink spiking on victims and potential victims. The responsibility must be placed on the individuals who have spiked drinks, not those whose drinks were spiked. Bystander intervention and precautionary measures are culturally harmful band-aid cures for the deeper problem. The proposed “buddy system” cannot and will not stop people from spiking drinks in the future. The only way to end this illegal activity on Tufts campus is to set a community standard where individuals understand that this is a crime that can have extremely harmful effects on others and do not feel entitled to spike other individuals’ drinks. Moreover, your email failed to give any sort of specificity as to where these incidents occur. While we understand that releasing exact locations would not be appropriate, it would helpful to identify whether there are trends in location, time, etc. (dorms, off-campus housing, Greek Life, etc.).
To meaningfully dismantle this rape culture that clearly still exists on this campus, we must shift from putting the responsibility on victims, to blaming the perpetrators. This email fails to provide any information on how the administration investigating these reports, what potential consequences would be or how you will work to change Tufts’ culture so that actions like these will not be considered acceptable. By not explicitly condemning perpetrators, you have named these behaviors acceptable in an email to the entire Tufts community. You did not say what steps you will take to ensure this will not happen again and how you will act to change the climate of Tufts’ campus.
In addition, you offered no resources for survivors of the drink spiking incidents. This lack of transparent support for survivors perpetuates a norm of shame and silencing and does not foster an atmosphere of support for anyone who may be fearful of reporting. The Tufts community must actively work to ensure all survivors of sexual violence have access to comprehensive support. Considering the recent overwhelming restructuring of the sexual misconduct adjudication policy, it is jarring to us that Tufts is not more proactively advertising the important changes that derived from several Title IX complaints filed against the school.
Between the victim-blaming measures proposed, the absence of information about where these incidents are taking place, and the lack of resource support for survivors of these incidents, you have left students entirely isolated in the face of illegal activity.
As the administrators of a higher education institution, you hold immense power. Your words are influential and have the potential to shape Tufts’ climate. It is your professional and civic duty to ensure that you are using your power to disrupt and destroy rape culture to make Tufts a genuinely safe and inclusive community. You can do better.
By sending you this email, we want you to take action to rectify your previous message. We want you to blame perpetrators rather than victims, explicitly state that perpetrators must stop and explain how they will be punished for their actions, provide comprehensive and accessible resources for survivors, and apologize for the harmful and unproductive email sent out on Feb. 23, 2016. The members of ASAP are happy to meet with administrators to discuss this further if necessary.
ASAP is committed to fostering a culture of consent and communication on Tufts campus in order to dismantle, in part, this very type of victim-blaming language. We hope to foster a more communicative relationship when working with the administration on how to address this issue in a way that supports survivors of sexual violence.
ASAP is Action for Sexual Assault Prevention, a group of Tufts students working towards raising awareness of and ending sexual assault and rape culture on our campus, and promoting a culture of consent. We do this through awareness campaigns around campus, supporting survivors and working for institutional change. Contact us at asaptufts@gmail.com.
Editor’s note: If you would like to send your response or make an Op-Ed contribution to the Opinion section, please e-mail us at tuftsdailyoped@gmail.com. The Opinion section looks forward to hearing from you.
