The culture of sexual assault apology at St. Lawrence University and the handling of Title IX violations has become so bad that on the night of October 12, hundreds of students gathered in the yard of President Kate Morris to voice their outrage and concerns in a peaceful manner.

In a random poll of those who attended, nearly every person there had experienced a form of sexual assault on campus or knew someone who had. Additionally, of the same demographic, only one or two had seen the outcome of having a report filed and that person facing real consequences. In most cases, when reports were filed - even if proven to be true - students were moved to alternate housing right here on campus and continued their education.

Our plan for change has three asks of the administration.

I. Hold an open forum scheduled sooner, not later, with Kate Morris, all the heads of student life, housing, health, safety and security, title ix coordination, and the heads of thelmo. Make it accessible to as many students as needed. We need our questions answered.

II. Allocate university funds to a real, accessible resource office for sexual assault. Fill it with multiple employees; title ix experts, trained trauma counselors, and advocates. We know through what we saw in that survey that it’s a greater need on campus than likely any other resource the administration is pondering instating. We pay roughly $75k a year to go here, let’s make sure that money is being allocated to what students so clearly need.

III. Instate a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY for those formally accused of sexual assault; until their cases are closed, enforce that they study at home, remotely. If we can be sent home for plagiarism and missing two COVID-19 tests, we most certainly can be sent home for being formally accused of sexual assault.