by Shanthi Manian
Four students spoke about the effects of sexual assault on survivors as well as on their friends and colleagues in Copley Formal Lounge on Wednesday night. Speaking to more than one hundred students, faculty, and administrators, participants said that they hoped to increase awareness and prompt discussion about sexual assaults on campus.
Eliza McCoy (SFS ‘06) and Kate Dieringer (NHS ‘05) spoke openly and specifically about their personal experiences with sexual assault. McCoy spoke in the hope that the audience would gain insight into the emotions of survivors. “There are many types of sexual assault, not just rape, and all of them are traumatic,” she said.
She described an assault at a D.C. club more than two years ago, when she was trapped between two men in the middle of the dance floor. They grabbed her so hard that bruises started to form almost immediately. “I remember thinking, how come no one’s noticing?” she said.
McCoy hoped that students would learn how to address and interact with survivors, both immediately after the assault and farther into the future. She discouraged hugging and physical contact soon after the assault. “Being touched right then was the most horrific thing that could have happened to me,” she said.
She emphasized, however, that she did not want to be seen as simply a sexual assault survivor for the rest of her life.
“Sexual assault is a part of me, but it’s not something that defines me,” she said.
Dieringer similarly hoped that both victims of assault and those around them could learn from her experience. She was assaulted by a student with whom she had a “casual relationship” in the third week of her first year. She followed the safety precautions she had learned, but she could not prevent what happened to her, she said. “Someone had it in for me that night,” she said.
She also noted that many assailants are not seeking sexual pleasure. She described seeing her attacker’s face on the night of the assault. “It was like he was punching a wall, but he was hitting me. It was a mean face, an angry face,” she said.
She encouraged victims of sexual assault to seek help both at Georgetown and beyond, but she could not offer hope that the pain would go away. “I feel like it does define me,” she said. “For the rest of my life, this is me and what I am.”
Michael Nelson (CAS ‘04) and Brighid Clark (SFS ‘04) also spoke about their experiences with sexual assault. Nelson recalled a best friend telling him that she had been raped twice during their first year. “The support group or friends behind the victim are indirect victims,” he said.
He especially emphasized that males are just as affected by sexual assault as females and described the integral role that friends can play in helping a sexual assault victim to heal. He twice thanked the men in the audience for coming.
Clark, a member of the Navy ROTC, addressed the common reaction that “some girls are asking for it.” She described being hassled by fellow sailors while working on a ship one summer. “Why would a girl ask to feel that way?” she asked.
Students as well as organizers were impressed by the panel. Sasha Kinney (SFS ‘06) is a resident assistant in Copley Hall. “I haven’t sat so tense and so involved in something for I don’t know how long,” she said.
Shannon Hunnicutt, the sexual assault coordinator at Health Education Services, agreed. “It was certainly very powerful,” she said.
The panel was followed by small group discussions. The program as a whole lasted two hours.
Although Georgetown University Student Association President Brian Morgenstern agreed that the program was successful overall, he felt that it lost some of its power because it was so long.
In addition, Morgenstern thought it “could have been made more clear as to how men could keep this issue in the forefront of their minds.”
All involved hope that this will spur more dialogue as to how to deal with sexual assaults on campus. “I hope its not just a one-time thing,” said Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson.
Tami Weerasingha, chair of the GUSA Health, Safety and Justice Advocacy Committee, was pleased with the reaction from administrators. She hopes that a similar panel will eventually be a mandatory part of first year education.
