Lujan Grisham speaks at UNM anti-sex assault rally
Volunteers read vivid letter by survivor of 2015 rape on Stanford campus
About a week after UNM entered into an agreement with federal officials to improve how it handles sexual misconduct complaints, the school and student groups hosted a rally at which about 200 people listened to volunteers read from a harrowing letter by the victim of a rape on Stanford University’s campus.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., who helped organize Tuesday afternoon’s Hear Our Voices rally, praised the University of New Mexico’s leadership for facing the cultural issues that have allowed sexual assault prevention to remain a victim’s responsibility instead of the community’s.
In her short speech in the atrium area of the Student Union Building, she recalled that when she was an undergraduate at the school, sexual assault “wasn’t addressed by the university or by law enforcement.”
Instead, she said, women were counseled about how they could avoid being attacked.
“I just expected that if something terrible happened to me it was my fault,” she said.
Lujan Grisham, who is running for re-election, marked the day’s rally as an indicator of a “cultural change.”
“There’s no reason why this university can’t be ... the best,” she said. “To stamp out all negative behaviors.”
Volunteers from more than a dozen groups and agencies also read from the rape victim’s letter. The long and vivid letter became famous after it was released following the controversial sentencing of the assailant, Brock Turner, who was released after three months in jail.
A Department of Justice investigation, launched in December 2014, found that UNM had failed to comply with federal gender anti-discrimination laws, has policies on sexual assault that are difficult to understand and often held lengthy investigations.
The school has made a number of changes already and is in the process of reforming its procedures and policies regarding the issues. UNM has also launched a campuswide anti-sexual assault education program.