String of sex crimes sparks activism at OU
The banners said ATHENS — it all.
“‘No’ does not mean ‘convince me.’ ”
“It’s not consent if they are too afraid to say no.”
“There is no excuse for sexual assault.”
Hung from the front porch of almost every fraternity and sorority house at Ohio University, the bedsheets-turned-protest signs expressed the rage and frustration of the more than 500 students who marched past them on Sept. 27.
On any other Thursday, OU students would usually be hurrying home from classes to head out for a night of cheap drinks, and Court Street would be lined with people walking to the bars.
But police shut down traffic on Athens’ main drag for the students marching in protest of the rape culture that many say permeates the campus of more than 20,000 students.
This is the reality for students in the heart of Ohio’s Appalachian region these days, that the normally bustling brick-lined streets of the college town were cordoned off so that students — some angry, some afraid, most empowered — could take a stand against the sexual violence that has plagued them this semester.
The group marched to College Green for “It’s On Us, Bobcats,” a student-led rally created in the wake of 16 reports of rapes and other sex crimes in Athens since Aug. 22.
From the steps of Cutler Hall, the main administration building, Mallory Golski, a senior from Amherst in northeastern Ohio, spoke to her classmates through a megaphone.
“It is inspiring and humbling to see so many of you here tonight,” said Golski, president of Ohio University’s Women’s Panhellenic Association and one of the rally’s organizers. “But it is embarrassing and disheartening to hear this called an epidemic.”
“OU is supposed to be the greatest place on Earth, right?” she said. “So why is this happening?”
It’s a question many women on campus have asked themselves since the first safety alert went out to students from university police on Aug. 31, detailing the account of a woman who was raped the week before.
Two days later, another alert went out. Then another. And another.
Just more than a month into the semester, campus police had taken two reports of rapes, one of gross sexual imposition and one of voyeurism, plus information from a third party about another rape, said Lt. Tim Ryan. In that same period, the Athens Police Department had received eight rape reports and three sexual-imposition reports.
For some women on campus, this semester has meant living in anxiety and fear, said Hannah Burke, vice president of the OU Student Senate and one of the rally’s co-organizers.
Jessie Clutchey, a senior from Powell, said, “This year is the least safe I’ve ever felt on campus.”
Clutchey and her friend, Jill Paster, a senior from Chagrin Falls east of Cleveland, said they used to feel comfortable making the five-minute walk from their house to the gym. Now, they drive.
Mary Ryznar, a senior from Hilliard, reminisced with her friends about the nights they walked home from Alden Library after studying all night as freshmen and sophomores.
As a bartender at The Over Hang, a Court Street bar, Ryznar never thought twice about walking home alone after her shift ended at 3 a.m., she said.
“I’m so aware of every alley now, and my place is only a few blocks away,” she said.
Burke, a senior from Lakewood, also near Cleveland, rattled off a list of emotions she has felt: sad, angry, nervous, overwhelmed.
“At times, you feel really unsafe,” said Burke. “You’re on high alert all the time.”
In the 2017 fall semester, the university-run CATS Late Night Shuttle Service had 782 passengers. This year, that number has increased more than fourfold.
Some wonder whether the campus has grown more unsafe in the past few years. The issue, however, is not unique to Ohio University.
More than half of college sexual assaults occur in August, September, October and November, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.
Women ages 18 to 24 who are college students are three times more likely than all women to experience sexual violence.
Among undergraduate students, 23 percent of females experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence or incapacity, according to RAINN. Only 20 percent of those students report the assaults to law enforcement, the group reported.
The mood might be disheartening, but Golski said there also is an air of change. She said she doesn’t think OU’s campus is more dangerous than in the past. Rather, Golski said, the spike in reports this semester is more likely a result of women feeling empowered to step up and speak out. Police departments have seen that, too.
Ryan said he’s seen an uptick in the number of sexual assaults reported to the university police department in the past five years, mirroring a national trend.
For Tori Doran, a senior from Chagrin Falls, feeling empowered meant speaking publicly for the first time during Thursday’s rally about being raped her freshman year. She related how one night in November 2015, a man took advantage of her at a bar after she had too much to drink. Through tears, she told the story not of her rapist, but of the people in her support system who gave her the will to live again.
“I’m here to empower others to change through my story and perspective,” Doran said. “The fight doesn’t stop here.”
And it’s not just survivors who have been spurred into activism.
Paster founded Empowered: OU, a student organization that promotes professional skills for women.
Ryznar created a group chat called Safe Walk Home, where women can text one another if they feel unsafe walking alone. After just a couple of days, the group had more than 1,000 students.
For Burke, it was telling the hundreds of students at Thursday’s rally that although the university holds some responsibility, the administration is not solely to blame.
“We live in a rape culture, and it’s on us to change it,” Burke said.
“Unless President (M. Duane) Nellis walks home every single student at night and makes sure their door is locked, there’s not a ton that the university can do,” Golski said.
It’s on everyone to step up, Golski said. Unless students commit to believing survivors, believing that consent is mandatory, believing that words matter and actions count, then the campus culture will never change.
The banners and chanting students speak volumes, but Golski told the crowd of students before her that they can’t let the momentum slow.
“It’s on us, Bobcats, to be better bystanders,” she said, “but there’s no ‘us’ unless there’s a ‘you’ and there’s a ‘me.’ ”