Colleges grappling with ‘Me Too’ moment
Many students say sexual assaults aren’t taken seriously
ATLANTA — The flyers appeared suddenly on a crisp morning in early November. They were scattered among golden leaves on the grounds of Spelman and Morehouse, the side-by-side women’s and men’s colleges that are two of the country’s most celebrated historically black schools.
“Morehouse Protects Rapists,” some of them read. “Spelman Protects Rapists.”
Some of the documents accused prominent athletes and fraternity members by name. Though workers quickly made the flyers disappear, students already were passing photos from cellphone to cellphone. Before long, the names were on Twitter.
And the next morning, students at Morehouse woke up to another unnerving sight: graffiti marring the chapel, a spiritual gathering place dedicated to a revered alumnus, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scrawled in red spray paint, the message read: “Practice What You Preach Morehouse + End Rape Culture.”
The torrent of claims against high-profile men in entertainment, media and politics is now spreading across academia, reenergizing the outcry over sexual misconduct on U.S. campuses and bringing forth a new wave of complaints. 70 professors show support
Colleges large and small have fielded reports against students and professors. Some schools said they had begun strengthening anti-harassment policies. Lawyers who represent victims say they have been flooded with calls.
Neither Spelman nor Morehouse would disclose how many complaints it has received, and in interviews, Spelman students and professors said they did not believe sexual assault was any more common there than elsewhere.
But most said they believed the colleges had not been taking the issue seriously enough. Now their pent-up frustration has burst into the open during a national moment of reckoning.
“I don’t believe our students would be doing what they’re doing if things like this hadn’t been happening nationally,” said Beverly Guy-Sheftall, a women’s studies professor who was one of more than 70 Spelman professors who signed an open letter supporting students who said they had been assaulted.
In a three-minute speech Nov. 9, the day the graffiti was found on the King chapel, Harold Martin Jr., the interim president of Morehouse, said there was “clearly a belief that there is a population that does not feel heard.”
“We will do the work,” he said, encouraging victims to come forward. (Almost all of the names on Twitter had been posted anonymously.) “Nobody has come by my office, but I hope you will.” Competitive campus culture
Spelman and Morehouse students have deep emotional connections. A Spelman freshman often pairs up with a Morehouse freshman as “sister” and “brother” who are encouraged to support each other during their college careers.
“Having your brother’s back or your sister’s back, that’s something that’s said,” said Euphoria Davis, a 21-year-old senior. “I’ve had someone tell me to my face that I’m tarnishing the reputation of Morehouse by speaking out.”
Davis said she was naive and had never done more than kiss a man when she arrived from the Philadelphia suburbs in 2014. During her first semester, at a warehouse party off-campus, she said, a Morehouse student asked her to dance. When she declined, she said, he grabbed her and pulled her outside the building, assisted by other men.
She said she was too intoxicated to defend herself while the men pushed her against a wall and took turns raping her.
After struggling emotionally throughout the year, she found solace in telling her story to others and speaking out on behalf of sexual assault victims, she said. When she was contacted by Morehouse’s Title IX office, which handles sexual-misconduct complaints and had heard about her allegations, she declined to pursue a claim.
She was intimidated, she said, by a competitive campus culture where reputation is paramount. She and other students described a fierce social hierarchy that existed among the two schools — which have only about 2,000 students each — where one false step can cause a person to be ostracized.
“I’m not going to get the outcome that I want from this,” she recalled thinking. “So I’m not going to go through the stress of having my whole life exposed to have them just walk away.”