The familiar pink paper forms from years past, found in residence hall bathrooms, offices and other campus buildings, were removed at the start of this year. They have been replaced with small information sheets detailing the process of reporting sexual assault with the new online forms, part of Advocate, Whitman’s new data gathering system.
The Ask for It campaign attempted to removed the awkwardness from talking about consent. The All Students for Consent Club traveled around campus with a bag of chocolate kisses and asked students if they would like a kiss, intentionally leaving the meaning ambiguous. The goal was to get the entire campus involved and spread the conversation regarding consent.
FACE events like the recent sexual assault panel and Take Back the Night create a space for crucial dialogue about sexual assault and the campus culture surrounding it.
Since the U.S. Congress passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) in 2008, professors and the Whitman bookstore have found themselves hard-pressed to conform to the act’s regulations regarding textbooks. The HEOA requires both publishers and academic institutions to provide students with information on the textbooks associated with courses, preferably before registration for those courses begins.
Participants of all stripes came to take part in the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) of Walla Walla's third annual “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes†march against domestic violence on Wednesday, Oct. 17.
Oct. 1 marked the annual day by which colleges across the nation must publish facts about the crimes that occur on and around their campuses in an Annual Security Report. This year’s report, with data through the end of the calendar year 2011, was emailed out to students on Sept. 28. The report is often referred to as the “Clery report†and is named for a student murdered in the 1980s.
The Whitman administration made significant changes in its procedures for handling sexual assault over the summer, with an emphasis on improved communication with the Walla Walla YWCA and police department. These changes were made in response to student complaints about Whitman's handling of sexual assault on campus.
Earlier this month, hundreds of first-years filed through Reid Campus Center to get their student IDs, record their voices and receive their mailbox assignments. Among the many tables that they passed by was one dedicated to the newly introduced “Campus Safety App†available for free.
From 2005 to 2010, there have been a total of 43 incidents of sexual assault reported on the Whitman College campus, according to Whitman's Clery crime statistics. Of these, 31 were incidents of forcible rape. It is likely that far more rapes have actually occurred over that period, because many go unreported.
Some of these cases have made their way through Whitman's formal hearing process, and some have resulted in the college punishing the offender. Yet in the time that Detective Miguel Sanchez has been investigating rape and domestic violence cases for the Walla Walla Police Department, there hasn't been a single rape case from Whitman where criminal charges were filed.
On the Whitman campus, Whitman ID cards are both credit card and key. One swipe can allow access to dorms and other campus buildings, authorize purchases to a Student Account, charge meals or flex dollars from a Bon Appétit meal plan and check out materials from the library.
In the aftermath of recent security breaches around campus and the arrest of senior Simon Van Neste on Thursday October 24, Chief Information Officer Dan Terrio sent an email to Whitman staff, faculty and students regarding the need for changes to the current swipe card system. At this time, Van Neste has not been formally charged with a crime.
You're at a party, and you see someone slip a drug into your friend's drink. That's a red dot. You confront the person who tried to drug your friend, and then you make sure your friend gets home safely....
