RSVP update

Last Friday the coordinators of RSVP met with the Sexual Harassment Grievance Board (SHGB) at the request of the administration, who had allotted them a fifteen minute slot.

Apparently the response to RSVP’s comments was antagonistic and defensive. I have to say I’m not surprised; it’s nothing new that rape is hard to talk about and hard to confront. What is currently in place is not acceptable: the options are not clear or well-publicized and existing campus responses to sexual assaults are sometimes misleading or harmful. We know it doesn't work because we've heard the stories. [see previous post below for more details.]

The YCC is in agreement on this, by the way, having passed a resolution last spring to involve students and community members in a review of Yale policy. RSVP’s coordinators have met with Larry Wise (head of the YCC Security Committee) and Steven Syverud, YCC president and will continue to cooperate in the future.

The problem: because few people (students and administration) have been willing to talk about it, the issue has been pushed under the rug countless times, and the problems have not been confronted and addressed.

Here's how to help: stories/comments/suggestions [all will be kept completely anonymous] should be sent to yalersvp@gmail.com. With first-person accounts, we avoid the unconstructive hypothetical conversations that obscure the real concerns; we can prove that the system is not adequate if students who have used it speak up.

Let’s have Yale take responsibility for its students; please spread the word.