A required gender studies class, more detail about respect in the College of William and Mary’s honor code and increased focus on sexual consent during transfer orientation are three suggestions that came out of Tuesday’s town hall meeting about a leaked email from a Sigma Chi fraternity brother that went viral online.
About 400 people turned out Tuesday night in the Tidewater Conference room at the College of William and Mary to engage in a town hall meeting on the sexually explicit letter sent over Sigma Chi’s internal listserv.
Vice President for Student Affairs Virginia Ambler gave opening remarks before turning the event over to Director of the Center for Student Diversity Vernon Hurte and Associate Professor of Law Susan Grover, who hosted the evening.
Feminism, rape culture and gender issues were topics heavily covered during a 45-minute portion of the meeting where students and community members were allowed to speak. Some spoke of how glad they were W&M had opened up the discussion to a town hall meeting and others expressed it was just a way for the college to “save face,” some using expletives to express their contempt.
“Administration is putting a positive spin on this with this town hall meeting,” one student said. “If we really love this community, we have to look the ugly stuff in the eye and say, ‘that.’ We want ‘that’ gone.”
Most of the night consisted of students speaking about how rape culture needed to be dismantled through changing the way people interact with one another. Most said that while the town hall meeting was a good start, it would be how the community responded to rape culture in the future that really makes the difference.
One student said the problem would continue to exist as long as people keep looking at instances like the letter or sexual assaults on campus as the product of other people. The message of the night was that to stifle rape culture, everyone has to take responsibility.
“We’re not just stuck in traffic,” one student said. “We are the traffic.”
There were plenty of students who identified the problems the letter highlighted: it victimized women, it encouraged rape culture and it showed disrespect for the community. There were also suggestions for a step forward.
One student suggested a required gender studies class as a part of undergraduate curriculum, a suggestion many clung to and reiterated throughout the night. A transfer student also suggested adding more education about rape culture in transfer orientation for students coming from other colleges that do not put enough focus on it during freshman orientation.
Still another student said the school’s honor code should flesh out a firm definition of community respect and clear expectations that go along with it.
The message that sparked the conversation Tuesday night was an email sent over an internal listserv from one member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity to other fraternity brothers. The email had a sexually explicit message: women on campus are in dire need of sex and it is the duty of Sigma Chi to give it to them.
One of the less explicit paragraphs tells Sigma Chi brothers walking on campus to take notice when a woman “in need” passes by.
“Now stop. Take it all in, breath deep, imagine what kind of underwear she’s wearing, even entertain the idea she may not be wearing any at all, but stare as long as you please, they don’t mind,” the email said.
The letter went viral on social media and blogs and Huffington Post picked it up. It eventually caught the attention of College President Taylor Reveley, who responded through a statement on the college’s website. Sigma Chi President Charlie Engh, also took exception to the message, suspended fraternity operations and began conducting an internal review of members to ensure the chapter was “comprised only of men of the highest character.”
