Since arriving at Swarthmore College, I have been sexually assaulted or harassed 22 different times by two students and one staff member, according to Title IX parameters. While Swarthmore is known for its awkward students, social incompetence does not justify an inability to respect others. Assault is not a unique experience for women at Swarthmore. The vast majority of my friends have experienced sexual assault or harassment of some kind at Swarthmore by another student. Despite having been assaulted and harassed prior to coming to Swarthmore, I have never encountered an environment where it is more normalized and accepted as a part of an institution’s culture. The overwhelming number of firsthand accounts, along with a lack of adequate administrative acknowledgement and response, have caused the community to become desensitized to this kind of violence; female students come to accept and anticipate these attacks as an inevitable part of campus life. Although Swarthmore has the reputation of being a progressive safe haven, it is neither safe for nor protective of its female students.
The post hoc dissolution and subsequent banning of Greek life as a result of serious reports of sexual misconduct pseudo-absolved the college of responsibility for past and future sexual assault and misconduct on campus. This removed approach has allowed for sexual assault to remain a consistent occurrence, but now there is no particular group clearly at fault in the campus discourse. The school follows a pattern of superficially addressing problems without addressing the root cause — Swarthmore protects its reputation first and foremost. As I’ve learned from anecdotal and personal evidence, the school repeatedly brushes Title IX complaints under the rug and addresses them performatively, continuing to endanger its students. It’s worth mentioning that a new Title IX coordinator, Matt Walsh, was hired this fall following significant turnover in the Title IX office. To be clear, all of the incidents of assault that have been mentioned in this article were reported to the Title IX office under previous directors.
By not addressing or reprimanding victimizers, Swarthmore harbors and protects violent actors. Swarthmore might be a bubble, but it is more representative of broader societal trends than is often acknowledged.
Many women I have spoken to on campus have learned that reporting through Title IX can result in minimal action. Because of this, we are forced to cope with our traumatic experiences through informal social networks, without much help from the administration. Due to the frequent ineffectiveness of the Title IX office, we must also attempt to mitigate risk of future incidents via informal, social means. Within the athletic community at Swarthmore, student-athletes often approach captains or friends on the team to reprimand their teammates. This behavior — although often effective in preventing further attacks from the same individuals — is fallible and puts all responsibility on students to address these offenses socially rather than administratively.
Locker rooms can also become a space for the normalization of misogynistic hatred and violence. One men’s team on campus was notoriously rumored a few years back to have a “hook-up bracket” — a competition in which players competed to have the most and/or the hottest hookups — indicating a serious problem with their team culture. According to a member of the same team, he knows of six different acts of rape committed by his teammates at Swarthmore.
This is not to say that this issue is exclusive to the athletics community here at Swarthmore. I know of multiple cases in which non-athlete men have been perpetrators of these offenses and in which non-athlete women have been victimized.
In the small community at Swarthmore, victims’ experiences often become common knowledge, helping others know which men to avoid but simultaneously exposing victims in their wounded state. Students should not have to use the social circulation of knowledge about known predators to protect themselves. Simultaneously, when survivors are not ready to share their experiences and names by making an official report, this can create further harm after their personal safety and free will have already been violated.
For students, especially those not carrying the trauma of sexual violence, earnest conversation is a valuable step against the normalization of these crimes. Silence is acceptance, and the longer we, as a student body, remain quiet about the issue, the more power and protection are given to perpetrators. The longer Title IX is not called out for inadequately addressing complaints, the more attacks will continue. As long as sexual violence remains in the shadows, the problem will persist. However, willingness in the campus community to speak is not enough — responsibility for the problem does not simply lie in the hands of students. Rather, the administration’s history of mishandling cases leads to a cycle of mistrust and the continuation of this already-chronic issue. At the root of every sexual violation is an act of violence. It is essential that we do not let this violence create a student culture of fear and submission.
