BY YOSHI JOHNSON

In print | January 31, 2008

Shhh. If you listen closely, you can hear it. At first, mind you, it will sound like nothing: silence, the warm hum of quotidian activity in a bustling, small-campus community. Listen harder, though, and you’ll gradually pick up on a furtive whisper here, a barely-spoken allegation there, until before long that warm hum has taken on a dark and discordant undertone.

What you’re hearing, fellow Swatties, is a serious problem. It is a problem not uncommon in the universe of American campuses, and regardless of what we can do or how we may act to combat this problem, its specter will always haunt young men and women as we come of age, especially here, under the uniquely liberated and unconstrained lifestyle that a college campus offers. Still, in trusting, tight-knit communities like the Swarthmore campus, this problem is a serious one, an insidious affliction that threatens to undermine the cherished foundations of our community – that is, our trust and faith in one another.

What is this problem? It is sexual assault, and more important for our campus, the prevailing silence around incidents of sexual assault and misconduct in our community. In light of certain developments, which I am still trying to grasp fully, I felt a pressing need to voice my concerns in a very public way so as to convey just how dangerous I think this problem is for our otherwise cozy little campus.

First, of course, I must make due note of positive aspects of campus culture in regard to this issue. There is formalized student organization around sexual assault, widespread support for survivors among the student body, as well as an understanding of their needs and sensitivities, and institutional policy that clearly outlines what constitutes sexual misconduct and how it is dealt with, internally and external to the College. All of these realities are encouraging reminders that we as a community understand the gravity of this issue and how important it is to combat both the trend and the persistent silence surrounding it.

Beyond this encouraging aspect of our community’s dealings with sexual assault there is a darker underbelly to the reality, one where the seeming solidarity of the community is abandoned for more fractious and divisive politics and where its ostensibly peaceful surface is betrayed as deeply troubled. If you were here last semester, for instance, you were at some point unavoidably privy to the more clandestine conversation going on, a conversation of which I myself only caught wind near the semester’s close. A flurry of hushed exchanges and furtive whispers in Essie Mae’s; knowing, slidelong glances at parties in Paces and Olde Club; highly sensitive or downright hurtful allegations on Facebook and the Daily Jolt; and rampant rumor-mongering in Sharples -together, these things represented a part of campus life to which I have sadly remained oblivious, and a part of campus life that deeply troubles me.

I would like to address the use of substances like alcohol in the campus hookup culture, or subtler still, the dangerous “mob mentality,” real or perceived, that seemingly manifests itself in various organizational cultures on campus. In the end, though, I think it is most productive to draw attention to this under-the-table treatment of these issues within our own social circles and beyond institutionalized dialogue. The torrent of whispered suspicions belies a dangerous way of sublimating and never quite processing the destructive effect sexual assault has on our trust—not just between the parties involved and their friendship circles, but also in the community as a whole. Open and difficult conversations between friends and outside of formal dialogue and institutional structure are necessary if we are to hold each other accountable in a healthy manner. Pursuing these ends will preserve what is so precious about Swarthmore’s scene: a feeling of safety and security in knowing that you are not just anywhere, but at Swarthmore – and more assuring still, among good-hearted, well-intentioned Swatties.

The best ways of dealing with these matters are necessarily the ones which garner the least attention, and I know that they are already well established here. Even now, as I pen this somewhat vague and foreboding column, I am conflicted as to whether it should be published at all. Ultimately, though, this stuff hurts my heart – like, for realz, you guys – and that it has to go down in this way isn’t okay. The fact that for so long I blithely counted Swarthmore amongst the exceptions to the rule makes me doubly eager to hold myself accountable, and put it out there so that all of us can begin examining the challenge at hand in a less destructive, more inclusive way. To this end, I hope that we’ll begin those healthier and more open, albeit difficult, honest conversations about how, in big ways and small, we can all be a part of the problem, and also its solution.

Yoshi is a senior. You can reach him at ajohnso1@swarthmore.edu. He also posts and expands his columns on a blog, at www.mybignumber.wordpress.com.

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