Argus burst my Wesleyan bubble...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wesleyan University
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<p>We just got back from a visit to Wesleyan.</p>

<p>My daughter and I were impressed by the students we encountered. We also heard lots of good things about the academic opportunities available at Wesleyan and liked the fact that our student guides seemed enthused about their studies.</p>

<p>I picked up a copy of the student newspaper and find the stories therein present a very different picture. I was especially disturbed by a first person report of a student who was raped and the indifference she encountered on the part of the administration. The rather raunchy tone of many of the articles also surprised me. (Recently visiting prefrosh were described in part as "ass-hoses and Das Racist-fetishizing dickstubs.")</p>

<p>Does Wesleyan have more of the classic student "work hard-play hard" (translation: power through your school work then get down to partying) culture than first meets the eye?</p>

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<p>the line you cited from the Argus is from the ampersand (the satirical page) and the humor is probably not intended for parents. I’m not quite sure what you’re asking because I don’t see what an editorial about sexual assault or a dumb joke on the satirical page of the newspaper have to do with academic opportunities or a work hard/play hard culture.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry, but those pre-frosh slurs are hilarious. That shouldn’t reflect negatively on the student body IMO.</p>

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<p>I agree with jarsilver and Drought. The things said about pre-frosh in The Argus were intended to be humorous–they were featured in the satirical page, after all! This definitely does not reflect poorly on Wesleyan students.</p>

<p>The fact that there is an article about rape in The Argus proves that the “Wesleyan bubble” isn’t as prevalent as one might think. I’ve read that article, and while its contents are by no means pleasant, the article itself proves that the campus cares to bring awareness of and action to such issues. </p>

<p>Also, “work hard-play hard” does not mean that students power through school in order to party. It means that, in addition to students being seriously committed to their studies, they also know how to enjoy themselves and their college experience. Frankly, it’s no secret that Wesleyan students are generally very intellectual, intelligent, driven, and committed to their studies.</p>

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<p>fendrock - first of all, thank you for bringing this article to our attention. I read the online version of the Argus all the time and it is easy for something like this to get lost amid the general clutter of the format.</p>

<p>I admit, at first, that I had this article confused with another one by a different author written almost a year ago on the same subject. Yes, horrendous as it may sound, this is not the first time a sexual assault has occured on the Wesleyan campus; there is, at least, one such incident a year.</p>

<p>What’s even more horrible is that this is pretty much in line with virtually every elite college of which I’m aware, maybe, even on the low side:</p>

<p>Wesleyan - <a href=“Campus Safety and Security”>Campus Safety and Security;
Amherst - [Campus</a> Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool Website](<a href=“Campus Safety and Security”>Campus Safety and Security)</p>

<p>The caveat is that these are only reported cases and that for every one of those there are probably a sizable number that never make it into the system. The reasons should be fairly obvious: typically they involve people who know each other, in situations where there are no witnesses. The victim can never be made whole; nothing short of jail time for the perp can even begin to balance the emotional score card.</p>

<p>We don’t know what happened in this latest case; the woman has, perhaps wisely, chosen to omit the details. In the article that was published last year, IIRC, the male was suspended for a year after a tearful confession before the student judiciary board then reappeared on campus a few months before his year was up. The outrage seemed to center around his not completely fulfilling his “sentence”.</p>

<p>We can argue forever about the mechanics of punishment, about whether the correct words of comfort were uttered, about whether it’s ever proper for the first responder in such cases to be a man (I certainly wouldn’t want to be in an administrator’s shoes at a time like that.) I do know that it will happen again and that each case will be slightly different and that someone will be terribly, terribly hurt. And, if they are lucky they will find some way of telling their story, perhaps not in the Argus, but, to someone who will understand and sympathize and lead them out of this physical and emotional trough before scar tissue forms.</p>

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<p>Thanks, johnwesley, for your thoughtful reply.</p>

<p>I was troubled that the victim herself wrote the article as well as identified herself.</p>

<p>It left me with the unsettling feeling that no third party cared enough about it to write an article on the subject, one that might have preserved the anonymity of the woman (which is very common in such cases).</p>

<p>You raise many of the issues around such a case that I hope would have been touched upon.</p>

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<p>Fendrock: Something to keep in mind, which might not have been clear to you, is that this wasn’t an Argus commissioned article. It was a WesSpeak, which is basically a section where anyone can write in about anything. WesSpeaks generally range from the serious (this article, articles about racism, etc) to the semi-important (who should you vote for for WSA president?) to the absurd (Usdan keeps running out of bagels before the end of brunch, the horror!).</p>

<p>So, it’s not as if the Argus decided “this week, we want to do an article on sexual assault on campus,” and then could ONLY find this victim to write it – this was a choice she made to share her experience and ID herself. It was a brave choice, of course, but her own. I’m pretty sure the Argus HAS reported on this issue generally before.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the responses to my query, including a personal message from someone close to the source of satirical article I referenced.</p>

<p>I am reassured that my first positive impressions were justified!</p>