Trigger warning: This article contains references to sexual assault.

Editor’s note: The content in this article has been updated.

by Apurva Mahajan

Preventing Sexual Assault’s eight-hour-long Occupy McKeldin event showcased eight guest speakers from untraditional backgrounds who shared their experience and advocacy regarding sexual violence. This year’s theme was “I ask,” left intentionally broad to allow for a variety of perspectives regarding the meaning of consent. 

Co-President Damiana Colley said that “I ask” holds people accountable to ask for consent every time before touching someone instead of assuming it is implied.

“It means… showing that you are dedicated to this issue and you are dedicated to supporting survivors and taking a survivor-centered approach,” she said. “It’s also to show that consent is not just the default but rather that you should always ask.”

When organizing the event, the executive board intentionally wanted to book speakers that fit with the theme and helped people from especially underrepresented backgrounds feel seen, said Morgan Descoteau, Preventing Sexual Assault’s events co-chair.

“We’re trying to really emphasize thinking about all different types of victims and survivors, often from all different backgrounds who can have unique experiences and challenges,” Descoteau said. “When that slips between the cracks, we’re not actually getting to the root of the issue.”

At the annual event on McKeldin Mall, students were able to browse through a pop-up thrift shop, paint, participate in mental health activities, pet therapy dogs and enter various raffles. Students also wrote what “I Ask” meant to them on a piece of burlap and hung it on a tree alongside other responses next to Campus Advocates Respond and Educate to Stop Violence’s t-shirts from their Clothesline Project event on Thursday that also aimed to amplify the voices of sexual assault survivors. 

Numerous student clubs and Greek life organizations on campus partnered with PSA for this event just like the previous ones, but this year, the organization also partnered with community organizations that aren’t unaffiliated with the university like the Maryland Coalition for Sexual Assault, Black Girls Vote, the Maryland Coalition of Families and Parade.

“Cultural competence is incredibly important because different communities have different views on sexual assault, how it’s handled … what requires consent,” said Brandee Kaplan, the organization’s co-chair of diversity, equity and intersectionality. “What we’re trying to affirm is that within every community, all contact, all physical interactions require consent.”

Aishah Shahidah Simmons, a cultural worker and speaker at the event, highlighted the importance of looking at sexual assault through an intersectional lens because it intersects with every other social justice issue.

“Whom do you call if you’re an undocumented person who’s afraid of deportation? Whom do you call if the police have a demonstrated documented track record of holding your community under siege?” Simmons asked in her speech. “Whom do you call if you’re a sex worker who’s been sexually assaulted? Whom do you call if your molester, rapist, batterer, stalker, is a member of the police force or military personnel?”

Questions like these highlight the complexities that come with only relying on police and prisons as a response to sexual violence in marginalized communities, she said.

Preventing Sexual Assault wanted to showcase forms of justice available to sexual assault survivors that don’t involve the criminal justice system like the Title IX office, which responds to reports of sexual violence through an investigation and legal action, DEI co-chair Kaplan said. 

“In a courtroom or in Title IX, it’s … a formal inquiry where you have to recount your side of the events and eventually, whoever the perpetrator is, is going to tell whatever ‘their side’ is and it’s going to be in somebody else’s hands to tell you if what happened to you really happened to you or not,” Kaplan said. “At the end of the day, even if you get a guilty verdict, it’s not going to pay for your therapy.”

Survivor-centered justice approaches like CARE’s 24/7 crisis helpline and the University Health Center’s STI testing, anonymous forensic exam and pregnancy testing allow for survivors to get the help they need without immediately resorting to the courts and reliving a traumatic incident, Kaplan said. 

Preventing Sexual Assault has not had a good relationship with administration in the past, Colley said, particularly when university President Darryll Pines said in 2021 that he did not think the university had a problem with sexual assault in Greek life. 

Administration reached out to start a relationship with Preventing Sexual Assault last semester after its other annual event, Slut Walk, but Pines was not present at any meetings, according to Colley. The organization worked closely with Vice President for Student Affairs Patty Perillo and Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Georgina Dodge, as well as the CARE office, the Graduate Student Government and the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life.

“Yes, we need to have those conversations. But beyond the conversations, we actually need to do something,” Colley said. “A problem of sexual violence is even if one person on our campus experiences it.”

Featured image: Students clap for healing coach Brittney Piper at this year’s Occupy McKeldin event, Friday, April 14, 2023.