Do you want to talk about sexual violence? Darcie Folsom does.
The US Department of Justice just gave our College a grant to “reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on campus,” and hired Folsom to the newly created position of Coordinator of Sexual Violence Education and Advocacy.
We already have a solid number of people engaged in the discussion of sexual violence, thanks to the hard work of groups like Take Back the Night, 1 in 4, Spectrum and Feminist Majority.
But solid doesn’t describe the number Folsom is shooting for.
Think more in the neighborhood of 1900 students and 171 full-time professors.
“We’ll be doing programs with dorms, with housefellows, with athletics, and big time with 1 in 4,” said Folsom. “I want a campus with active bystanders who will stand up to sexual violence and not just watch.”
The grant lays out some specific requirements for the program, including a creating a community response team which Folsom is currently organizing and overseeing. It also stipulates that the college provides education to every single incoming freshman, as well as Campus Safety and J-Board.
“I want to create a campus atmosphere that’s comfortable,” said Folsom. “I want people to want to talk about it – because it’s taboo.”
Even though the grant specifically points Folsom and her colleagues away from focusing on survivors in their policies, since education about “victim behavior” might “reinforce the myth that victims somehow provoke or cause the violence they experience,” Folsom thinks it’s one of the four-notch logs in her Lincoln Log cabin: structurally integral.
“We need to advocate for what the survivor wants,” she said, “even if that means moving away from legal consequences. Testifying can be very traumatic.”
Folsom previously worked for the Women’s Center of Southeastern Connecticut, and worked for the same Department of Justice grant at the University of Rhode Island. If you’ve seen the Vagina Monologues on campus, you may have even met her already – she comes every year.
For Spectrum, our on-campus LGBTQ support and advocacy group, Folsom’s position isn’t very big news.
“Rarely do people recognize the importance of LGBT health and protection of LGBT individuals’ safety, said Spectrum co-chair Brenner Green. “This new position will greatly benefit Spectrum and the college community by allowing Spectrum to collaborate in creating workshops, lectures, or events to promote health and safety of LGBT individuals, especially relating to sexual harassment and violence issues.”
On the other hand, the Women’s Center would love to work with Folsom – but the grant specifically points Folsom away from working with a campus’s established structures and systems for sexual violence education.
“Although we’d like to work very closely we can’t really do that,” said senior Danielle Murphy, the Women’s Center’s Student Coordinator. “We have to keep them separate according to the grant.
“That said, we’re all really happy to have kind of a central person to streamline all the resources,” she added.
Murphy, along with other students who included sophomore Eliza Bryant, has already had the chance to see Folsom’s education programs firsthand through a workshop this past Thursday.
“It was done really well,” said Murphy. “Darcie got a good conversation going and opened up a dialogue with students. I appreciated that it was very accessible for people.”
Bryant, on the other hand, was less enthused about the workshop.
“Some people really need a ‘superior figure’ telling them what’s healthy and what’s not, given their own experience and other students experience,” said Bryant, “but there are lots of students that either know or think they know, so they’re not going to be receptive to that kind of talk.”
A sophomore and a survivor of sexual assault who did not want to be named expressed similar doubts about the effectiveness of a workshop strategy.
“Everybody knows that you shouldn’t rape – no means no, et cetera – but she needs to communicate that there are instances where you will be making people uncomfortable and may not even realize it,” said the sophomore. “Things definitely happen where people misunderstand what’s going on, or don’t understand that what they’re doing isn’t okay. I think it’s great that we have her, but I question how effective that sort of thing ever is.”
Either way, Folsom is eager to begin her work.
“The more we talk about sexual violence, the better,” she said.
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