Courtesy of Take Back Our Showers ’18
I woke up on April 5 in my Argentine host family’s apartment to a jarring email from Connecticut College Campus Safety Director Mary Savage: “Campus Safety Bulletin-Freeman House Incident.” Many of us may have become desensitized to these emails informing us of yet another voyeurism incident on campus. I feel more infuriated every time I receive one, whether I am on campus or studying abroad over 5,300 miles away.
Those who know me know that I am one of Conn’s biggest cheerleaders; I work for Conn Admissions and am involved in (too) many activities on campus. I may write polemic articles for The College Voice, but I always write with the intention of making Conn the best it can be. I hope there comes a time when people can know the entire truth about Conn and choose to enroll because that truth is attractive. Currently, we hide behind our shiny Palmer Auditorium and innovative Connections curriculum. I always make the effort to go above and beyond on my tours and tell prospective students and families everything they need to know to make an informed decision. My job as a tour guide is to portray Conn as realistically as possible so that prospective students can tell if it is the right fit for them.
“We take this incident very seriously and do not tolerate voyeurism in any form,” each of Savage’s emails reads. I know there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work to deal with the voyeurism cases that we do not see due to confidentiality. But image matters– when it benefits the Defy Boundaries campaign, at least. To me, and to anyone who only sees the headlines, Conn is not taking these incidents seriously enough, not when they have consistently occurred every four months or so over the past year alone (August 2023, December 2023, April 2024). Dean of Students Victor Arcelus addressed this assumption directly at the Student Government Association’s (SGA) general assembly on April 11: “It [may feel] like the College doesn’t care, but let me just emphasize this: we care, we are going as fast as we can.”
“It is deeply troubling that we are writing to you again about an incident like this,” Arcelus expressed in his “Follow-up on April 5 Voyeurism Incident” email to all students. The news is deeply troubling, but it must not have been troubling enough the first, second, or even fifth time because we have not received a message this detailed and promising until now. Conn seems to favor reactivity over proactivity and prevention. The administration only began to explore solutions to the voyeurism problem after it happened (multiple times). What if the administration had voyeurism and sexual assault in mind when designing the dorm bathrooms that have been built or renovated over the past 30+ years?
This problem is by no means unique to Conn. I do not make this point to minimize or excuse the voyeurism incidents, but rather to highlight the fact that Conn should have anticipated these issues and practiced proactivity. It was always a possibility that voyeurism could occur in the bathrooms, especially since we have so many communal bathrooms without private stalls. But Conn waited to take real action until it happened.
Back in 2021 and before, students made the same exact complaints. Students from the Classes of 2018-2022 launched a “Take Back Our Showers” campaign in response to the repeated voyeurism. There were four voyeurism incidents in Plant House during the fall 2018-2019 semester. The public SGA assembly notes from December 2018 look frighteningly similar to The College Voice Co-Editor-in-Chief Adrien Landon’s notes from the most recent SGA assembly (April 2024). According to the 2018 notes, the Conn administration considered privatizing bathroom stalls but decided against the idea because the lack of ventilation could worsen mold issues. There was a lot of discussion regarding transparency in campus communication about voyeurism.
In 2021, then TCV Managing Editor Jackie Chalghin wrote, “If we can imagine that the physical alterations to buildings were adequate—many stall doors are alarmingly short, allowing for camera access, for one—it remains unclear why these alterations were not implemented years ago.” Students have clearly called for bathroom renovations since the early voyeurism incidents. But the renovations did not begin until the summer of 2022 and they apparently did not become a “top priority” until now. When asked why the renovations did not begin earlier than 2022, Arcelus explained that the planning takes time and the College had to set aside 12-15 million dollars for the project (too much to come from the annual operating budget).
To Arcelus’s knowledge, there have been six individuals responsible for voyeurism at Conn. The perpetrator in the 2018-2019 voyeurism cases was found responsible for a total of 36 incidents, both on and off campus. Arcelus articulated that this made him easier to identify, as opposed to the perpetrators of the August and December 2023 incidents, who have yet to be identified. This means that there may be at least one or two criminals walking freely around campus, probably waiting for the next lull so they can commit another voyeurism crime. Perhaps they are not even waiting; there is no way of knowing about the voyeurism cases that go unreported. I was shocked to hear this; the investigations are still open because there has apparently been no new information since the initial incidents. “It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” said Arcelus.
Before addressing the bathroom renovation plans, Arcelus’ email discusses campus culture. “Please join us in making clear that sexual violence of any kind, including voyeurism, must not happen at Connecticut College,” he wrote. It is true that we students ultimately shape and create the campus culture. However, the odds of there being at least a few potential voyeurs at any school are too high to expect our culture alone to stop them. Most Conn students are appalled by each voyeurism incident, and many of us continue to speak out against sexual violence.
As long as the Office of Sexual Violence Prevention and Advocacy (OSVPA) is properly staffed and funded, we are on the right track. According to Arcelus at the SGA meeting, campus culture change is possible if about one-third of students are trained in sexual violence prevention: “I’ve seen this campus do that and get to that point, so I have confidence we can do it again.” Students at the meeting called for mandatory Green Dot training (Green Dot is a national sexual violence prevention program; the OSVPA offers a six-hour course to become Green Dot Certified). Different ideas were raised regarding how to mandate Green Dot training, like requiring student organizations to complete the training in order to continue receiving school funds. Campus culture will always be important, but (unfortunately) it takes more time to develop. Voyeurism is an emergency right now and we must focus on the fastest and most effective solutions to prevent any more cases.
The only guaranteed solution to the voyeurism issue is renovating every dorm bathroom across campus to include completely private floor-ceiling shower and toilet stalls. Many bathrooms have already been updated over the past couple of years; Katherine Blunt House was first because it was the site of earlier voyeurism incidents. Although, the basement was left out of the renovations (students did not live there until recent over enrollment) and became the site of the August 2023 incident. Branford, Plant, and Blackstone Houses have been updated as well as Knowlton House. All six dorms in the Plex now have renovated bathrooms too. Larrabee, Smith, and Burdick Houses will undergo construction this coming summer. The people who live in Windham, Harkness, Freeman, Jane Addams, and Lazrus Houses are apparently unlucky. My friends in those buildings have to shower in fear, or even travel to another building to shower with complete privacy. Not everyone has a desirable housing lottery number to choose a dorm with a renovated bathroom. First-year students have absolutely no choice and could be assigned to a dorm with an unrenovated bathroom.
Unfortunately, updating the bathrooms involves more than a week-long, or even month-long, construction project. In order for there to be completely private shower and toilet stalls, each stall requires its own lighting, ventilation system, and sprinkler in case of fire. Arcelus wrote in his Fall 2023 letter to The College Voice editors, “We would all like the bathrooms to be done as quickly as possible, but the reality is that they need to be done in a staggered manner in order to operate the campus in the summer, complete the bathrooms in the best way possible and complete other critical campus projects at the same time.” How can any campus project be equally as important as updating the dorm bathrooms with the goal of reducing sexual assault on campus?
After two more voyeurism incidents, Arcelus clarified Conn’s priorities: “Combatting voyeurism through bathroom renovations is a top priority of the College.” Arcelus articulated that there are not even enough contractors in Conn’s region to finish the bathroom renovations faster than they are going now. “It’s not because of not having the will or not having the money, it’s just because of the logistical issues,” he said at the SGA assembly. Several of the bathrooms yet to be renovated require full renovations because they are older. This makes the projects more extensive, and certain dorms must be open for winter/summer break students to reside.
This does not mean there is nothing we can do between now and the summer of 2025. Some of us may be able to move on with our lives a day or two after each voyeurism email. However, those who are victimized can become traumatized for life. They may experience post-traumatic stress disorder and other severe mental health issues as a result of the sexual assault. According to the CDC, “Coping and completing everyday tasks after victimization can be challenging. Survivors may have difficulty maintaining personal relationships, returning to work or school, and regaining a sense of normalcy.” These preventable incidents can permanently alter the lives of survivors. The CDC website continues, “Sexual violence is connected to other forms of violence…girls who have been sexually abused are more likely to experience additional sexual violence and become victims of intimate partner violence in adulthood.”
In his aforementioned letter to The College Voice, Arcelus listed temporary solutions to the voyeurism problem. They include “adding material to cover gaps in bathroom partitions across campus,” replacing shower curtains with thicker curtains, frosting exterior windows in bathrooms, and adding more towel hooks to shower stalls so students can hang their towels closer to the shower. Arcelus stated that these solutions have all been implemented but could not say in which dorms. He backtracked after saying they were done all across campus, concluding that maybe they were only implemented in stalls with particularly wide gaps (but he was not sure). Furthermore, the material could only be added to the vertical gaps between stall doors and partitions, not addressing the fact that many stall doors are short enough for people above 6’1” to see over.
Security cameras have become another controversial topic when discussing possible voyeurism solutions. Of course, introducing cameras inside the bathrooms would be counterintuitive. However, Campus Safety staff are in the process of locating places to install temporary security cameras in the hallways outside of bathrooms, only in the buildings that have yet to be renovated. Anticipating concern from students, Arcelus listed some reassuring information in his email: the cameras will be removed once the bathrooms are fully renovated, will not capture any footage from inside the bathroom or any dorm rooms, and only Mary Savage will have access to the footage.
At the SGA assembly, Arcelus commented on students’ past reactions to the idea of security cameras: “After this [recent voyeurism] incident, Dean Hamlett and I decided we don’t care what students want or what they don’t want, we have to do this.” This loaded statement implies that it took another voyeurism incident to convince the deans to go ahead with the temporary camera plan despite student complaints. The deans constantly encourage students to provide feedback and then they use that feedback as an excuse for not implementing a potentially effective safety measure sooner? When we provide honest feedback to administrators, there is apparently no way of knowing whether it will be heeded, ignored, or used against us. Students have called for bathroom renovations for the past six plus years, but administration has not appeared to seriously explore and prioritize tangible solutions until closer to two or three years ago.
“The presence of the video cameras will help to deter voyeurism in the last group of buildings to be renovated next summer (2025),” Arcelus confidently states in his email. Will the cameras really deter voyeurs? We cannot be so sure, especially when it comes to people who would even think about committing such a crime. Unfortunately, we have to assume that there will be voyeurs on campus no matter what. The only real way to prevent further voyeurism incidents is by making them physically impossible with floor-to-ceiling stalls. However, at least the cameras would prevent further incidents with uncaught voyeurs like August and December 2023.
Arcelus mentioned that Interim Vice President of Administration Justin Wolfradt used to work in hospitals and is consulting designers to explore the possibility of using hospital-style partitions as a temporary bathroom solution. Some students at the SGA meeting also advocated for “double shower curtains,” or essentially installing a second curtain outside each shower within the stall so there is more privacy for students standing in that exposed area. In the recent voyeurism cases, the perpetrators held their phone cameras in the stall gaps (above or below the short stall doors or in the crack of the door). If implemented correctly, an additional curtain could cover these areas and make students feel a bit safer while showering/changing. This solution is certainly not voyeur-proof, as someone could easily move their hand past the curtain, but it certainly could not hurt. Installing more shower curtains should not take much time and could deter voyeurs because the action of pushing past the curtain would be clearly visible and noisy. As with the privatized stalls, the challenge with the “double curtain” idea is meeting fire suppression code. Arcelus explained that the sprinkler head in each stall has to have a full range of spray, so they cannot install curtains that would “impede the spray.” According to Arcelus, the facilities staff is reevaluating the “double curtain” idea now after dismissing it in the past due to fire code limitations.
Although we like to think of it as an educational institution, Conn is also a business. The school survives as long as students pay the hefty cost of attendance (now over $82,000 without financial aid or scholarships). The administration needs students to consistently apply and enroll. Conn has had no problem with this in the past few years; attendance has actually skyrocketed to the point where we can barely fit in the existing dorms on campus. But what if everyone knew the truth? While Conn has not made local news for voyeurism cases since 2020, recent TCV articles are the first to come up in a Google search of “Conn College voyeurism.” The ongoing voyeurism crisis could easily make local news again and appear in Google searches of the College alone. Not only could the spreading of this news deter prospective students, it could also deter parents from donating. I could not so easily find voyeurism cases in the news at any other NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) school. Arcelus noted that Conn is very transparent in communicating with the community about voyeurism incidents, implying that other schools may have the same issues but conceal them more. He said that other NESCAC deans are not taking steps to renovate and privatize their dorm bathrooms as much as we are, to which I asked whether that was just because they did not have as many/recent voyeurism incidents as we did. Arcelus could not answer this question because he did not have the information.
I chose Conn despite its flaws (the ones that I knew about, anyway) and have not regretted my decision once. I feel lucky to attend a school where I can publish polemic articles such as this one and have people pay attention to my opinions. I have always felt like I had a voice on campus and knew I could count on honest responses when I interviewed deans or other staff/ faculty members. I did not write this article to pose any new solutions to the ongoing voyeurism crisis, because frustratingly, I understand that technicalities make it nearly impossible for the College to do anything more right now. I wrote this article to expose the harsh reality of Conn’s history of voyeurism and the unsatisfying answers we continue to receive from administration.
