University of Pittsburgh students Audrika Khondaker, left, 20, a neuroscience major, and Scarlett Hudson, 20, a biology and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies double major, stand for a portrait in Alumni Hall, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, in Oakland. The two students were coming from a university-hosted town hall with the Student Government Board for students to share their concerns and suggestions in response to a sexual assault that occurred at the school’s Cathedral of Learning weeks prior. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
University of Pittsburgh students are frustrated by administrators’ responses to sexual violence. “What are they doing?”
by Emma Folts, PublicSource
Scarlett Hudson went to the University of Pittsburgh’s town hall meeting on Wednesday expecting to hear solutions and next steps from administrators. But the junior left feeling dissatisfied with much of the university’s response.
“I didn’t feel any more satisfaction than I did before I went into the town hall meeting,” she said.
The meeting, organized with the Student Government Board, was held in response to student outcry over a reported sexual assault at the Cathedral of Learning about two weeks ago. The attack is the third sexual assault report the university has issued a crime alert for this academic year. Members of non-student media were not allowed to attend the event.
Dean of Students Carla Panzella contacted several leaders of student organizations on Wednesday for further discussion about the recent assaults and campus safety concerns, according to an email from an involved student. Students are continuing to call on Pitt to take action, with one student reading an open letter at the town hall with demands for improved survivor supports and sexual violence prevention education, according to The Pitt News.
While students came with questions, concerns and suggestions for paths forward, several who spoke with PublicSource after the event felt that administrators did not sufficiently answer questions or provide tangible solutions for tackling sexual violence on campus. Students during and after the town hall criticized the panelists’ responses for focusing on existing campus resources, which they said are not always a helpful or comfortable option.
“They’re just throwing us resources and expecting us to use them, and a lot of the resources they are saying, and they are providing to us, a lot of students don’t feel comfortable about,” Hudson said, referencing the Title IX office and the campus police.
The event’s panelists included Pitt Chief of Police James Loftus; Sexual Assault Facilitation and Education [SAFE] Peer Leader Meenu Ramasamy; Gender Discrimination and Title IX Response Manager Zachary Davis; Assistant Vice Chancellor for Compliance, Investigations, and Ethics Laurel Gift; and Director of Student Conduct Matthew Landy.
Davis discussed the work of Pitt’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Office and SAFE peer educators when a student asked how the university is preventing sexual violence and using experts in response and prevention, The Pitt News reported.
Seniors Eva Steele and Gayatri Gupta-Casale of Project Healing Sideways, an independent survivor-led organization focused on intimate partner violence, felt the university shifted the burden onto student organizations to create change.
“One of the main points of frustration for us was asking how the university was going to better elevate survivor voices and being told that is our responsibility,” Steele said.
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