Letter to Professor Goldberg

March 29, 2016

Dear Professor Goldberg,

Poster of NRT demands made in collaboration with the Guerrilla Girls Broadband

Last fall, we publicly launched our SAAFE demands, which are now being supported by the Barnard Columbia Solidarity Network. Soon after, we met with you on December 3, 2015 to present you with student testimonies and receive meaningful engagement with our requests, particularly our demand for a 24-hour Rape Crisis Center at Columbia.

It has been over five months since we first presented you a copy of our demands and you have yet to demonstrate to us that you have taken meaningful action in response, including researching and allocating funds for a 24/7 Rape Crisis Center. Every day, students at Columbia continue to be harmed as a result of your negligence. Survivors must continue to deal with extremely long wait times, triggering commentary from untrained nurses, and culturally insensitive staff as they attempt to get the direct services they need. Columbia has an  endowment of over nine billion dollars, and yet you and other administrators have not seen fit to allocate resources towards an essential service on campus. It is unacceptable that you appear to prioritize your professional titles and meaningless initiatives over the safety of the campus community.

We are requesting a public response from you by Monday, April 4, 2016 regarding specific steps you will take to create a 24/7 Rape Crisis Center as we outlined in our demand.

Sincerely,

No Red Tape

Solidarity Statement with Professor Ravina

TW - sexual harassment

On March 23, 2016, Columbia Professor Enrichetta Ravina spoke out in a New York Times article about the gender discrimination and sexual harassment she has experienced at Columbia, and Columbia administrators’ unwillingness to keep her safe.

As an organization that works to combat sexual and dating violence, we find Columbia’s actions egregious. Columbia’s lack of care for the well-being of Professor Ravina sadly echoes stories we’ve heard time and time again from survivors on campus who feel unsafe due to administrative inaction. In an institution that prides itself on fostering intellectual growth, the fact that Columbia would so blatantly disrespect one of its own professors is appalling.

In bravely coming forward to share her story, Professor Ravina has helped shed light on the too frequently ignored epidemic of sexual harassment in higher education. We stand in solidarity with her and her pursuit of justice.

Statement on Dean Kromm's Op/Ed

TW - sexual violence

A No Red Tape organizer handing Dean Kromm the signatures from our petition.

On Tuesday, March 9, 2016, we did a petition drop to give Dean Kromm a copy of our petition asking her to apologize for her comments excusing perpetrators and endorse our SAAFE campus demands. Today, Dean Kromm issued a statement in the Columbia Daily Spectator clarifying her comments.

We commend Dean Kromm for both coming out of her office to hear us read our demands and taking the time to write a statement in response, but we also want to reaffirm our stance that sexual violence of all forms can have equally significant impacts on survivors. We do not think certain forms of sexual assault are necessarily more “severe” or worthy of being addressed than others.

We hope that Dean Kromm will come out in support of banning all students found responsible for Gender-Based Misconduct from being Orientation Leaders and TAs. Anyone who violates someone else’s personal space has no place being a guide for incoming students, a job that requires a heightened sense of personal boundaries and leadership, nor in charge of determining students’ grades.

We also hope Dean Kromm will support survivor-centric policies, like our SAAFE campus demands, that will greatly improve the safety of students on campus.

Dean Kromm: Apologize for Excusing Perpetrators, Prioritize Student Safety

Trigger warning: sexual violence

We were disappointed to learn that Columbia University’s Dean of Undergraduate Student Life, Cristen Kromm, was quoted on March 2, 2016 in the Columbia Daily Spectator explaining why perpetrators of sexual assault should still hold leadership positions in orientation programs. In the article, Kromm excused perpetrators of sexual assault for their actions, and presented gender-based violence as a “mistake,” an opportunity for “learning, growth and change.”

Like the rest of the Columbia University administration, Kromm is apparently more concerned about the well-being and emotional “growth” of perpetrators than she is about the safety of students on this campus.

If Kromm was truly invested in creating a campus where community members treated each other with respect, she would actively support demands, such as our call for a 24-hour rape crisis center, that would improve direct services for survivors and make Columbia a safer place for all students. Instead, she is continuing to support a harmful status quo which endangers particularly the youngest and most vulnerable among us, and explicitly pardons future occurrences of sexual violence.

We demand that Dean Kromm issue a public apology as well as a statement of support for our SAAFE demands.

SIGN OUR PETITION!

In Solidarity with All Survivors

Trigger warning: sexual assault

It has come to our attention that The Columbia Daily Spectator published an op/ed that sought to delegitimize the experiences of survivors of sexual violence whose experiences don’t conform to traditional rape narratives. Included in this article was imagery alluding to No Red Tape’s Days on Campus action last year when we projected “rape happens here” on Low Library. In the article, a question mark was inserted at the end, insinuating that because certain survivors’ experiences don’t fit the author’s definition of sexual assault, they aren’t worthy of inclusion in conversations about the epidemic of sexual violence on campus.

We find this article and its attempted appropriation of our action abhorrent. All survivors have the right to be recognized, regardless of their identity, the identity (or identities) of their perpetrator(s), and the physical actions that occurred during their assault.

To all survivors whose experiences were mocked in the article, we at No Red Tape want to affirm that your experiences matter. You deserve recognition, support, and safety, and we’ll continue to advocate for your rights on campus until all types of sexual violence are eradicated and all survivors are supported.