Avery Adelini is a biological sciences sophomore and political opinion columnist for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Trigger warning: This story mentions sexual assault
A former Cornell University student, “Jane Doe,” accused seven Chi Phi fraternity members of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2024. The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 16, alleges some of the men “were afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays.”
Does this make you angry? How angry? For many of us, clearly not angry enough to do much about it. We’re all aware of how frequently sexual violence occurs on campus. We hear about it happening, clutch our pearls and then move on. We frown at the fact that the people doing this are not held accountable, but we don’t push for accountability. Why not?
Cal Poly has taken steps to prevent sexual violence. Students complete mandatory trainings, sit through presentations and walk through the awareness gallery during the Week of Welcome. Awareness of the issue isn’t the same as accountability. The perpetrators of sexual violence are sat next to us through these programs, and yet the problem still persists.
This school is no stranger to sexual violence. Just last year, former resident adviser Alexis Alejandro was sentenced to seven years and four months in state prison for breaking into a female student’s Poly Canyon Village apartment and attempting to sexually assault her. In 2023, Cal Poly had among the highest reports of sexual assault among all Cal State campuses. A 2012 presidential task force called for increased campus safety and funding for Safer, following three rapes that occurred on or near campus in just the span of nine days. And these are just the incidents that have been reported. Sixty percent aren’t.Â
Real prevention cannot rest solely within online modules, task forces and improv shows. The people shape campus culture: the friends who hear rumors, the organizations that decide whom to protect and the students who decide to respond. We create the social settings that decide if sexual assault is permitted, if the action is taken seriously and if those involved are held accountable.
Cal Poly must become a place where sexual violence is met with real, lasting consequences, where the people who commit it are not welcome, defended or protected. We must refuse to treat sexual assault as something we can hear about, feel briefly upset by and then move on from. If we commit to having these hard conversations, we can reduce the stigma around sexual violence and dismantle rape culture.
Rape culture treats sexual violence as inevitable, excuses harmful behavior, doubts survivors and protects reputations instead of people. It is not reversed by a single training or an awareness exhibit. The normalcy of sexual assault cannot be dismantled through isolated reform but through sustained cultural transformation. We need to commit to facilitating a culture that doesn’t just hear about sexual violence and move on.
At Cornell, not one of 52 men in a Snapchat group chat spoke up as other men reportedly invited others to assault Jane Doe. Would you speak up? Even if you were the only one?
In this situation, there’s an immense amount of social pressure to say nothing. Nobody wants to be the stick-in-the-mud and point out when something isn’t right. Our social culture encourages complicity, and if we want anything to change, we need to push back against our instinct to stay quiet.
These stones don’t get turned over by themselves. You have to be the one to raise your voice. Everybody has the responsibility of making an intentional, directed effort to reject the normalcy of sexual violence.
Students need to be firm about what we will and will not tolerate. We cannot claim to care about survivors while excusing harmful behavior, protecting friends or treating sexual assault as someone else’s problem. Do not stay silent simply because speaking up is uncomfortable.