Many students at EMU were shocked to receive a strongly-worded email last week regarding sexual harassment on campus. The email in question was sent out after an incident was reported to Irene Kniss, the Title IX Coordinator on campus, and the reporter requested that some form of action be taken. The goal of the email, as stated by Kniss, was to educate people on what constitutes sexual harassment and make people aware that it happens at EMU. However, the wording of the email startled some people. In the words of Casey Hertzler, a junior at EMU, “I’m sure that they meant to have it be educational and positive, but it sounded more like an infomercial. A little bit informal and alarming rather than informative.” This reaction was due to the vagueness of certain statistics in the email, as well as an intense use of capitalization throughout.
The specific statistic that surprised many was that “46 percent of students said harassment caused disappointment with college experience.” This came from a study conducted by Hollaback!, an organization focused on bringing harassment to light and addressing it. Hollaback! surveyed 282 college students and 44 faculty members from various universities across the United States. This lack of clarification about where the information came from caused some readers to believe that the statistics were collected from an oncampus survey, and, in this mindset, the data was disconcerting for many. “It’s disappointing because we’re such a small school that I would expect it to happen less,” stated sophomore Tessa Waidelich, “especially because we’re only two weeks into the semester.” This disappointment is still valid as, according to the same email, there have been multiple instances of sexual harassment this semester, though less than 46 percent of the student body has experienced it.
Kniss stated specifically in terms of education that, “many people associate sexual harassment with sexual assault, and they have different definitions.” The key difference between the two is physicality. Sexual harassment becomes sexual assault when it is physical in any form. Until then it includes unwelcome sexual advances, unwelcome requests for sexual favors, or other unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature. This is an important distinction in that, while neither is ok, sexual harassment is not physically damaging to the victim, although it can be mentally traumatic. In the goal of addressing sexual harassment on campus, Kniss urges students “to be aware of what you say. Even if you have no ill intent, it is interpreted by the recipient and you do not know how they will interpret it.” Kniss is more than willing to discuss any of these topics with students who wish to gather more information on the topic. Her office is located in the Wellness Center, or you can contact her through her email, irene.kniss@emu.edu.
