The first Campus Conversation of the year will take place Tuesday and discuss sexual misconduct in response to the film The Hunting Ground.
The Hunting Ground may have left the screens of the Athena Cinema, but the film’s presence continues to be felt in Athens.
The Ohio University community will have a chance to discuss sexual misconduct Tuesday at this year’s first installment of Campus Conversations. Campus Conversations is a series of events the university hosts for the community to engage in "constructive dialogues on a variety of topics," according to its website.
Jenny Hall-Jones, OU's interim vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students, thinks students will be inspired to tell their stories after watching The Hunting Ground.
“These women (in The Hunting Ground) are saying, 'This is what happened to me and I'm trying to make a difference, I'm trying to make a change,'" Hall-Jones said. "We very well probably have some bad stories at Ohio University, right? So if people are feeling empowered to share their stories because they say saw The Hunting Ground and they come to the Campus Conversation and they want to tell their personal story, that is really good, we want that."
Mandatory reporters will be present at the event, but Hall-Jones said they will have confidential spaces to talk to people.
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Confidential sources are available at OU through the Campus Care medical staff in Hudson Hall, counseling staff at Counseling and Psychological Services and the Survivor Advocacy Program. Counselors and advocates will be present at Tuesday’s Campus Conversation and people can talk to them first if they are thinking about reporting, Hall-Jones said.
Mandatory reporters consist of faculty, administrators and staff.
If something happened to a student and he or she decides to talk about it at the Campus Conversation and starts telling Hall-Jones about it, she said she has to report it because she is a mandatory reporter, along with other faculty and administrators present at the event.
"This is a safe space, we want everybody to talk, but this not a confidential space," Hall-Jones said.
Many of the people moderating the tables are mandatory reporters, but if a moderator overhears something or is at a table participating in a discussion he or she is required to report it to the Office of Equity and Civil Rights Compliance, where it would be investigated, Hall-Jones said.
"Some people might come to the Campus Conversation because they've decided that they're going to report,” Hall-Jones said. "We just want it to be on everybody's own terms."
Hall-Jones said she will be making an announcement about the mandatory reporters before the event starts and notices will be on tables.
OU’s mandatory reporters are based on affiliation as opposed to geography. No matter where it happened, OU employees are mandatory reporters if the person is an OU student, Hall-Jones said.
Sarah Jenkins, program coordinator for the Women's Center, will be one the facilitators at the Campus Conversation.
“I just hope that it’s a good opportunity for us to discuss some of these issues related to sexual assault that are often considered taboo or that people don’t always have a clear understanding of and hopefully we can start some open dialogue and continue that conversation in various ways here at OU,” Jenkins said.
Sasha Gough, a sophomore studying creative writing and a F--kRapeCulture member, said she will be in attendance Tuesday.
“I think that the administration has proven that there are times where they don't handle sexual violence poorly,” Gough said in an email.
She said Tuesday's Campus Conversation is important because sexual violence is happening on OU's campus.
“People need to be aware of this and I think that people on campus along with staff, faculty and administrators need to be talking about how we can change these things or make them better," Gough said in an email. "How do we get people to stop sexual violence rather than teaching people how to avoid sexual violence."
Gough said in an email Tuesday's event could go one of two ways: “either extremely well or a lot of information is going to be disappointing and problematic.”
Rachel Baker, a sophomore studying social work and a member of
F--kRapeCulture and the OU Student Union, said members from both groups will be attending the Campus Conversation.
“This campus conversation (sic), or the idea of it, is only important in that it shows that the university feels compelled by The Hunting Ground to cover itself and to put on the appearance of being active in combatting sexual violence,” Baker said in an email. “Whether the Campus Conversation is actually valuable to anyone in attendance probably depends on the members of F--kRapeCulture and the Student Union being able to attend.”
OU's Campus Conversations will continue throughout the semester, with future events that will focus on topics such as racial dynamics and inequality, according to the university's website.
—Maria DeVito contributed to this report.
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