Public Health Zine - Our #1 Priority

-Cover Art by Hannah Craig. She is a Senior studying Public Health, Environmental Studies, and Spanish.

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The Public Health Zine (PHZ) presents an evidence-based, comprehensive snapshot of pressing campus health issues through a monthly theme. We are a publication dedicated to creating a campus-wide conversation around student health and wellness.

This month’s theme was in response to the national, campus, and interpersonal discussions surrounding sexual violence. Our collection includes storytelling, research, and art. We hope to match statistics with stories, and provide an outlet for Tulane students to respond, research, and resist. The Undergraduate Public Health program is honored to support the voices of our students as they work to end sexual violence at Tulane. See online at issuu.com/phzine.

Disclaimer: this is not an official Tulane University sponsored publication. The views and opinions contained herein by the various authors do not necessarily reflect the official views, opinions, or policy of Tulane administrators, staff or faculty. All material contained herein are the views and opinions of students, and may not reflect the views of all students on campus.

-Art by Sarah Hill. She is a first-year MPH student.

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3|Page The Climate Survey: In Case You Missed It

By Aminah Isiaq, Sarah Schlossberg, & Amanda Strang On Wednesday January 31, the long-awaited results of the Campus Climate Survey were released at an All-Campus Town Hall. Tulane administered the ARC3 Survey on sexual misconduct in the spring semester of 2017. Participation was staggering, as it had a 47% response rate with 4,644 students completing the intensive 30 minute-long, 187 question survey. The release itself was an event; there were t-shirts, food, and music all located in Kendall Cram. Local television stations arrived, and immediately the audience was informed on resources outside waiting for them. Members of SAPHE were sitting outside on the couches, counselors were available in the basement, and CAPS offered support groups.

Fitts took the stage and announced, “We come together in the midst of a national reckoning.” Fitts emphasized that the community must remain together, address the faults of our current system to prevent sexual assault, and maintain open communication between students and administration to come up with a solution.

Next, Meredith Smith, the Title IX coordinator of Tulane University, presented the shocking data. Among the findings: 41% of Tulane undergraduate women, 51% of undergraduate LGBQ+ women, 44% of undergraduate GBQ+ men, and 13% of undergraduate heterosexual men reported experiencing sexual assault. Undergraduate and graduate peers reported higher rates of sexual assaults than their peers of color. 35% of white heterosexual women reported sexual assault compared to 18% of heterosexual women of color. Of these sexual assaults, 72% of them were committed by Tulane students.

Shortly after releasing the results, Tania Tetlow, Tulane’s senior vice president and chief of staff, spoke about the administration’s next steps. She stressed that the Tulane community must find the answers to end sexual assault where other universities have failed. Tulane must lead the way with the discussion of sexual assault, issue new programs and policies, and grapple with the “selfishness and privilege” that drives people to commit assault. Ideas include incorporating more courses into the curriculum, encouraging peer to peer mentorship to change cultural norms, and reaching out specifically to students of color and men to provide support and services. By incorporating “broad base student engagement,” Tulane must discuss, create, and evaluate new ideas to address the alarming rates of sexual assault. After 50 minutes of presentation, the stage was opened for Q&A. Questions challenged the location choice of the Kendall Cram lecture hall, the prioritization of resolving this issue all while leading the “Only the Audacious Campaign”, and the simultaneous fight against alcohol and sexual violence. Others directly challenged how the administration handled their individual cases of sexual assault. Fitts continually stresses communication and transparency repeatedly, and the panel as a whole admits the seriousness of these results and that there is a definite call to action.

- Aminah Isiaq is a Sophomore studying Public Health and Psychology; Sarah Schlossberg is a Sophomore studying Public Health, and Anthropology; Amanda Strang is a Freshman studying Public Health and Spanish.

YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE VALID. National narratives around intimate partner violence tend to center white, straight cisgender women and their cisgender straight male partners. The dynamics in those relationships are treated as universal, but our experiences tell us that every intersection of our identities creates a unique dynamic between the abuser and the person experiencing violence. Resources that discuss those dynamics and/or share personal stories about IPV are available here.

-Foster Noone is a Senior studying Public Health and Digital Media Production.

Where’s the Action Plan?

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By Liv Arriviello In September of 2017 1,480 members of the Tulane community shared the, “#WeMatterTU Sexual Violence Prevention Petition” with demands surrounding Tulane University's plans for a holistic approach to solve the problem of sexual assault. The #WeMatterTU Sexual Violence Prevention petition requested tangible courses of action such as, but not limited to, “full-time faculty research positions, full-time trainers – including people of color and LGBTQ+ people, trainings and programming that focus on how to engage men, etc.” The statement was written to 9 members of the Tulane administration, including the three panelists (Michael A. Fitts, President; Tania Tetlow, Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff; Meredith Smith, Assistant Provost for Title IX and Clery Compliance) who answered questions at the recent Wave of Change Town Hall.

The action plan, outlined in the Wave of Change informational packet and explained by panelist expert Tania Tetlow is “a mix” of actions. This includes more measurable initiatives like creating appointable positions and conducting research. Conversely, there was also mention of more abstract components such as, “working to recognize the intensive and focused labor of students” (What We’re Starting From Today pg. 44), or an initiative to better, “understand the root causes of the higher risks facing our LGBTQ+ community, learn about how intersectionality issues directly impacts students of color; and provide support for males” as listed in the section “Addressing Specific Issues of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality & Sexual Violence” (pg. 42).

Junior Paloma Pinto told the panel that she expected members of the administration to, “take these 6 months to come up with a plan to share with us so that when we got this information we weren’t, kind of, just left hanging with it.” When Pinto asked for a more concrete action plan, the panel’s response included phrases such as, “there is not a lot of research on that” - in reference to queer students facing sexual violence on campus – or that the they had spent “countless hours” talking with students about their insights into the campus climate. Though student members of the task force were asked to help administrators in creating an action plan, they did not have access to the data before its release because administrators were concerned that their student status would make it difficult for them to withhold confidential information from their peers. They were shown figures, which one member described as “non-substantive” trends.

In a follow up question, Pinto asked the panelists, “if you’ve hired administrative positions, were any of them people of color?” The response elicited by Tetlow was, “we are working on that now, it is not entirely under our control.” Speculations about the extent of efforts being made to access this integral resource rose amongst students – is it that administrators feel there isn’t a “market” for people of color in this line of work?

Smith later followed up with her plan to create mentorship and internship opportunities in her office because she wants to see her field become more diverse.

Sophomore Christina Krisberg asked a question about allocating more resources to those advocates already doing this work in Case Management and Victim Support Services (CMVSS). As higher education programming is primarily paid for by donations, many students have been wondering about how to direct those funds to the departments that need it most, including CMVSS, research, and other related resources.

Simply put, finding a private donor to pay for a renovated business school proves easier than one to invest in sexual assault prevention. It is in the interest of the Tulane community to work with, not against, staff members who have been dedicated to ending campus sexual violence and supporting survivors. Students want the Tulane administration to give them a more well-developed plan of action.

Tulane’s motto – “Not for one’s self, but for one’s own” is more true now than ever. Students are experiencing a spectrum of emotions ranging from exasperation to devastation. Even bearing this emotional toll, the sense of obligation towards protecting our community prioritizes the collective. As one student put, “Regardless of how frustrated I feel, I don’t feel like I can quit.”

-Liv Arriviello is a Sophomore studying Public Health and English.

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-Sarah Schlossberg is a Sophomore studying Public Health, and Anthropology.

6|Page The Intersectional Race

By Sarah Jones On your mark. Get set. Go! It was 1989 and time for Kimberle Crenshaw to make her mark in the Black Feminist Movement. Coming behind Angela Davis and bell hooks, Crenshaw wanted to continue evoking the idea that feminism is not a one-way street by coining the term intersectionality. With this term, Crenshaw uses the intersection of two streets to illustrate how power structures interact with both race and gender. She demonstrated this by observing the discrimination and oppression of Black women.

Serving as a representative of Anita Hill’s legal team, a Black woman who voiced acts of sexual harassment against her former boss, the now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Crenshaw shed light on the history of sexual violence against Black women which began in their first work place, the plantation. The famous Anita Hill trial highlighted how women, particularly Black women, are made the defendants of their own trials for justice and pained with pushing to make their stories not only heard but believed. Crenshaw stated, “our experiences of racism are shaped by our gender, and our experiences of sexism are often shaped by our race.”

As Crenshaw continued on her race, intersectionality became a term that provided satisfaction and comfort for many. It allowed previously unheard populations to finally understand the unknown and why certain situations happen to us. White feminists had a method to analyze their power dynamics between themselves and their white male counterparts, but they did not use this method to examine their power dynamics with women of color. They took intersectionality and they ran. It was time to use it for their stories, their experiences, to prove that their lives mattered. White feminists did not look back to see if Crenshaw was following their direction and yelling, “Go! Go!”. If they had, they would have been surprised to hear her yelling,” Stop! Stop!”

Continued on Page 14.

-Sarah Jones is a Sophomore studying Political Economy.

-Peri Levine is a Junior studying International Relations and Anthropology with a minor in Studio Art and Jewish Studies.

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“Let me start with a contextual statement: the legacies of racism and sexual violence are absolutely inseparable - sexual violence committed against black women and the children they birthed built the foundation of the fortunes of wealthy southerners that likely made the establishment of this university possible.

When you use the word intersectionality, recognize this: Crenshaw is referencing oppression of people who exist and are oppressed due to their many identities. How can you and Tulane as an institution celebrate the racist legacies of the president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, a segregationist, and confederate soldier Gibson himself and expect to address the issue of sexual violence on this campus for ALL students WITH all students? and expect them to come forward, or trust your response as an institution? while you as individuals have not built this legacy, you have the power to change it - HOW do you intend to?�

- Juharah Worku, Sophomore studying Political Science and Africana Studies.

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-Peri Levine is a Junior studying International Relations and Anthropology with a minor in Studio Art and Jewish Studies.

When #TimesUp Needs More Time

By Maggie Mullins Presumably anyone reading this zine knows what I’m talking about when I discuss the #MeToo movement. Long story short: The volcano erupted. Women are finally able to tell their stories of being sexually violated. The time is up, and sexual misbehavior is no longer being swept under the rug to be dealt with on a different day. Today is the day.

A few weeks ago, I was getting my nails done. I sat next to a sweet woman who immediately struck up conversation. She began by saying her grief therapy group suggested that she go out more during the day to continue on with the normal life that she had before her young daughter passed away. She lost her about 6 months ago. She shared photos and stories of her daughter while wiping away tears. I couldn’t help but feel this intense compassion for this stranger who was going through the unimaginable heartbreak of losing their only daughter too young. We talked about her daughter a little more, and the conversation shifted into a territory that challenged my ability to listen with open ears. We got on the subject of the #MeToo movement, and she vocalized something I’ve seen hundreds of older women say on every Facebook post announcing the newest celebrity who has been accused of sexual assault- “Well, of course I think if someone rapes someone that’s wrong and they should be punished, but if a guy is just too pushy, it’s not fair to ruin his life over it. This whole movement seems like it’s getting a little out of control.” She also shared that because she was in the military for many years, she was no stranger to sexual assault, and insinuated she was a survivor herself.

I get an icy feeling in my stomach whenever someone says something I disagree with, maybe a fear about how I’m about to handle the situation, and this reaction was in high gear now. I’ve heard this argument before, and I know it tends to lead towards victim blaming territory, but I felt it more appropriate to not start an argument with this griefstricken woman on one of the first outings since her daughter died, so I proceeded with extreme caution. I answer back, “Yeah, it’s definitely tricky. I think we didn’t deal with our sexual assault problem for so long, and now it’s kind of exploded. Our society has gone so far in the opposite direction so fast.” She agreed and remarked on how fast society was changing from “when she was a young woman.” I sighed with relief, the icy feeling dissolving. The more we talked, the more it felt like we had reached a good foundation for our argument that helped me understand her hesitancy to jump right on board with the movement- society is changing very fast. Change can be hard to make sense of. Change can be scary.

The more we discussed, I realized she wasn’t someone who felt that we shouldn’t believe or validate survivors. She was someone who’d lived a lot of years as a woman and spent a lot of years as a witness to the ways that sexual assault was often treated as a problem with no solution, a hard truth of life to be accepted. Young women, particularly college educated feminist women who often have probing discussions about the intricacies of sexual assault, have been ready and waiting for this change, and might feel an understandable frustration with older women who express anything other than outright enthusiasm. Perhaps we should extend some patience to those who, like the woman who I sat next to and participated in a crash course in empathy with, are slower to make sense of the cultural crisis that is happening in the world. It’s scary, change is scary, but maybe it can be less scary if we try and reach some kind of common ground with

9|Page those who aren’t as far away from us as we think.

-Maggie Mullins is a Senior studying Communications.

Disconnect

By Harleigh Shaw

My piece 'Disconnect' serves as a personal narrative of reclaiming my relationship with my body. Throughout my teen years, I normalized the sexualization and objectification of my body which led to an ignorant acceptance of violence that was inflicted on it. Since coming to college, I have educated myself more on assault and abuse and have begun a process of unpacking my past experiences and reclaiming my sexuality and exploring it on my own terms. It is an empowering process but also very nuanced due to unlearning years of conditioning. This work is emblematic of a new empowerment, but one still loaded with layers of shame and disconnect. Creating this work, I used resin and a mixture of symbolic materials, including condoms, hair, rocks, sand, beads, and dried figs. The process-oriented facet of this piece was a cathartic attempt at mimicking the multidimensional process of learning and unlearning.

-Harleigh Shaw is a Junior studying Digital Art.

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Rejected Vignette Headlines Written Leading Up to Climate Survey: Tulane encourages students to ask questions at town hall by writing them on a post-it, sealing in a glass bottle, and releasing into the Gulf Administration expected to blame alcohol consumption for sexual violence then blame "the culture of New Orleans" for the drinking behaviors of college students who would be binge drinking Jaeger Bombs in any conceivable college environment New machines around LBC gather student input by creating sentient AI snapshots of users and running them through countless traumatic simulations of the reporting process Tulane, taking cues from the Grammy awards, replaces keynote speaker for next year's shifting the paradigm with Ed Sheeran.

Rejected Vignette Headlines Written After Climate Survey: Cool! This scientist explains why Wave of Change T-Shirts are widely considered only fit for pajamas!

-Cory Cole is a Senior studying Public Health and Spanish.

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keep me in mind

-This poem was submitted by an anonymous Tulane student. The sketch drawing was done by Peri Levine.

12 | P a g e A Letter to Gibson Regarding Sexual Aggression and LGBTQ+ Individuals

By Ryan Herrschaft and Sarah Jones Editing and Graphic Design by Christina Krisberg Tulane’s LGBTQ+* communities are facing a crisis of sexual aggression. The rates of rape of GBQ+ undergraduate men on Tulane’s campus are approximately 6.2 times higher than their straight male counterparts, and the rape of LGBQ+ women is approximately 1.5 times higher compared to their straight female counterparts. Tulane University contributes to and perpetuates the heightened rates of sexual violence among LGBTQ+ populations through its continued inaction to meaningfully engage these communities. For a quick snapshot of some of the many particularly egregious disparities, please review the graphs below.

13 | P a g e Taking Accountability and Pioneering Solutions On almost all measures, GBQ men and LGBQ women reported greater distrust of the administration and higher rates of sexual violence. The systems in place to support survivors are seen with great distrust and are therefore underutilized by this population. These offices must take deliberate steps to increase their accessibility to LGBTQ+ students.

LGBTQ+ students have been marginalized by their administrators, professors, and peers on college campuses across the nation. Nationally and on Tulane’s Campus, there appears to be an assumption that putting rainbow stickers on office doors is the sufficient for inclusivity. In reality, many of the resources that claim to be inclusive are not perceived as such, leaving a large swath of victimized LGBTQ+ students without the necessary support systems. On the whole, LGBTQ+ students are left behind, while the majority of Tulane adopts an “out of sight, out of mind” to their well-being.

The Office for Gender and Sexual Diversity and The Office of Multicultural Affairs, commonly known as “The O”, are the only offices that reliably fight on behalf of LGBTQ+ students and students of color. These offices assist a great number of students, while working with a limited staff, limited space, and picking up the slack of the other inaccessible support systems. Dr. Red Tremmel, Carolyn Barber-Pierre and the staff of The O have dedicated their careers at Tulane to creating a welcoming environment for students. They have made themselves accessible to students and have made it understood that they are there and for students. The same cannot be said for other resources on campus. It is past time for Tulane University to offer The O the respect they deserve and the necessary resources to sufficiently support and advocate on the behalf of marginalized communities.

Additionally, the authors of this article demand that the university take strides to increase the accessibility of resources to LGBTQ+ students, especially those who are increasingly marginalized by race, gender, class and other factors. To gain the trust of these students, administrators must recognize that reform will require significant devotion of time and resources. The issue of accessibility is deeper than an awareness campaign: many of us know these offices exist, but based on the personal experiences or testimonies of others distrust their dedication to promoting our wellbeing. Furthermore, we strongly suggest that the University promote programming, fund research, and implement interventions to bring novel solutions to sexual aggression among LGBTQ+ populations to Tulane’s Campus. Additionally, we demand that the staff in Tulane Campus Health, Tulane Case Management and Victim Support Services, and the Title XI Office be provided with sufficient resources so that they can adequately respond to the unique needs of marginalized communities.

Please view this letter as a call to action. Start conversations with the LGBTQ+ students on this campus.

Many of us will gladly tell you what you can do to help. However, if we take the time to relay our stories, our trauma, and our solutions, know that we will demand your attention, accountability, action. * IMPORTANT NOTE: While Transgender individuals were excluded from the Climate Survey Data, we have included the “T” in the discussion of the data’s implication as they are valued and important members of the community whose grievances deserve our attention. These authors do not speak on behalf of the entire LGBTQ+ community, such a feat would be impossible. Instead, we hope to offer our perspectives on the role of the administration in combating sexual violence. Please note that all voices within the community deserve to be heard. The appropriate forums for such discussions must be created.

-Ryan Herrschaft is a Sophomore studying Public Health, Psychology, and Gender and Sexuality Studies; Sarah Jones is a Sophomore studying Political Economy.

14 | P a g e The Race Continues

By Sarah Jones This race is still continuing and making its way through Tulane’s campus. There is momentum being built within student organizations, faculty, staff, and administrators. How? They are all asking the question: How do we make *insert* intersectional?

Let’s pause this race. There is great confusion with this term intersectionality. Tulane is going through a crisis, well a few crises, of figuring out how to care for all students. At this point, administrators are not doing this and they cannot make the stride to do this, especially in their campaign to end sexual assault on campus, because they are not challenging themselves to dig deep into the students who makeup this campus. We are not a monolith. We are a collective of different identities, communities, and experiences. Experiences that shape us and at times break us. These experiences direct us, are the catalyst of our actions, and the biggest pull to silence us.

Yes, Tulane has a high percentage of students who have reported experiences of sexual assault. But we can never forget the number of students who do not report, specifically students of color, and their reasons for not doing so. I am not going to contradict myself, and speak for all students of color, primarily women of color.

I am going to speak for myself. As a Black woman, I struggle every day to imagine what it is like to describe myself without using Black as a prefix for woman and woman as a suffix for Black. These are my identities and this is who I am. One does not matter more than the other because the impact of the two are equally heavy. So heavy that I lie awake at night imagining who would help me, who would care for me, and who would believe me. Do not tell me that “intersectionality is important” and that I have the power to view myself as one or the other when you are using your power to diminish my very existence on this campus.

I am sorry, Tulane, but you have been disqualified from the race. It is time for you to give the term intersectionality back to those who can finish the race strong. You cannot understand intersectionality, true intersectionality, without understanding that you cannot separate race from gender. You do not understand the meaning of the term and the history and context that served as the foundation for intersectionality. You have a great deal of homework to do, and I suggest you start now. Because if you do not, in the words of the great Ms. Crenshaw, “some of us, the most vulnerable, are going to fall through the cracks.” And I cannot allow that to happen to myself, my peers, or anyone on this campus.

-Sarah Jones is a Sophomore studying Political Economy.

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Our Wonderful Contributors Writers Liv Arriviello Cory Cole Ryan Herrschaft Aminah Isiaq Sarah Jones Maggie Mullins Sarah Schlossberg Amanda Strang Juharah Worku Artists Hannah Craig Sarah Hill Peri Levine Alyssa Liehr Harleigh Shaw Executive Staff Praveena Fernes Alexis Martin Editors Lauren Allen Sarah Scribner Designers Agatha Magierski

Aminah Isiaq

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-Alyssa Liehr is a Senior studying Neuroscience and Public Health.