Is Simfan OK?

Paul Kemp
Junior Chimp

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Is Simfan OK?

« on: September 07, 2014, 06:46:38 PM »

Quote from: Governor Varavour on September 06, 2014, 11:54:39 PM

UPDATE: Dean of the undergraduate college runs into Sulkowicz, awkwardness ensues.

Some more updates:

They've made listicles about it.

A website has been set up where people can sign up to help Sulkowicz carry around the mattress.

Here's a video of her explaining her project to the campus newspaper.

Interestingly enough, here is a video of none other than the alleged rapist, Jean-Paul Nungesser, explaining his project (a short film) to the campus newspaper, last year- seven months after the incident.

Quote from: Paul Kemp on September 05, 2014, 08:56:28 AM

Quote from: Governor Varavour on September 04, 2014, 11:19:13 PM

So I am interested in your opinions on this... matter.

What are you doing?

I don't know. I just don't- I really don't know what can be done about this. I suppose you (and Joe) are interested in my opinion about this. Then again I doubt you are.

But having seen her carry that mattress myself, as well as having the issue quite literally shoved in my face- campus is being swarmed with reporters- it's impossible to not think about it. But you actually don't see people here talking about it, or at least I haven't.

I personally haven't talked about it with anyone sans one or two close friends who can be relied to generally be of the same mind as me. I still think there are only two real firm "positions" one can have about this, as I said before, both of which are rather terrible, so I imagine talking about this- despite the fact it has completely enveloped our university and attracted international attention- would be close to sheer horror. Which is why I wanted to bring it up here rather than just thinking about it.

But I'm not sure what to think. Bacon King (and others), raised up the issue of the shortcomings of the campus disciplinary system and sexual assault policy, which are obviously pertinent. For most of this year the university It certainly needs to be changed- which it actually has recently, and quite expansively.

The new "Gender-Based Misconduct Policy" (I am not entirely sure why it is called that), for example, states that "a person also cannot give consent under [the Gender-Based Misconduct Policy] if he or she is incapacitated by drinking, drugs, being asleep, or for any other reason," which is a rather uncompromising approach to consent (Is the drunken hook-up now non-consensual? This would seem to necessitate a rather radical configuration in social norms that I gather many of the people who call for the end of "rape culture" would not look favourably upon.).

But more relevant to the issues that Bacon King brought up is that the new policy permits advisors or attorneys to "accompany students to any meetings or hearings related to investigations."

Also fun fact: I started this post at 07:06 and finished...whenever I end up posting this. It's 11:45 right now. Wait-what the hell?! Have I been sitting here for this long?!

I'll skip over the digression about how campus activists responded to the new policy by complaining that they weren't involved in writing it and get back to Sulkowicz.

I mean, I sympathize with her. I have no reason to believe she's being dishonest about what happened to her, and so it's clear she's been through a great deal of mental anguish and distress. Indeed, my first reaction to hearing this was a rather knee-jerk distaste for her "performance art", which I generally rather dislike. I still don't consider it "art", but after hearing her explain her reasoning for carrying the mattress, I saw how it rather poignantly served as a physical embodiment of the trauma and pain she must carry with her at all times. I actually feel the mass of attention the media has given to this attests to just how strikingly it captures that feeling.

But I absolutely can't get behind what she's trying to accomplish with this- have her alleged rapist expelled. Flawed as it might have been, the disciplinary panel did not find Nungesser responsible for what he was accused of, and nor has any court done so. Emotive as her actions might be, it doesn't make him any more legally culpable than he is now. As much as I or anyone else might believe what she said happened to her did happen and that her rapist should be expelled and punished, it doesn't give us any justifiable reason to do so. In that way this whole thing comes across as an attempt to find him guilty in a court of public opinion so that he may be run off campus, the other courts having failed her. It is an act of a desperate person with no-one else to whom to turn.

Again, I don't think she's wrong to feel that way. But it almost doesn't seem that way. This is a senior art thesis, a calculated and planned project. An organised campaign. It's not something someone overwhelmed by their demons would be able to carry out. Which makes me wonder about her reasoning as to why she did not report her rape sooner. I have never been a victim of sexual assault and thus lack the ability to truly empathise with her, but she waited eight months to file a report with the disciplinary office. And then, afterwards, it was close to two whole years until she went to the police. Shame, anger, embarrassment, frustration- I can imagine it- but I'm thrown off by her ability to now stand front and center in the public square with this when she had been so hobbled by it for so long.

I don't intend to criticise her- perhaps she did suddenly feel the need to be open about what happened to her, but that night is now over two years in the past. What can be done? What if evidence, even if there was a trial, would anyone be able to produce beyond the testimonies of the two and possibly the almost certainly unreliable recollection of people in neighboring rooms? What real evidence is there beyond Sulkowicz's word? I take her for it- but that's not how laws work. I guess my frustration in the prior paragraph comes from the utter futility of further investigation or trial- there simply is no evidence at this point; had she come forth sooner, it would be different. There would be evidence, and justice could be served.

But for me the idea of expelling a student found guilty of no crime or deemed responsible for any wrongdoing strikes me as fundamentally unjust, and I'll admit I honestly find the idea more revolting than the idea of a rapist going unpunished. I mean, is this what people- other than Sulkowicz, who unlike the rest of us presumably knows the absolute truth of the matter- want to happen? For someone to be expelled (and presumably imprisoned) without a shred of evidence? It is one thing to reject disciplinary boards and courts of law as biased and incompetent, but it is another to completely reject the idea of the rule of law and the right to a fair trial. I really don't know- is this something people believe? Is it something they want?

That is perhaps what is so distressing about this whole affair: "justice" would be unjust, but "injustice" would be just.

What do you think should be done? Because I simply don't know.

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