Presidents meet with IWL, respond to demands

On Nov. 3, the Presidents’ offices sent out an email with updates on the institution’s plan to go forward in reference to the IWL demands and Pat Hall incident.

A Presidential Advisory Council is in the works to be established at CSB/SJU. This council will be made up of IWL student staff members, members of CSB/SJU Student Senates’ sexual misconduct committee, other interested students, Title IX Team members, faculty and staff.

In this email, there is a list of calls to action that will be implemented by the end of the semester. This list of actions addresses all of the Institute for Women’s Leadership demands as well as additional actions such as reformatted bystander training, a new Title IX case manager and additional resources to educate and make sexual misconduct reporting easier are being added to the CSB/SJU website.

“We are committed to providing a collaborative community response where students, faculty, staff and administration work together to solve the issue of sexual misconduct and accountability as well as increasing respect for all, consistent with our Benedictine and Catholic values,” the Presidents’ update email said.

The Pat Hall incident was a turning point that drove the administration to take action for change at CSB/SJU.

“The Pat Hall incident was unique on its own and really made us know that we had to sit down and make a demand for action” said Julia Geller, fall semester student director for the IWL.

Many meetings have taken place on both campuses to assess and determine what needs to happen going forward when it comes to keeping students safe and to prevent situations like the ones in Pat Hall from reoccurring.

“There have been meetings with the IWL, CSB and SJU leadership teams, faculty meetings in several departments as well as independent group meetings,” said Mike Connolly, dean of students at SJU.

On Oct. 25, The IWL held a meeting which both CSB President Laurie Hamen and SJU President James Mullen attended. During this meeting, the IWL listed their demands on the Students for Action Petition. “It was really awesome that they took the time to come to our meetings and hear our reasoning for our demands. The administration as a whole has been very receptive to us,” Geller said.

The petition the IWL created has been signed by over 1,800 signees. This is over 1,800 individuals that are looking for change on these campuses.

One of the demands that Geller believes should be implemented first is the reestablishment of the Men’s Development Institute.

Geller says that this is a crucial part of creating a safe environment for students on CSB/SJU campuses. This would ensure that further conversations about sexual misconduct are being held on the St. John’s campus.

The idea of toxic culture at St. John’s is a topic that is being continuously discussed within the institution.

“For something to be a culture means that it has been this way for some time which also means that it will take time to change” Connolly said. “We should look at how we can identify healthy masculinity here on campus and know that this is not just one campus’s issue, this is a societal and national issue that needs to be changed.”