Remembering Pat Hall: it’s time to wake up

A student body’s living memory on a college campus is about four years long. Each new class comes in a clean slate, and every graduating class represents the last group who experienced a particular time on campus. Out with the bad history and the mistakes of past students, in with the fresh ideas, curriculums and strategic priorities.

We graduated “way back” in 2022 and 2023, so with the exception of a few students we may have crossed paths with during their first years, we don’t know any current students anymore. In light of current events, we are writing to bring some of our lived experience back to the forefront.

We’ve been reflecting on our own experiences the past few days since learning the news about the two sexual assault allegations and one resulting arrest on campus. Current students may not be aware of what we referred to as “the Pat Hall Competition” from back in 2021, so please allow us to refresh you.

When we were a senior and junior, we both worked for The Record as Editor-in-Chief and a News Editor, respectively. In October of 2021, we received a cryptic email that came into the organization’s inbox. Several private, off-record and late-night conversations and interviews with RAs, administrators and affected students resulted in a story on the front page of the Record with the headline “Reports surface of ‘sex competition’ in Patrick Hall” detailing how the first and second floors of the dorm were allegedly taking part in a competition where different sexual acts with women came with different point values.

What resulted from this story was, to our knowledge, unprecedented. MPR, FOX9, the St. Cloud Times and other media outlets called and emailed The Record. Reporters showing up to campus with cameras. Six hundred signatures in 24 hours. Seven hundred students walked out of classes to fill the lawn outside the Reef chanting “stop the violence, no more silence.”

Outside of recent on campus events, institutions such as police departments, governments, and college campuses have rightfully earned the public’s doubts. To be abundantly clear, we do not write to criticize CSB+SJU’s administration. By all accounts of what we’ve seen, they’ve taken all the appropriate steps we all should expect – public acknowledgement of the arrest, removal of at least one accused student and dispersal of resources for current students. As far as we can tell, this means that the alleged victims trusted their school enough to report and that the reporting procedures did their job.

Instead, we’re here to talk about the culture that has persisted for the last seven-plus years. Two rape accusations and an arrest on the same small liberal arts campus don’t just happen without a culture that creates an environment that fosters them. Administrators and institutions canonly do so much, and most of that is reactive. Proactively, as the saying goes, “we protect us.”

We are not current students, so we want to be cautious with assumptions. That said, a cursory scan at on- campus club and organization social media accounts and websites revealed a deafening silence.

When the Pat Hall competition story came out, there was an Institute of Women’s Leadership petition out the next day. The protest was organized the same week. The CSB and SJU Senates had official statements. Dozens of Record opinions were submitted in the following weeks. A statement condemning the actions published in The Record with over two hundred faculty and staff member signatures attached. The response was overwhelming and impossible to ignore.

Bennies and Johnnies, where is that energy for your fellow community members now?

Creating such a broad, wide-reaching dialogue and community where you couldn’t turn away from the issue even if you tried is how you make change. It was the only thing people talked about for days.

When you create a community so loud it’s impossible to ignore, violence is no longer welcome. When it came to Pat Hall, we protected us. Our community protected its own and made it loud and clear that violence and predatory acts are not tolerated.

We don’t confidently know the intricacies of what is occurring daily on-campus now. We’re both working our 9-5s in the Twin Cities reflecting fondly on the days we would gladly stay up until 2 a.m. in Guild Hall laying out pages of a newspaper. What we can confidently say is that the first few days after that story broke showed what people mean when they describe CSB+SJU as a tight knit community.

About 12% of all rape accusations result in legal charges. Two in under a month in a community of 3,000 is an astounding statistical anomaly. Now is the time for community. Now is the time for student-led action. Now is the time for healing and justice. We all have a role to play in keeping our communities safe and standing against a culture that allows sexual violence, and now is the time to do your part.