SIGN THE PETITION: President Jonathan Veitch and Dean Barbara Avery

Please sign the petition from concerned Oxy students to President Jonathan Veitch and Dean Barbara Avery to use the Oxy alert system to alert students when a rape has been reported. Any rapist on our campus is a continuing threat.

Dear students, parents, alumni, and faculty:

On February 25, 2013, Oxy administrators were notified of a sexual assault that occurred on campus Sunday, February 24th. However, they did not alert the campus community until local media reported the incident. Though the administration agreed to the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition’s 12 Demands in November 2012, they failed to fulfill their promise to implement the 7th demand: “Use Oxy’s Crime Alert System to Inform Campus of Reported Sexual Assaults.” In Dean Avery’s email to the campus community, she says that the perpetrator, an Oxy student, was “determined not to constitute a continuing threat.” We reject the notion that rapists on our campus are not a continuous threat to our safety. The failure to alert the community of sexual assaults renders the experiences of survivors on our campus invisible and perpetuates the myth that stranger rape is more common than rape perpetrated by a non-stranger. Recently, the campus made no response after OSAC organized a protest of hundreds of students to demand Oxy Alerts. The Occidental community will not be safe until the Oxy Alert system is implemented in accordance with OSAC’s Demand #7.

Thank you for your support in making Occidental a safer community.

For more information and resources for survivors, please explore the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition’s website.

Thank you,

Hannah Kessel ’15 & Michaela Bosch ’15