‘Please know, it is not your fault’ | UD sexual assault survivors tell their stories during candlelight vigil
By Sean Greene
Thirteen days after a University of Delaware sophomore allegedly attacked a fellow student, survivors of sexual abuse gathered on campus to share their stories, and attempt to heal.
A candlelight vigil was held in front of Memorial Hall Thursday night, where four University of Delaware students told their stories of abuse, and recovery, in between musical performances.
The final speaker of the night was senior Emma Burrows, who did not directly reference the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity that the now-suspended Brendan Freyre was a member of when he allegedly assaulted his victim, but made a strong implication that she had a similar story to what happened on October 8, 2021.
“Last year, I was raped by a member of a recognized fraternity on our campus, that is currently involved in an investigation for harming another woman. Even though I cannot say the name of this fraternity for legal reasons, you might feel like I did when I found out. When I realized that a member of the same fraternity had done such terrible things to another woman, I was mad.”
Four-year colleges and universities cut tenure-track hiring by 25 percent around the time of the Great Recession — and hires of people of color declined disproportionately, especially at public and research-oriented institutions, according to a new study in Sociological Science.
In addition to these data, the new paper offers another, urgent takeaway: the same reversal of progress toward faculty diversity could happen in the COVID-19 era, if institutions don’t take steps to ensure it doesn’t.
“That hires of faculty of color declined during the Great Recession may have gone unnoticed by administrators struggling to keep the ship afloat,” the study says. “Provosts and deans facing the COVID-19 crisis should take note that institutions facing uncertainty may reduce new-hire diversity unwittingly. It may be that public and research-oriented institutions will again face the greatest uncertainty over the next few years and will again see the greatest declines in the diversity of new faculty.”
Doctoral students often suffer the worst consequences of the faculty’s inattention to the academic workplace.
By Leonard Cassuto
Professors and doctoral students don’t usually think of academe as a workplace. Outside of the obvious exceptions, such as the laboratory sciences, much of our writing and research is solitary. More important, we tend to see that work as centered not within a physical space — like a department or a campus — but in the wider culture of our disciplines.
Yet we do have a professional workplace. And because we pay it so little attention, it often doesn’t function well. That hurts all of us, but it’s graduate students who suffer the worst consequences. Many of our Ph.D. programs teach students to prize a faculty job and disdain other career paths. Given the limited number of tenure-track jobs actually available, we are, in effect, teaching them to be unhappy. Not surprisingly, many of them are. Their unhappiness — and anger, sometimes spiked with feelings of betrayal — isn’t an isolated effect. It needs to be considered in terms of the academic workplace as a whole.
The University of Delaware Athletics Department participated in the 2021 NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign last week. With content from student-athletes, coaches, and staff, the Blue Hens used their social media channels to express their thoughts and feelings on diversity and inclusion.
The three-day social media campaign had a theme for each day.
Day 1 (Tuesday, Oct. 19): “My Voice, My Platform”: exploring student-athletes’ identities, perspectives, and experiences.
Day 2 (Wednesday, Oct. 20): “Championing Change”: outlining personal and institutional action steps for inclusive excellence.
Day 3 (Thursday, Oct. 21): “Belonging Is…”: defining belonging to support fostering communities of belonging within athletics.
The Blue Hens closed out their diversity and inclusion week with a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chat and Chew for athletics and recreation staff members.
Quotes
“Athletics is often referred to as the door step to the University. With that being said, our Blue Hens family of administrators, coaches, and staff are committed to the work, responsibility, education and awareness to promote and foster a diverse culture of integrity and inclusive excellence.” – Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Natasha Adair
“I was awarded the opportunity to speak my piece to the entire student-athlete body, and in doing so I started to be seen as more of a leader on campus. And it doesn’t stop with just the talk. Through this action, we were able to form the Student-Athlete Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at Delaware which I was fortunate enough to be selected co-chair. We will ensure that everyone who attends UD feels represented and safe to be themselves.”- Football Student-Athlete, Dejoun Lee
The Biden Institute on Tuesday honored Lee with their 2021 Woman of Power and Purpose award.
By Halley Bondy
At age 89—an age when most people would consider settling down—Opal Lee embarked on the biggest journey of her life.
In 2016, determined to elevate Juneteenth into a national holiday, Lee decided to walk 1,400 miles from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C. armed with 1.6 million signatures. With the support of fellow Juneteenth activists, she reached her goal in about four months.
“I felt like if a little old lady in tennis shoes was making her way to Washington, D.C,” Lee, now 95, told Know Your Value.
Her efforts eventually paid off. President Joe Biden signed the federal holiday into law in June of this year. He called Lee an “incredible woman.”
The Bidens have remained awed by Lee. On Tuesday, The Biden Institute honored her with their 2021 Woman of Power and Purpose award, presented by Valerie Biden, the president’s sister, at the University of Delaware.
“Opal is the epitome of power and purpose,” Valerie Biden told Know Your Value. “This woman has the backbone of steel…she has a vision, and she is hopeful.”
Valerie Biden continued: “If she doesn’t prove that success can happen at any age, I don’t know who does.”
