Leadership of Exonians Against Sexual Assault Turns Over

Exonians Against Sexual Assault (EASA) recently turned over its board, appointing current members to fill the positions of cohead and discussion leader. The new co-heads are uppers Mila DeGuere, Brian Zhao and Daisy Tichenor. Uppers Jamie Cassidy, Jacqui Byrne, Molly Seibel, Tim Han, Conor Shannon and Lara Galligani, and lowers Inumidun Oyebode and Shaan Bhandarkar will serve as the new discussion leaders. These board members will work with faculty and students to help address and prevent sexual assault on campus and create a safe and supportive community for survivors in the coming school year.

"On a personal level, I have watched many friends go through the aftermath of rape and sexual assault and it's obviously something we need to prevent in the future.”

Senior and outgoing co-head Claire Dauge-Roth founded the club last year in response to the investigations of sexual misconduct on campus and The Boston Globe articles that were published. “EASA focused on breaking the boundary we have with talking about issues of assault on our campus and sex culture in general,” she said. Dauge-Roth added that EASA tries to get students to confront issues in the sexual climate, as the club understands it is a student responsibility to change student culture, and that the administration can assist students, but cannot solve the issues alone. EASA’s core message prompted upper and new cohead Brian Zhao to seek a board position. Zhao said, “I appreciated EASA’s mission following the reports of The Boston Globe over the summer: To talk about the uncomfortable.” Zhao hoped that his voice could be one that broached difficult issues, and therefore he “wanted to contribute to EASA in any way possible.”

In its first year, the club’s impact has been felt across campus. The club brought an assembly speaker, William Hirsch, to Exeter this spring. Members of the club also visited health classes and facilitated discussions between all dorms on campus. In addition, EASA provided dorms with flow charts to clarify the process of reporting a sexual assault. Dauge-Roth said that the club worked with the administration to create these flow-charts because, as she says, “Someone would go into the process [of reporting an assault] not really knowing what to expect and be blindsided.”

Despite making these strides, a few factors hindered the club’s progress. It took the founders more time than expected to get EASA off the ground, and for board members to attend training sessions with Director of Student Well-Being Jane Stapleton. In addition, when the club attempted to implement member meetings, there was a low turnout.

In the coming year, EASA hopes to focus on creating a website with resources for survivors of sexual assault, as well as making EASA a more visible part of campus. This spring, EASA will confront the challenges of society’s narrow view of masculinity. Dauge-Roth says the club will be making videos in a similar format to BuzzFeed, in which they will ask upperclassmen boys questions and feature multiple answers. She says that the club will release these videos on social media in order to “try to improve that aspect of the club and reach out to different pools on campus.” Zhao agreed, saying that he hopes this visual initiative will “help EASA remain in people’s minds throughout the year.”

DeGuere is hopeful for the coming year. “I think EASA is in great hands--we were able to comb through a lot of really thoughtful, qualified applicants who are passionate about our cause. I'm really excited for the future of our club,” she said.

Dauge-Roth agreed that there was an accomplished group of applicants, and spoke about the application process and the club’s purpose. She said, “We were looking for [people with] initiative for next year; who was going to keep the ball rolling, who was going to have energy, enthusiasm, a positive attitude towards how we make Exeter better, because that’s mainly the focus of our club.”

Senior Gracie Williams spoke of the need to have only a small number of board members in order to keep the club running effectively. She said, “We want to keep our board large enough to impact the community, but not too large that it would be disorganized. We have encouraged the students that we were not able to offer positions on the board to stay involved with the club next year.” The current board is speaking with the new coheads about implementing member meetings for next year, and aims to make the club more community-oriented so more students can join EASA.

Williams also talked about the future of EASA and her aim for it to become an integral part of the Exeter campus. “The students that we chose to take over EASA are extremely qualified and motivated. They will propel the club from crisis management to a staple of the Exeter community for years to come,” Williams said.

Barbara Desmond, an English Instructor and one of the club’s advisors, was also hopeful for EASA’s new board. “I am excited to work with the new group and interested in hearing their ideas for the future direction of EASA,” she said. “My hope is that this rising board will share the passion, commitment and vision of our current group.”

Along with bringing commitment and passion to the new board, upper Conor Shannon, a newly-elected board member, feels that he brings a unique perspective to the club. Shannon is a varsity athlete, and can therefore provide a first-hand perspective on the stigma he has noticed, in which people assume athletes are antagonistic. He says, “I think that people are more likely to assume an athlete is sexually aggressive whether or not that's true. Based on my time around the hockey team and my athlete friends I feel that this is an uninformed assumption.” Shannon spoke about his hopes to change the stigma around athletes in conversations about sexual assault, saying, “A big buzzword over the past year was ‘locker room talk’ and I think having a voice against sexual assault in such an environment could make a difference.”

New co-head Daisy Tichenor also aims to make a difference on Exeter’s campus. Tichenor said that when she witnessed EASA’s work she knew she wanted to be involved in the club. She said, “As a member of Exeter's community who wants to make positive change, I felt I could do that through EASA. On a personal level, I have watched many friends go through the aftermath of rape and sexual assault and it's obviously something we need to prevent in the future.” Tichenor plans to bring about change by creating more opportunities for interested students to get involved in EASA, by implementing weekly discussions on Exeter’s sexual climate and by bringing in more speakers.

With these ideas and initiatives in place, EASA is looking towards the coming year as filled with opportunities to change campus culture. Dauge-Roth says that she is “excited” to see what the new board will accomplish in the coming year, and thinks that in 2017-18 the board will “have more time to focus on community outreach and how to build EASA for the long run.”