PIRC Statistics Spark Discussion
Exonians returned from fall break to find posters hung across the busiest locations on campus, from classroom whiteboards to Dining Hall cork boards. Each poster presented a statistic, such as, “73 percent of single Exonians said they would like to be in a committed relationship, but still haven’t found the right person” or “80 percent of Exonians don’t send messages about sex or sexual activity on Snapchat.”
I know a couple of my friends made jokes about the posters, but other than that, it hasn’t really sparked a conversation ...
The nine images, which depict current and former students holding up sheets of paper with messages that supplement the statistics written at the top, were posted for five days before they were taken down last Sunday. The statistics were taken from the results of a survey on Exeter’s social climate, completed by 869 students last January.
According to senior and EASA Board Member Lara Galligani, the posters were put “in places where you wouldn’t want them to be...so that when you see them every day, the posters will be ingrained in your mind.”
The distribution of posters is the first initiative in the Exeter Social Norms Campaign. Former Director of Student Health and Wellbeing Jane Stapleton, along with her group at the University of New Hampshire, the Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC), started the campaign last January in collaboration with a working group comprised of Exeter students, faculty and staff. Leadership of the effort has since been passed on to current Director of Student Health and Wellbeing Christina Palmer.
According to an email Principal MacFarlane sent to the Academy community last Thursday, the campaign is part of PEA’s and PIRC’s shared goal of developing “a comprehensive plan to prevent sexual and relationship violence and stalking at Exeter.”
The working group met bi-weekly with PIRC last year to develop the campaign, of which the posters are only the beginning. After gathering student feedback in a survey which will be sent to all Exonians under the age of 18 this Saturday, Dec. 16, PIRC and Stapleton’s group plans to work with EASA to develop semi-permanent replacements. Furthermore, MacFarlane’s email presents the initiative as a brief “pilot program,” created to encourage student reflection and discussion.
Many students mentioned the posters’ aesthetic as a particular weakness. “The posters are in Comic Sans first of all, and they’re just kind of obnoxious,” lower Avery Clowes said. “I don’t take the font Comic Sans seriously.”
In some instances, stylistic deficiencies and awkward phrasing detracted from serious discussion of the campaign’s subject matter among students. “I know a couple of my friends made jokes about the posters, but other than that, it hasn’t really sparked a conversation,” lower Charlie Venci said.
Upper Miles Mikofsky also took issue with the design, focusing more on the process by which the posters were developed than the messaging itself. “I didn’t pay as much attention to the statistics as I did how strange it was that they held up blank sheets of paper that people then wrote on,” he said.
However, Galligani sees the reactions to the design as an advantage, committed to the view that any publicity is good publicity. “The font is a font that will stand out to you,” she said. “I’ve noticed that people have started talking about them, and people are putting them on their Snapchat stories. Obviously, some people are doing it to make fun of them, or are making jokes, but ultimately it reaches our goal of bringing awareness.”
Alumna Emma Norton ’17 participated in the working group last year and is pictured in one of the posters holding a sign that reads, “People think everyone here wants to hook up, but we’re all just looking for love.” According to her, one of the main goals of the campaign is to challenge students’ preconceived notions about the Exeter community. “Hopefully these posters...make people realize that the things they think are true about the sexual climate on campus aren’t always true,” she said.
For Venci, the posters achieved this goal. “Seeing [the statistics] in writing is so unexpected in some cases,” he said. “I saw one about 82 percent of Exonians asking for consent, and it just seems odd that you wouldn’t get consent. That was really eye-opening for me.”
Others were largely unaffected by the information. Upper Jeremy Xu said that while he found some of the statistics “a little bit interesting, most of them were expected.” Lower Destiny Rogers was similarly nonplussed. The statistics didn’t affect her outlook on the hookup culture on campus, as she does not feel that Exeter has a toxic sexual climate. “I’ve learned, but they didn’t really change my opinion on anything regarding sexual assault,” she said.
Venci thought this lack of reaction may be indicative of a community that is already aware of the issues on which the posters commented. “We’ve had a lot of assemblies about [the sexual climate],” he said. “I feel like it’s kind of a prevalent topic, so people are generally pretty well-informed about the statistics.”
Despite PIRC’s efforts to place posters where they would have the greatest impact, some students found their widespread distribution bothersome and intrusive. Mikofsky mentioned that faculty had told him that the campaign is the first in many years that requires teachers to hang signage inside their classrooms. “Everywhere you turn on the first floor of Webster, they’re there,” Mikofsky said. “I think they are alienating both the faculty and, to an extent, students. But with the faculty, it’s worse.”
Venci agreed that the location of the posters should be reconsidered. “Don’t hang them in classrooms,” he suggested. “They’re large and brightly colored and right there on the board, and it’s kind of distracting.”
Both EASA and Palmer plan to use these critiques to make refinements for a new set of posters. “Palmer’s goal is to eventually hand the project over to EASA, take the feedback, adapt [the posters], probably retake the photos every few years and put them up every year to showcase what they’re about,” senior and EASA Board Member Mila DeGuere said.
EASA faculty advisor Barbara Desmond stressed the importance of these continuing efforts. “Making real and lasting change will take time and involve a coordinated effort by all of us as well as a willingness to come back to this subject again and again every year, as new students arrive,” she said.
Palmer elaborated on these future projects. She detailed three plans for the EASA and PIRC collaborations, which include “providing training for EASA, proctors, student listeners in bringing in the bystander [and] training with Haven,” as well as “providing...circle training for faculty to begin piloting this tool in helping with difficult conversations and strengthen community.”
Palmer hopes that student leaders will take this training and share it within dorms, groups, teams and more. She also plans on assisting with the implementation of EASA’s “presentations on healthy relationships in prep health classes winter term,” and wants to “be a resource as they plan for April (Sexual Assault Month) school-wide activities.”
Upper Euwie Park hopes the Social Norms Campaign will continue to raise awareness of campus cultures and their consequential effects on PEA. “This sexual assault poster movement may have received backlash, but it is the start of a necessary initiative,” she said. “Exonians may unknowingly participate or perpetuate certain cultures, some positive and some negative, but we need to reflect on our experiences. This reflection starts with consciousness.”