Chants of “No means no!” echoed through the air as the sun set on the MU campus Tuesday evening.
About 500 MU students filled Traditions Plaza to advocate in solidarity with sexual assault survivors during a Mizzou Without Rape protest.
The plaza was transformed from a location for kicking off MU Homecoming celebrations to a site of students speaking out against incidents of sexual violence and drugging in Columbia. They also demanded the university change the way it handles such matters.
MU student and protest organizer Chloe Nielsen opened by acknowledging the recent emails sent by MUPD to students regarding incidents of drugged drinks and sexual assault as symptoms of a greater social issue of sexual violence at MU.
“All of the time, survivors do not feel safe coming forward and talking about what happened to them on this campus, in this community, in our state, in our country and in our society,” Nielsen said. “And that is a problem we need to address.”
Nielsen highlighted the concerns acknowledged in a letter of demands to the University of Missouri linked to the Mizzou Without Sexual Assault Instagram account.
"A lot of the dialogue we saw was really blaming victims and not addressing the fact that there is crime on campus."MU student and protest organizer Chloe Nielsen
The demands included calling for the university to do a better job of preventing sexual assaults and “making it scary to be an abuser,” said Nielsen. Protesters also called for more support for survivors following a trauma, a more transparent process for the university to address students’ concerns and more inclusiveness for male and LGBTQ+ survivors of assault.
“A lot of the dialogue we saw was really blaming victims and not addressing the fact that there is crime on campus, that there is crime around campus and that there is a problem that needs to be addressed with criminals, not with girls getting pepper spray or girls testing their drinks,” Nielsen said before the protest.
Mackenzie Beaver, chapter director of MU’s It’s On Us, an organization aiming at sexual assault awareness and elimination on campus, asked the crowd: “Who here feels as though they do not have the resources necessary to support them if they were ever a survivor of sexual assault?”
In the sea of attendees, a majority of hands shot up.
After the speeches commenced, further chants of “Make rapists afraid again!” and “Support survivors!” echoed through the plaza.
The floor was then opened up to all attending to yell out their concerns and create open dialogue about their experiences on the college campus.
The topics were wide-ranging, including concerns about victim blaming in MUPD announcements, calls for better transparency within Greek Life and issues with Title IX reporting processes. The list of concerns grew with every shout, each followed by supportive applause from the crowd.
Though some administration, including UM President Mun Choi, were absent, those present were MU Vice Chancellor Bill Stackman and MU spokesperson Christian Basi.
Basi said the university supports the students attending the protest and continues to work toward increasing campus safety.
“We feel that working together, we can make this campus a safer place, but it’s also very important they know that we do not tolerate these crimes on our campus, and that we hold those individuals — whether they’re students, faculty, staff or visitors on our campus — we will hold them accountable to the fullest extent that we are able to do so,” Basi said.
Basi also acknowledged the importance of transparency, saying, “part of this also is making sure that we are also educating the campus community about what is there and where we are being transparent, because you need to know where to go to see it.”
Nielsen said the demonstration is just the beginning.
“Until we see action,” she said, “we’re going to remind them that we have student support and that students don’t feel safe on this campus.”
