This is my tenth year of teaching at Linfield College, and this is the first time that The Linfield Review has published a case of an alleged violent rape and sexual assault so publicly. I commend you for your bravery in publishing this report and breaking the silence surrounding this rape that has taken place on this campus. My heart goes out to the victim and her family.

While we receive all kinds of emails from campus security and administration about petty crimes, auto thefts, and suspicious subjects on our campus, I fail to understand, why our campus community was not notified of this alleged sexual assault that took place on our campus.

Based on the report published by The Linfield Review, “The alleged crimes occurred at 2 a.m. on Sept. 13 in [Diego] Garza’s room in HP Apartment Building E 104, according to the police’s probable cause statement”. According to the article, Garza was arrested on Sept. 16, 2014 in connection with an alleged sexual assault. “Garza was charged on Sept. 17 with rape, sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration, and sexual abuse, all in the first degree according to a court document.”

This failure to circulate a report on this alleged and violent rape that has taken place on this campus, and furthermore, a failure to hold any meaningful and transparent discussion about this nature of sexual assault on this campus, have created a very unsafe campus for our female students.

Students need to know in a much more proactive manner what is being done to prevent this kind of sexual assault from ever happening on this campus again.  We owe this to our students.  We owe this to their parents who have trusted us and have sent their daughters to study here at Linfield. 

While teaching is our primary responsibility, I also believe it is our moral and ethical obligation to create and maintain a safe climate for our students.  I have talked to several students in the last couple days, and it is extremely distressing to hear from them, how unsettled they feel about this sexual assault that has taken place on this campus.

I believe our administration has a moral and ethical responsibility to make such violent crimes against women more transparent and visible, especially when the victim has filed a police report.  It is the ethical responsibility of our administration to ensure that every citizen on this campus feels safe.

While some members of our campus community may feel the need to protect the image of Linfield from being damaged as a result of publishing an article in The Linfield Review,  let me remind those people, what has been damaged permanently, is the life of a female student that was forcefully raped. Any attempt to either sabotage, or any reluctance to hold a campus wide dialogue about this rape is an irresponsible and a cowardly act. Such a non-proactive stance will immensely damage the safety of the citizens of this college.

The subject of sexual assault on campuses has surfaced on the national stage. On Sept. 19 President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced the formation of It’s On Us initiative, a national campaign to help put an end to sexual assault on college campuses. It’s On Us asks everyone, men and women across America, to make a personal commitment to step off the sidelines and be part of the solution to campus sexual assault.

In blunt and unequivocal terms President Obama said,  “Society still does not sufficiently value women. We still don’t condemn sexual assault as loudly as we should. We make excuses. We look the other way. The message this sends can have a chilling effect” on young men and women.

Our own college president, Tom Hellie, in his State of the College address delivered on Sept. 22 mentioned nothing about this alleged rape and sexual assault directly in his speech, but emphasized that we “Educate All Constituents on Title IX Issues.” 

In particular Hellie said:
“At Linfield I know that our student affairs staff has emphasized this issue for many years in freshman orientation, but we determined several years ago that more must be done. Thus we have had presentations by John McKeegan and Susan Hopp in the past, and this year they will be reminding, clarifying, and educating all members of the college community about our obligations to treat each other with respect, to do our utmost to prevent improper and illegal behaviors, and to report such behaviors to proper authorities and employ the college’s disciplinary systems as needed. This must be a high priority for all of us—not just because of the publicity on the subject but because we must stand for justice and morality as a college and a community.”

I would really like to see our students, faculty and administration to quote President Hellie “stand for justice and morality as a college and a community”.  I would like to see us condemn this sexual assault that has taken place on our campus “as loudly as we should.” 

If President Hellie really believes, which I think he does, that “more needs to be done,” then this “more” should be done now and immediately.  If we cannot stand up for basic human dignity, I don’t know what we are all doing here.

-Professor of English and Coordinator of the Gender Studies Program Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt