Describing+Kylie+Harrington

Describing People This first person being described is partially based of a real person and a very short conversation with that person, however it's conjecture on what a larger conversation with that person would look like. The person I had a conversation with was a friend who also happens to be pro-consul (vice president) of Sigma Chi fraternity at RPI. It is not unlikely that I would be talking about my thesis with the president or vice president of a fraternity, or both, since they would have the most comprehensive knowledge and access to their fraternity's risk management policies and procedures. Sigma Chi has no risk management policy or procedure in place that deals specifically with sexual assault in any capacity i.e. there is no policy for if someone is sexually assault in their house, if a brother is sexually assaulted, or if there is an accusation against one of their brothers. According to this person, there is no need for these policies because he doesn't believe that one of their brothers would ever sexually assault someone, nor that someone would be at risk of being sexually assaulted in their house. When the subject of one of their brothers being sexually assaulted it was brushed off as something that either wouldn't happen or if it did it wouldn't be a chapter issue it would be a personal issue for the brother. When I was discussing this with the brother he brought up the Crossroads program which is facilitated by Sigma Chi's National organization which is an educational program about alcohol and drugs, but also touches on such issues as sexual assault and mental health. This program hasn't happened yet but he offered to let me know when it was so I could further my knowledge about it. This interaction is what I would expect to happen most of the time with fraternity presidents or other leaders, who's chapters don't have policies. This lack of policy isn't out of lack of care or acknowledgment of the issue of sexual assault, but instead faith and perhaps arrogance in their brothers and house and the feel that there isn't any need for them. This type of discussion is indicative of a medium level rape culture where sexual assault isn't treated especially gravely but it isn't encouraged or accepted either.

Describing Places The location in which a large amount of these surveys and discussions will be taking place in is a fraternity house. An example fraternity house will be built and designed around large group gatherings, often set up to accommodate parties. There is often a bar set up even when a party isn't taking place, and the most prominent room in the house is the room in which chapters hold parties. Due to the nature of use for this room it will often be dirty and smell like alcohol, which pushes brothers into their rooms for day-to-day interactions and any other activities. Occasionally chapter houses have study rooms or extra living spaces that brothers can hang out it, but the most popular location for brothers will remain their rooms. This set up and commonality for brothers to spend time in their rooms is also shown during parties where brothers often will spend large amounts of time hanging out in their rooms with personal guests or friends. This architecture creates an ability for brothers and other guests in the house to be alone if needed and to get others alone if they so chose. Additionally, the bathrooms in fraternity houses are often co-ed with broken stall doors or no stall doors at all, causing there to be additional risk and vulnerability. It will be discovered if the design of fraternity houses is either a result of or indicative of fraternity culture as part of the survey conducted during this project.

Describing Events During my research I will observe an educational discussion of sexual assault and related issues. This discussion is part of an RPI strategy to combat sexual assault, and is one of the options Greek houses and athletic teams can use to fulfill their event requirement. The discussion will be facilitated by RPI health center staff. I witnessed and partook in one of these discussions last semester with my sorority. The facilitators posed questions about certain things on campus such as perception about sexual assault on campus and the campus culture, what girls do to limit the risk of sexual assault, and other general questions such as what RPI can do to limit sexual assault. This discussion was unstructured and not necessarily used to provide any education that most girls didn't already have. They also didn't provide any bystander education training or do anything to debunk rape culture myths in the chapter. This may have been because the purpose of the event was less for the purpose of educating the chapter and more for collecting data and better informing the RPI administration on the campus cultures and feelings towards sexual assault. It's unclear as to whether the discussion would do anything to provide education or solutions to rape culture and rape myth acceptance within chapters or not. The way they undertake this education process could be indicative of a larger campus and administrative culture and will reflect the administration's larger view of the process and belie their purpose in this education program as to whether it's goal is to provide actual education or just an appearance of sexual assault prevention and education.

Describing Practices The practice used to gather data for this project will be primarily surveys. Surveys will be given to the chapters after observing them in their educational discussion or training program if possible, if it is not possible the survey will be distributed to the chapters via email. The survey will be both anonymous for the individual and the organization, though I will ask them to list their organization on the survey. This practice will ask questions about what their policies are an how they're educated about them, as well as questions about their opinions on sexual assault on campus, and what they believe their chapter would do to respond to sexual assault if it were to occur, both within their chapter and without. These questions will also address rape myth acceptance such as women doing certain things to be "asking for it" or other indicators that show that they believe in rape myths perpetuated by rape culture. These surveys will be supplemented by data from interviews which will provide more in depth responses to the survey questions from certain members of chapters, specifically leaders in the house that have a more clear view and knowledge of the chapter's policies and the chapter culture as a whole. The purpose of administering the surveys after observing the educational meetings are to compare the answers of the survey with the meeting to determine if the survey answers are accurate or are skewed by the person answering the survey's knowledge that they will be read and presumably judged based by their answers.

Describing Organizations The average organization that will be explored as part of this project is a fraternity on RPI's campus. The fraternity chapter will have roughly 40 collegiate members, and will be part of a larger national organization. These organizations are usually structured where brothers are also part of other groups such as "big brothers", "pledges", and members of their executive board. These groups are subsets of organizational structures within the larger organization. This organization will engage in activities that they host themselves which are both philanthropic in nature as well as social, and often these events are co-hosted with other on campus groups such as sororities. The organization will also have advisers which are adult mentors for the chapter that will guide and assist them in making decisions. The conjecture is that the average chapter will not be extensively supportive or rejecting of a rape culture, and will often believe that no one in their chapter is capable of committing sexual assault and thus it isn't their responsibility to address their problem. This average chapter will partake in the mandatory education events on sexual assault and will be respectful while there, however they won't see the need for it and will begrudge that their time is being taken up by the programming. This chapter will be respectful to me when I go ask for them to take the survey and will fill out, however they won't necessarily be interested in the results and will still provide questions that indicate a moderate amount of rape culture within their chapter.