By: Jayden Beatty

Students can now sign a petition created by SU Planned Parenthood (SUPP) that calls for a zero tolerance policy at Southwestern. The electronic petition is currently being circulated on Facebook. The petition has gained 293 signatures and is expected to gain more.

“The ultimate goal of the petition is to make sure that predatory individuals cannot remain on campus,” SUPP Co-Chair Rachel Holm said. “In the past, no-contact orders have not worked on our campus. We would like the administration to ban from campus those individuals found “at fault” of “sexual misconduct” by the appropriate disciplinary board. Since we knew there was a demand for this policy in the campus community, we thought we could go ahead and show the powers that be that this is something that the majority of students want.”

Alumni, faculty, staff, and students can each sign the petition which asks for your name, who you are (i.e. student, faculty, alumni, etc.), and allows for comments to be made. Holm said that SUPP plans to present the petition to President Burger and the Trustees in a silent march.

“About 50% of rapists will go on to rape again,” Holm said. “Why would the administration put the safety of its students in such danger? We know why: because that is the “acceptable” level of sexual assault on a college campus, and by discouraging people from reporting, stats are kept falsely low. The administration has attempted to reach out to activists for ideas, and we would like them to know that it is imperative that this particular demand be met. Supporting survivors instead of rapists will go a long way in the work being done to end rape culture on campus.”

SUPP will be tabling during lunch in McCombs for the next two weeks to generate signatures. SUPP has also reached out to other social justice groups on campus to help with publicity.

“We’d really like students to start a conversation with their friends about this and have it on their minds for the next few weeks; we’re hoping to use Mouthwestern to our advantage on that one,” Holm said.

Junior Environmental Studies major Farrell Stucky signed the petition and has promoted the petition on social media.

“Be the Southwestern you want, and sign this petition,” Stucky said.

The petition will be open until the end of the month. If interested in signing the petition visit the SU Zero Tolerance Policy Facebook page.