The conversations surrounding college women after the “Cornell 7” incident are troubling, but they also reveal something that should have been acknowledged long ago. The university, as an institution, has the power to treat women as secondary to men, and Iowa State is not an exception to the rule. The result: women continuously end up with the short stick.
Iowa State Fraternities
Protests outside the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house in late September were in response to the repeated accounts of sexual assault occurring in that house. Levi Foster, Student Life Editor for The Iowa State Daily, reported that students have started a petition to remove the fraternity house from campus. The document has received around 3,200 signatures, but the fraternity and Iowa State University as a whole have yet to make a formal statement acknowledging the incidents.
As a female student at Iowa State, the extent to which the university acknowledges reports of sexual misconduct is by sending alert emails to inboxes. Their idea of “sexual assault prevention” relies on a one-off training course required at the beginning of each academic year. Failure to take action against the fraternity house has shown where their commitment lies: protecting male students, not the women they hurt.
Guest columnist for The Iowa State Daily, Ashley Spalla, is a survivor of sexual assault at Iowa State. In her article, “Spalla: I am one of the survivors ISU never counted,” she encapsulates the ongoing issue of the treatment of sexual violence at institutions:
“The terrible ease with which a woman’s humanity can disappear when the people around her decide that belonging to the group matters more than protecting the person in front of them. Because complicity does not always look like committing the violence yourself. Sometimes it looks like watching. Sometimes it looks like laughing. Sometimes it looks like knowing. Sometimes it looks like saying nothing. Sometimes it looks like deciding what is happening to another human being is somebody else’s responsibility. And sometimes it looks like an institution believing that because it followed a process, it has fulfilled its moral obligation.”
“The terrible ease with which a woman’s humanity can disappear when the people around her decide that belonging to the group matters more than protecting the person in front of them.”
Spalla: I am one of the survivors ISU never counted – Iowa State Daily
The President’s Collection
This issue of women at Iowa State doesn’t just present itself in sexual assault cases. The Iowa State University Book Store released a recent clothing collection last week called “The President’s Collection.” This line of apparel consists of professionally tailored button-downs, polos, quarter-zips, and vests—all minted with the new “President’s Collection” logo. Now, what does this have to do with women on college campuses? Nothing, and that’s the problem.
They advertised the collection showing all middle-aged white men, even though it’s “One collection. For Iowa State. For its people,” stated in a post on the Bookstore’s social page. At a glance, it seems that “Iowa State’s people” are middle-aged white men; at least that’s what I took from it, along with several other women voicing their disappointment in the comments.
The Bookstore issued an apology over social media, stating, “Our intention was never to suggest that the President’s Collection is intended only for men or that women do not have an equally important place in our university community and its traditions…We have been actively working to develop a professional women’s line to be a part of the President’s Collection.” However, that didn’t stop the backlash from people on social media.Â
A commenter on Facebook by the name of Becky said, “I look forward to the women’s editions; our immediate past president might as well.”Â
For context, Iowa State recently retired its former president, Wendy Wintersteen, the campus’s first female president. She served in this position for nearly 10 years, making her such an iconic figure at Iowa State. However, now that a man is in office serving as University President, that is when they decided to launch the collection. It may be a coincidence, but it is worth noting that, once again, Iowa State is showing that women are seen as secondary to men through the University’s actions.
Where Do We Stand?
My question is, why couldn’t the two lines launch at the same time? Why must they be separate? Several companies made this same mistake in the past. When Tarte Cosmetics launched a new foundation lineup, it faced backlash for having only three shades for darker skin tones while also claiming diversity. They later said they realized the shade range “was definitely not a full representation of all of you,” and made the mistake of launching before the complete shade range was ready. That sounds all too familiar…
This issue extends beyond the walls of Iowa State, and it’s likely it will never resolve, but it only takes one voice, one person, one school, to make a difference. Until women are shown to be equally valued—and not by the definition of some bylaw, but through real, tangible means—we will not see change towards real progress, for we deserve more than to be disregarded, silenced, or slapped with a band-aid apology. We, too, deserve to be put first.
