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feast your eyes: when the craving strikes by siena witte
"a story about snapchatwithout reference to
sexysnaps?"
"I think the idea of that paragraph was that over the last
approx. 200 years that downfall has happened. I encourage you
to read the rest of the article, its a good read!
I like that the author mentions that UofM has a minor pres-
ence whencompared to MSU and even GVSU and does an even
lesser job of promoting its presence and interest in the city. The
fact that the Detroit center is only part of a floor in one build-
ing ia actually pitiful in my opinion. But ita a tart and givea ua
something to build off of as Detroit becomes a hot topic on cam-
pus- with groups like Crowd 313, the new Detroit Engagement
Commission, the numerous educational and service student
orgs who work in the city, the new Connector, that as it has
been piloted can be used by students, student orgs, and faculty
alike to grow and learn from Detroit- with all this... Michigan
has an obligation to its student body, which has become mas-
sively less diverse, to use Detroit as a spark and center-point for
the type of education that Michigan has always claimed to want
to impart..."
- USER: Michael Chrzan
ping and one topping alone.
I dug deeper. My sweet tooth has
my dentist on the edge of his seat,
but I knew deep down that even
the most sugary of treats would not
silence my grumbling gut. Perhaps
I needed the perfect trifecta of
k: cheese, sauce and bread.
Yes, my friends, I am talking
about the mecca of late night food,
It was nearly 9 p.m. on a frigid the be-all and end-all of snacks
February night, and I was more or known as pizza. From tailgaters
less trapped in the depths of the flocking like moths to a flame to the
Shapiro Undergraduate Library. My $5 deals Cottage Inn waves above
mind began to wander away from their heads on football Saturdays
taking notes and toward the restless or the century-long rivalry between
itch that had grown in my stomach. South University Pizza and Back-
I had a bad feelingthat this was room slices, there is nothing that
no ordinary snack attack. No, this brings people together and tears
was the type of hunger that spreads them apart again quite like pizza.
like weeds in a garden, seemingly But even imagining the way
sprouting up out of nowhere. It was a perfectly crisped crust would
the type of hunger born from too catch the sweetness of a stewed
many hours spent hunched over my marinara sauce and the oozing
laptop, too many hours spent high- buttery-ness of browned mozza-
lightingstudy guides and scribbling rella did not calm the raging sea of
on index cards. hunger that intellectual exhaustion
I knew the handful of nuts and had brought me. Perhaps I wanted
fruits I had stored in my backpack something more along the lines of
as an emergency snack would pro- a simple childhood favorite, some-
vide no relief from the aching feel- thing that didn't ask too much of
ing of my stomach was eating itself me. A sandwich, I thought; a turkey
inside out. I knew this was serious. sandwich on freshly baked bread,
Perhaps what I needed was a fine
culinary creation of frozen yogurt
and a slew of Butterfinger, brownie -
bits, caramel sauce and pretzels
(my secret ingredient - the sweet
and salty combo is a tried and true
winner) from Rod's Diner - Sir
Rod's; a creation known to many as
the Collider. After all, what is not to
love about being up to your eyeballs
in frozen yogurt, having at your accompanied by a crunch of fresh
disposal any and all of your favorite lettuce, some juicy tomatoes and
candies and treats? You don't have a little something special, maybe
. to choose (except if you want more creamy avocado or burst of flavor
than five). You can have it all with- in the form of a fine Italian dress-
out the inevitable fatigue of eating ing.
the same thing over and over that But even Jimmy John's
arises when forced to pick one top- wouldn't quite satisfy my study
hunger. My fists clenched with
anger as I saw myself being cast
into a quintessential coming-of-
age movie, where I was the young
grasshopper stumbling along
blindly through the challenges, and
my body was the silent, brooding
master, unable to determine what
exactly it wanted as a damn snack!
With this frustration in my eyes I
nearly screamed out in the shad-
ows of the library, "What is it that
you want?!"
Try again, mybody asked. Be
patient. It will come to you. Well
if it wasn't sweets and it wasn't
cheesy pizza and it wasn't Mr.
John's, then there must be another
player, someone else I'm overlook-
ing but is staring me right in the
eyes. It must be savory and flavor-
ful, the right balance between
protein, carbs and fats. Perhaps I
couldn't get the sweetness of the
brownie, but I could certainly get
the creaminess of the yogurt with
maybe, some sour cream. And the
warmth of the pizza could be found
with some chicken, or beans. And
something special could come in
the form of guacamole and salsa.
It could all be mine, and with a
side'of chips too. And like an angel
from above, the neon sign for BTB
came streaming into my mind, with
promises of everything I had ever
dreamed of.
I looked back up at the screen,
the screensaver now panning over
snow-topped mountains and gold-.
en prairies. I nestled down deeper
into my down coat, a smile on my
face. What a beautiful night to be
studying.
Continued from Page 6B
her study abroad program that summer.
A "No Contact" sanction was put in place
where the respondent was not allowed to
be in the same area as S.B. or-contact her.
Under the new policy, sanctions still
are determined by OSCR using the infor-
mation from OIE's investigation. Input
is sought from both parties privately on
potential sanctions.
When S.B. arrived in her study abroad
location, the sanctions brought a new set
of complications.
"A woman from the study abroad office
e-mails me and goes, 'If you come in con-
tact with him and you don't leave his pres-
ence, we will send you home.' And I was
like, excuse me, what?" S.B. said. "I don't
have any sanctions. I'm not supposed to
have any punishments or sanctions on me,
I was not found guilty for anything. I'm
here to enjoy my trip, and I don't want to
have to think about this."
Her study abroad program became
occupied by anxiety and exhaustive
planning, hoping to avoid her perpe-
trator and the consequences she could
face. The situation left her feeling frus-
trated, especially when she reported that
the perpetrator violated the no-contact
order, but the University told her they.
couldn't prove the violation occurred.
"I didn't feel like (the University) took it
seriously and really followed through with
what they had put in place, and that also
goes with how the survivor is doubted or
not really believed," S.B. said. "It created a
more extreme power dynamic where I felt
like I had no control over the situation, no
control over my safety and my wellbeing,
which made that very difficult."
The perpetrator submitted an appeal
to the University that summer, which S.B.
had to respond to during her time abroad.
After that, she asked not to find out the
results of the appeal, emotionally drained
and done with the process.
Though S.B. had finished formally deal-
ing with the matter, it still affects her today.
"Just randomly around campus, I've
seen him while I'm going for a run or just
walking down the street or in the Union,"
S.B. said. "(It's) pretty gut-wrenching, and
really awkward. It's just my mind starts
going a mile a minute, not even thinking,
just ... panic mode, basically."
S.B. said she supports the changes in the
new sexual misconduct policy, since it puts
less pressure on a survivor to decide if an
investigation should go forward. -
The University investigated only two
cases of sexual assault from 2009 to 2010
under the complaint-driven policy. From
2011 to 2012 - with the investigative
model in effect - 38 cases were investigat-
ed. University administrators interviewed
at the time believed this shift came from
the policy change rather than an increase
in sexual assault.
But for S.B., she said it was difficult to
learn that her own struggles specifically
influenced the changes.
"I guess I was kind of a guinea pig,"
S.B. said. "That sounds really bad, and
I guess it frustrated me because I felt
like a university should kind of be more
prepared or have more tools to address
these issues better."
A THIRD WAY TO HEAL
My friend who confided in me about
her own experience with sexual assault
illustrates the third option that S.B. and
all survivors of sexual assault have: to not
report an assault to the University or law
enforcement.
Barbara Niess-May, executive director
of the SafeHouse Center of Washtenaw
County -- an organization that serves
about 5,000 women, children and men
each year who experienced sexual assault
and domestic violence - said reporting
sexual assault to police is not just emotion-
"I was so conflicted, I didn't know what to
do and (OSCR) would relay back to me, 'You
know, the assailant wants to sit down with you
and apologize,' and that was really hard for me,
to hear. I wanted to hear an apology but then I
thought about it and ... that doesn't repair the
damage, and that can't come anywhere close to
repairing the damage."
- S.B., University alum and sexual
assault survivor
Organization, sexual assault can affect
survivors -not only physically but men-
tally and socially, leading to depression,
post-traumatic stress disorder and some-
times ostracism from their communities.
SAPAC and the SafeHouse Center
offer counseling and support services
for survivors through their recovery
process, ensuring people do not take
the journey alone. In the path to heal-
ing, survivors are never pushed into
making a certain decision and they
are offered unbiased support, though
Neiss-May said overall, the SafeHouse
Center believes in reporting.
Today, S.B. has regained her power.
She still gets nightmares every once
in a while about the incident, but she
believes she's healed through telling her
story, reporting the incident and pursu-
ing her study abroad trip regardless of
I think back to sitting on the concrete
floor with my friend, hearing her story.
I wanted to give her an answer, a rem-
edy for her anxiety and guilt. But know-
ing what I do now, there isn't one right
answer or solution.
Each path - reporting, not reporting
- brings challenges, whether from the
justice system, society's misconceptions
or one's own emotions.
The University security report shows
an increase in forcible rapes reported
to the police or other campus security-M
groups, with 10 incidents reported it
2011 and 21 in 2012. But is this numbe:
showing that the occurrence of the crim,
has increased, or could it just mean more
reports have been made out of the esti-
mated 72 percent that go unreported
each year? It's difficult to know.
I asked each person I interviewed
the same question: How do we fix this
on campus? The answers were endless:
improving the justice system to work
more effectively for survivors, edu-
eating society so jurors have a bette...
understanding of the crime, removing
insensitive cultural representations of
rape and sexual assault. For law enforce-
ment, like assistant county prosecutor
Liddell, it's a particularly frustrating .
question.
"I think sometimes we're just climbing
uphill, because there are these cultural
perceptions and a lot of victim blaming,"
Liddell said. "I always tell the victim,
'You're the brave one' ... For every one of
you, there are 30 that don't come forward
at all. Just to go through this process
whatever the outcome may be, hopefully
it's a conviction, but nine times out of ten
it's not. For them to stand up, that's what
impresses me. That's what makes me do
this job."
It's easy to sit at freshman orienta-
tion, the words "one in four" projected
on screens and printed on pamphlets, to
brush aside the reality of that statistic. I
did. S.B. did.
"Before, I would have never thought
that this would have happened to me,"
she said. "I come from a good town, I'm
smart, I'm a college student. But it can
happen to anybody, and none of those
factors necessarily matter."
When you meet multiple people and
friends who are part of these statistics,
you can see the meaning of those num-
bers change before your eyes. And those
numbers are difficult to gather them-
selves due to the nature of the crime.
For SAPAC director Rider-Milkov-
ich, she's most anxious to see those
statistics change and a decline in the
number of University students who
even enter the difficult maze of coping"
with sexual assault.
"What I really get out of bed every
morning. excited to do is working
towards preventing it from ever happen-
ing to begin with, to never have a stu-
dent have their lives and their learning,
interrupted by a traumatic experience
m
I
D
a
u1
In
B
ally draining, but'time consuming, which
can deter survivors from reporting.
Niess-May said there are often 30 to
50 steps in a conviction, and survivors
might make a practical decision to forgo
the long, emotional process. Survivors
might fear their parents finding out or
fear the assailant, especially if they are a
high-profile person.
Assistant county prosecutor Liddell
said getting a case on trial is a process
that can take anywhere from six months
to a year after the police report is passed
along to the prosecutor. County prose-
cutor Mackie was quick to point out that
even without reporting, the crime occu-
pies a survivor's time.
"When you say time commitment, if
it's never reported, there's a huge time
commitment on behalf of the victim.
because this is on her mind," Mackie
said. "So, I hesitate to even think about
time commitment. It can occupy most
of a person's waking hours when they're
traumatized by something."
S.B. said she became severely
depressed after she was sexually assault-
ed. According to the World Health
the perpetrator's presence.
"I think I've been able to kind of sur-
pass it, actually," S.B. said. "Obviously, I
would never wish this upon myself or any-
one else, but I feel like the kind of strength
that I had to gather and the way that I had
to stand up for myself is something that I
would never have had to do in any other
situation. I feel like I've gained a greater
sense of self."
But she recognizes her path isn't for
every survivor. After listening to a survi-
vor panel at an advocacy event, she real-
ized that each survivor's healing process is
unique, but giving time to heal and know-
ing you're not alone is most important.
"I guess in a way it made me feel less
isolated, because I'm just thinking,
'Why am I still thinking about this three
years later?' " S.B. said. "Everyone's
path to recovery is so different, and they
just said don't worry about why you're
thinking about this and allow yourself
that time and that space to heal."
WHERE DO WE GO FROM
HERE?