Penn State students hold ‘Untimely Warning” protest demanding better support for victims of sexual assault

“Penn State does not do anything to protect victims, so we’re here to demand justice for that."

• By Becky Marcinko/WPSU

(State College) — The organization Students Against Sexist Violence hosted a protest on Friday against sexual violence at Penn State. The group presented a list of demands for the university, including supporting victims of sexual violence and banning fraternities.

More than 50 chanting people marched from the Allen Street Gates to campus and finally ended at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house on campus, better known as “Fiji.”

Charlie, a member of Students Against Sexist Violence, said the group decided to plan the protest after a member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Fiji chapter allegedly raped a 17-year-old. That fraternity is now suspended.

Charlie, who would not give a last name out of concerns over backlash and was the designated speaker for the group, said another reason for the protest was the apparent increase in reported sexual assaults at Penn State this semester.

“Penn State does not do anything to protect victims, so we’re here to demand justice for that,” Charlie said.

The “Untimely Warning” protest — a play on the Clery Act required Timely Warning alerts for sexual assaults on or near campus — featured speakers, like student Nora Van Horn of the Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition, who touched on topics like how the university only recently released the results of a 2018 sexual misconduct survey.

“We asked [Penn State] to fulfill basic, low-bar commitments in private conversations,” Van Horn said. “They did not. In response, we wrote an open letter, and Penn State, two weeks later, released the survey report… They released the survey report to do the bare minimum, and they failed to reach even that benchmark.”

Some students also elected to share their experiences with sexual violence during the event.