First published Dec. 16, 2022 in Stories Beneath the Shell.
By Minnie Stephenson
In 2015, McLaine Rich, a University of Maryland student at the time, was sexually assaulted. To make matters worse, she found out that she and someone else she knew had been sexually assaulted by the same person.
“I was like, OK, well if it happened to another person, I’m not crazy, I didn’t make it up. So we both went and reported it,” Rich said.
After she shared her story, many of her fellow sorority sisters told her that they had been assaulted, too.
The reporting process was supposed to take two months, Rich said, but hers took eight months, with many of her emails to the Office of Civil Rights & Sexual Misconduct going unanswered. It was a “living nightmare,” she said.
The office eventually told her that her assailant would be temporarily suspended. But after he lawyered up, he was back on campus within a week, Rich said.
The trauma of the situation encouraged Rich to create a safe space for survivors, which eventually grew into Preventing Sexual Assult.
The group now advocates for sexual assault survivors and tries to educate students about what sexual assault can look like, who it can affect and how students can help. The group is popular on campus, with events on campus that attract hundreds of students, and an Instagram following of over 3,000.
Many were supportive of the group when it first launched, but there was plenty of backlash. Especially from male students.
“At the time, people would be like ‘I don’t know anybody who’s been assaulted — do you actually think that’s true?’” Rich said.
It wasn’t just students. At a leadership dinner, Rich asked former University President Wallace Loh what the university was doing to make the sexual assault reporting process easier.
“He was like, ‘we’re putting in a lot of effort right now to protect the rights of the accused,’” Rich said. “That really pissed me off,” Rich said.
Loh said he had been accused himself, which changed his priorities, she said.
Despite this, Rich worked to change things on campus. She and her friends first organized the now-annual Occupy McKeldin event in April 2016, a sit-in on the steps of McKeldin Library where different guest speakers and PSA members talk about their experiences with sexual assault. The university administration was vehemently against the event and almost shut it down, Rich said, but she was able to convince the administration to hold the event.
Rich graduated in 2016, but was still involved in the first Slut Walk event at UMD that happened that October, after her friend had seen different versions of the event at other universities. The event still occurs annually, where participating students walk around campus, shouting slogans and listening to guest speakers scattered around the route to bring awareness to sexual assault.
The current PSA president, Amanda Sherman, recognizes the importance of keeping the group and its message alive.
“I’ve just always been really passionate about healthy relationships and consent,” the senior marketing major said. “We don’t often talk about these things. And then obviously, it perpetuates the issues even more.”
Along with the public events, PSA hosts weekly meetings, and also holds an event called “Real Talk,” a casual, open conversation about sexual assault, which includes information on how sexual assault affects communities of color and LGBTQ+ communities.
Still, Sherman said, the origins of the organization are not ideal for a changing society. The group grew out of Greek Life and currently lacks diverse voices. Sherman, along with executive board member Anna Gerstein, wants to expand the group’s reach.
“It’s really important that we bring it to a larger scale and we talk to people from different identities … and getting more diversity on PSA, because the more people that know about PSA will have resources and be able to talk to this community, ” Gerstein, a junior public policy major, said.
Much of the current group is made of people who have experienced sexual assault themselves, including Sherman.
Gerstein joined the group last semester when she saw the Cat Calls of College Park, where PSA writes down in chalk all over campus some real cat calls that UMD students have received. The message hit home, especially because of her own experience with sexual assault.
“It took for me to experience [sexual assault] myself to get involved, which is something that I find really common within PSA,” Gerstein said.
While the group still thrives, backlash does as well. The group received startling comments this past September while tabling to educate people about the “Red Zone,” a period during fall semester where sexual assault is statistically more common.
“Marriage is the only real consent,” students told PSA volunteers tabling outside Yahentamitsi Dining Hall. “Why are you singling me out? What are you trying to say?” students said.
“It’s a lack of education … not really knowing how to talk about these topics, I think, or misunderstanding these topics,” Sherman said.
Current University President Darryll Pines made waves after being quoted saying that UMD doesn’t have a problem with Greek life, after the university kicked the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity off campus following sexual assault allegations.
Patty Perillo, the vice president for student affairs, said Pines was misquoted, and she can tell when someone feels strongly about an issue like sexual assault.
“I counseled women who were victims of sexual assault … I’m committed to this work. I know when someone is invested in it, and when they’re not invested in it,” she said. “President Pines is deeply invested.”
Perillo and Sherman meet frequently to address sexual assault on campus. Perillo said there is always more work to be done, but the administration can only do so much.
“Students are the ones that can have the greatest impact on the culture and changing students’ minds,” Perillo said.
The group is looking to grow its impact in the future, and beyond Greek life as well. Members are thinking of creative strategies to spread its message, including a bar crawl, where each bar at UMD would have different facts.
“It’s just coming up with new and innovative ways to get that information across and have fun,” Sherman said.
Rich is proud that the group she created is still going above and beyond.
“[It’s] kind of interesting, looking back,” Rich said. “We worked so hard on it, so it’s very surreal for me to see, eight years later.”
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