CSUN On Point

Over the past several months, women and men have been coming forward with their own personal stories of sexual harassment. With the help of social media, #MeToo stories are spreading.

“I think we all are having a moment right now,” CSUN Title IX Coordinator Susan Hua said. “Whether a survivor is male or female, I think people are breaking the silence … You’re seeing sports figures, you’re seeing politicians, and men in powerful positions, being held accountable for sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. I think [#MeToo is] really giving not only a voice through social media and technology and how that’s impacting this movement, but also allowing people who might not have spoken up years ago … to feel like now there’s support for them.”

The #MeToo movement has encouraged many people to speak up about sexual harassment, and that lets even more victims know that they are not alone.

“I talked to several women who had kept information to themselves for 40 or 50 years, but now feel like coming out,” said Betsy Butler, Executive Director of the California Women’s Law Center. “More than that, they’re ready to make change happen, and it starts with policing. So many levels of action need to take place now, and mindsets [need to] change here in this country. It’s a different culture we need to look at.”

Bringing conversations about sexual violence into the mainstream helps remove the stigma for survivors, by showing how sexual harassment has affected the lives of many men and women.

“Part of the oppression of women is that we think we’re alone, and we think that our personal difficulties, or our harassment stories or whatever, are individual, and they never are.” CSUN Gender and Women’s Studies Professor Jennifer Berry said. “I think this is what the MeToo movement has done, is [demonstrate] that you are not alone. Not only are you not alone, we’re building an army.”

Despite the numbers of people coming out with their own personal stories, a lot of victims have not come forward, and Hua said some may not know how to bring grievances or talk about their experiences. She said students and faculty at CSUN are able to report any sexual harassment case through the Title IX Office.

“We have done extensive training, with both our students and employees, making sure that students know who they can go to as confidential resources here on campus,” Hua said. “That’s usually our counselors, our mental health advisors, and our victims advocate on campus…. Knowing the different resources [survivors] can access on campus [helps, and] I think we are seeing an increase of survivors who feel that they are ready to talk about their experiences, and as they are continuing to process their experiences, to get help, and to hold individuals accountable.”

But it still may be hard for some victims to come forward with their story, even if they have the resources and people available to them.

“Some women will never come forward,” Butler said. “You know, a lot of these situations [involve people whom] they know, and so they have to grapple with whether they want to bring it all out in the open. These aren’t generally strangers, particularly on campus, who have assaulted them or harassed them.”

Hua said that students’ cultural backgrounds and legal status can also be a factor.

“CSUN is such a diverse community,” she said, “and we have undocumented students who may not want to go above the radar, even though they have been victimized … Or we have cultural differences, in which someone, for example, from an Asian culture, might feel like [they] can’t talk about it, because that’s airing [their] dirty laundry or bringing shame to [their] family.”

Legal experts said movements like #MeToo are only the beginning, and that much more needs to happen in order to prevent sexual harassment.

“I think we can do better,” Berry said. “I think we can have higher expectations of men; I think we can believe women, and work with young people and care deeply about their lives. I think us older people [need] to remember how young and hopeful we all start out, and keep that hope alive.”

Moderator: Heatherann Wagner

Producer: Haley Spellman

Anchor: Lauren Turner Dunn

Social Media Editors: Cammeron Parrish and Jacob Gonzalez

Reporters: Jacob Gonzalez, Katherine Molina, Cammeron Parrish, Haley Spellman, Lauren Turner Dunn and Heatherann Wagner

Even though no Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) exist on the West Coast, African American students still find community at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI) with their Black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs).

“It was in the early 1900s when most of the Divine Nine were founded, some in the late 1900s,” said Shaquille Clark, of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. “Greek life was popular on college campuses, and African American students weren’t allowed to get in due to racism, and the other white Americans not wanting black people to join their organizations. So African Americans decided, ‘if we can’t join them, we’re going to start our own’.”

Nine BGLOs make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), also known as the Divine Nine or D9. In 1906, the first African American fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., was founded at Cornell University. Racial prejudices were causing black students not to continue higher education at Cornell. The goal of the fraternity was to ensure that African American students stayed enrolled at universities and colleges, while having community in PWI. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. expanded onto other campuses, and two years later the first sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., was established.

Clark’s fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., was third to be founded in 1911. His chapter at CSUN is united with chapters at UCLA and CSU-Los Angeles. Clark said the Divine Nine is important for African American students.

“That was a way for us to bond with each other,” said Clark. “To be with each other more, and to have our own secret rituals and something that we could call our own, since everything at the time… including our freedom, was being taken away from us.”

Most Divine Nine rituals stay secret because members and pledges are never supposed to discuss rituals with non-members. Some general traditions are known, like being able to relate the full histories of the organizations on the spot, the lifelong commitment, their bright colored letters, hand gestures, and their strolling and stepping routines. UCLA student Terre Block said, in Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., members call the routines hopping and marching.

“[They] came from a tradition from the military [and] their marches, and we adapted them, and some of the marches are hops,” Block said. “They’re just  improvised. They’ll take certain moves from different, other routines and put them together, to make something of your own.”

Omega Psi Phi, Fraternity Inc. was the third fraternity, also founded in 1911, and they have a tradition of branding their members with the organization’s letters. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. was established in 1914, and the Divine Nine founded their last organization in 1963.

Despite other Greeks adopting NPHC traditions, the low numbers of African Americans in college, and the many first generation African Americans in college, the BGLOs have stay united by doing community service, and upholding their organizations’ individual principles.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded fourth in 1913; and CSUN chapter president Beverly Ntagu said for her, the sorority is like family. Other NPHC sororities include Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., which was founded in 1922, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., which was founded in 1920. Members said they continue to benefit from the BGLOs after graduation.

“We have graduate chapters and alumni chapters which you can go into and be active in after you graduate,” Hardiman said. “Another thing that separates us is our culture, history and community. There is so much rich history that’s associated with these organizations. There’s always something new that you can be learning. There’s always something more that you could be doing, especially on the state level, regional, national and the international level, with these organizations.”

Moderator: Cammeron Parrish

Producer: Lauren Turner Dunn

Anchor: Katherine Molina

Social Media Editors: Katherine Molina and Haley Spellman

Reporters: Lauren Turner Dunn, Jacob Gonzalez, Katherine Molina, Cammeron Parrish, Haley Spellman and Heatherann Wagner

Every year CSUN welcomes thousands of freshmen. These first time students come from various backgrounds and different communities. According to the College Atlas, nationwide, at least 30 percent of these first time college students drop out after their first year.

CSUN students are required to take a class called University 100, which is a course dedicated to the freshman journey and preparing new college students for success.

“No one knows if they need the class or not, so I think it benefits everybody [to take it],” University 100 professor Dinah Nucum said.

Other groups guiding freshmen at CSUN include the Educational Opportunity Program, and the Office of Student Involvement and Development. They work with first-year students and first generation students, not only academically but socially.

The Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP) designs, administers and supports programs that deliver access and retention services to students. EOP provides services to low income first generation students such as mentoring, student engagement, and financial support if necessary. They also offer a bridge program for incoming freshmen to help with the transition to campus life. The bridge program consists of a six week period during which students take classes at the university over the summer, before their first fall semester.

“EOP itself is a student initiative program,” Glenn Omatsu, CSUN Professor and EOP Faculty Mentor Program Coordinator said. “Students fought for this program. Many of the practices that we do actually have been engineered by students themselves. Our population is first generation college students, and they realized that students need to transition.”

“They don’t know what to expect from the university,” Gabrielle Danis, Program Coordinator in Student Involvement and Development, said.  “They haven’t been briefed by their parents, by their loved ones, by their guardians, about what it is to be at an institution. That’s what both of our programs really aim to do, is to help students transition, and make it a more comfortable environment for them: one that they can navigate; one that they feel confident in continuing their academic, social, and cultural success.”

With the help that these programs provide, Omatsu and Danis said they hope students ultimately become aware of the resources provided for them at CSUN and how to use them.

“It’s interesting,” Omatsu said, “because the university is set up in such a way that it tells the students what the resources are, but we found that we have to take an additional step with first generation college students, which is actually show students how to use the resource. Our mentors actually help the students within our community with understanding not only what the resource is, but how to use it as well.”

“That’s the mission of the CSUN mentorship program,” Danis said, “to assist students, and to retain them from the first to second year, because that’s where we see most of our drop-off unfortunately. We want to make sure that those students are as supported as possible, and we think that a lot of it could be that they just do not know how to use the resources here, or they don’t know what type of support systems are available to them. And just like Professor Omatsu said, it is our responsibility to teach them that.”

Moderator: Lauren Turner Dunn

Producer: Haley Spellman

Anchor: Cammeron Parrish

Social Media Editors: Jacob Gonzalez and Heatherann Wagner

Reporters: Jacob Gonzalez, Katherine Molina, Cammeron Parrish, Haley Spellman, Lauren Turner Dunn and Heatherann Wagner

Moderator: Katherine Molina

Producer: Heatherann Wagner

Anchor: Lauren Turner Dunn

Social Media Editors: Cammeron Parrish and Heatherann Wagner

Reporters: Jacob Gonzalez, Katherine Molina, Cammeron Parrish, Haley Spellman, Lauren Turner Dunn and Heatherann Wagner