Olin’s unofficial, FRANKLY student-run news SPEAKING source. volume 6, issue 1 September 2014 FREE, AS IN BEER
SexualKate Maschan Assaultence, and those who do often atfor a total Olinof 482 responses. Contributor choose quieter routes such Some responses are grouped as the Honor Board or OSL by gender: cisgender women, At the end of last academ- (which can provide no-con- cisgender men, non-cisgen- ic year, I surveyed all Olin tact orders). Because the stu- der people, and people who students and alumni about dent body as a whole doesn’t did not specify a gender. their experiences with sexual hear about cases of assault, (Cisgender refers to people assault. After two different there isn’t an overwhelming whose identity matches with students shared their experi- sense that’s it’s an important the gender assigned to them ences in Frankly Speaking1, issue on our campus. based on their biological I wanted to learn more about I want to change that. sex.) Non-cisgender peoples’ how Olin students experi- responses are shown together ence and relate to sexual as- "Because the stu- because of the range of gen- sault and begin taking pro- der identities provided and active steps to address the dent body doesn't my desire to protect the pri- problem. hear about cases vacy of the small number of The Olin community per- non-cisgender people who ceives the “bubble” as a safe of assault, there responded to the survey. place, where students can The responses to the sur- leave laptops in the lounge isn't an over- vey mostly echoed published or a $20 bill on someone’s whelming sense sexual assault statistics from whiteboard, because we look other colleges and universi- out for one another. For the that it's an im- ties.3 The main discrepancy most part, I’ve found this to portant issue on is that non-cisgender people be true. The numbers also elsewhere generally experi- support this notion; Olin’s our campus." ence higher rates of sexual published crime statistics assault than cisgender peo- consistently show that we The response rate for ple, which was not reflected have no campus crime, in- the survey was incredible: in the small number of re- cluding sexual assault.2 233 current students (out of sponses from non-cisgender My three years at Olin ~350) and 249 alumni (out of people to this survey. have revealed to me that 585) completed the survey, In the survey, people these numbers don’t tell the whole story. Sexual assault Survey Respondents Grouped by Gender Identity is a problem on every col- Non- Did not lege campus. Unfortunately, Cisgender Cisgender cisgender specify Olin is no exception. Like on women men people gender many other campuses, many # of survivors of assault at Olin 240 224 6 12 never report their experi- responses were asked a series of ques- can also involve emotional experience or change the tions about their experi- coercion. It sometimes, but definition of assault. Many ences with sexual assault. does not always, involve al- sexual assaults are perpetrat- You can revisit the survey cohol or other drugs. Fight, ed by someone the survivor at http://goo.gl/6l69ik. As a knows, including friends, reminder, I provided a defi- acquaintances, relatives, nition of sexual assault in "Quantitative and current/former partners. the survey: “Sexual assault results are sum- Sexual assault can begin is defined as sexual activ- with consensual sexual ac- ity without explicit consent. marized in the tivity - prior consent does This can include, but is not tables below." not imply current consent. limited to, penetration, kiss- People of any gender iden- ing, and groping (including tity, race, sexual orientation, through clothing). Assault flight, and freezing are all age, etc. can be assaulted.” can occur with or without common responses to sexual Quantitative results are the use of physical force on assault, and none of these re- summarized in the tables the part of the assailant. It sponses invalidate a person's below.
Survey question: Do you feel that you have ever been sexually assaulted? Cisgender Cisgender Non-cisgender Did not specify women men people gender
Yes 34% (82/240) 10% (22/224) 0% (0/6) 0% (0/12) I'm not sure 12% (29/240) 3% (7/224) 0% (0/6) 8% (1/12) No 54% (129/240) 87% (195/224) 100% (6/6) 92% (11/12)
Survey question: Do you feel that you have been/were sexually assaulted during your time at Olin? Cisgender Cisgender Non-cisgender Did not specify women men people gender
Yes 19% (45/240) 5% (12/224) 0% (0/6) 0% (0/12) I'm not sure 8% (20/240) 2% (5/224) 0% (0/6) 8% (1/12) No 73% (175/240) 92% (207/224) 100% (6/6) 92% (11/12)
Survey question: If you feel that you have been/were sexually assaulted during your time at Olin, how would you identify the perpetrator(s)? Of the 83 people who responded “yes” or “I’m not sure” to having been assaulted at Olin, 81 categorized their perpetrator(s). Most perpetrators were other Olin students (often partners or friends), although a large number were people external to the community (often coworkers and non-Olin students at parties). Perpetrator category Olin Olin People external to Olin faculty or (provided on survey) students alumni the Olin community staff members Total # identified as 68% (55/81) 1% (1/81) 30% (24/81) 1% (1/81) perpetrator(s) As with all collection of our advantage to address this as the decision to report, data and information, there issue that exists here, like it support you did/did not re- are some factors that are does everywhere. Alumni ceive, your healing process, potentially skewing these and faculty/staff members and anything else you find survey results: the response can send me their thoughts relevant. You can email me rate was < 100%; and cur- and I will bring them up dur- at [email protected] rent students from all years ing the discussion. If you to set up an interview or ask responded, so some students would like to be further in- any questions you have. The who answered “no” to hav- volved in the group, shoot interviews will not be formal ing been assaulted at Olin me an email. (We are in the “research,” just a way of get- may still experience sexual process of implementing an ting additional perspectives assault before graduation. anonymous mailing list for to inform my work on behalf From these responses, students, empower@lists. of the Olin community. however, it is clear that olin.edu.) Sexual assault has no sexual assault is a problem place at Olin. I look for- at Olin. So what can we do ward to working with the about it? "I would like to entire community to reduce To start, I would like to introduce a new assault, support survivors, introduce a new campus and create an open dialogue group, Empower, which will campus group, around these difficult issues promote healthy, consen- Empower, which on our campus. sual, and positive relation- ships, whether romantic, will promote [1] It Happens Here, and purely sexual, or anything healthy, consen- It (Still) Happens Here. in between. Our first event
Sexual Assault Resources for Victims and Victim Supporters • Public Safety, R2s, Members of OSL, and Members of the Honor Board • Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) 24-hour hotline: 800-841-8371 (You do not need to be a survivor to call this hotline.) • BARCC literature: http://barcc.org/ • Anonymous Empower mailing list: [email protected] (for students only)
Frankly Speaking has a website too! View all past content on franklyspeakingnews.com. KickingWelcome back toOff Olin! the9/21 - NewJimmy FundYear CarpeSERVwith mailingSERV! list We hope your summers Walk. Every year, Team for updates about sponta- were wonderful, and we're Olin walks in memory of neous community service really excited as a board to our former VP of Academ- opportunities, and follow share with you all the new, ic Affairs Mike Moody. us on Twitter @olinserv exciting service-oriented Join the team or donate to to get the latest update on activities we're planning help our team reach their upcoming events. Oh, and for the new semester. We goal of $10,000! we have a Facebook page have elections, we have 9/28 - Charles River now, so Like us there, too! events, and we have re- Center 5K! This year, Have a great month, and sources for all your volun- SERV is sponsoring the welcome to all of our first teering needs! Read on to Charles River Center years! find out more. Road Race, a 5K to raise money for an organization Election News! Here’s what’s on the that has been providing Every fall, we elect horizon for our first month aid for adults and chil- two more general mem- of school: dren with disabilities and bers to join our SERV 9/19 - Kickball Tour- autism for 58 years. Join board. Of the two posi- nament! Our semi-annual the Olin College team and tions available, at least kickball tournament for run with us in Needham/ one has to be filled by a Kick-It, an organization Wellesley on Sunday at first year student, but- ev working towards a cure 11am! SERV will reim- eryone is welcome to run. for children’s cancer, will burse each student $5 for Applications are due on be happening on Friday, the registration fee. They Friday, 9/12 and we will September 19. Grab your are also looking for non- be hosting a school meet- friends and form a team! runners to volunteer at the ing and inviting people to Registration is $20 per race, so let us know if you vote on Monday, Septem- team, and there should be are interested. ber 15 and Tuesday, Sep- 8-10 people per team. We tember 16 respectively. are also looking for refer- This year, the SERV If you would like more ees, so let us know if you board will be holding information on how to want to volunteer. weekly lunch meetings get involved, please don't 9/20 - Alumni Week- from 12:30-1:30 in the hesitate to reach out to Ari end SERV. On Saturday Crescent Room on Fri- at [email protected] of the reunion weekend, days, so feel free to stop or Julianne at julianne. we will be hosting a Parcel by and say hello and find [email protected]. B clean up from 11:30am- out what we are planning. edu. We'd love to chat 1:00pm and making blan- We are also going to be ta- with you and answer any kets for Project Linus, an bling during lunch again, questions you may have, organization that donates so stop by on your way and we'll be sending more blankets to children in through the dining hall to details about the election need, during the picnic say hi and see what we’re process soon as well. We from 1:00pm-4:00pm. up to! can't wait to finish filling Stop by for a while and As always, SERV is our SERV board for the hang out with alumni here for you, and we are year! :) while you walk through always open to your excit- Parcel B or make a fuzzy ing new ideas! E-mail us Ari Chae blanket! at [email protected], join the SERV Chair, Columnist Let's prototype futures for the Olin Library
Olin Workshop on the Library Nintendo's Presidency Past and Future Elizabeth Mahon rather than integers helped Laboratories to Nintendo it- Columnist make the underwater stages self as head of the Corporate in Super Mario Brothers play Planning Division. There Whether summarizing the smoothly. His programming he helped set up The Poké- company's financial situation skills, intuition about game mon Company to help deal and recent releases to inves- design and leadership abil- with Pokémon licensing. His tors, delivering news about ity enabled him to move up projects helped increase Nin- new games “directly” to through the ranks, and in tendo's profits 41% between fans, or punching his Ameri- 1993 he was promoted to 2000 and 2001, and led the can subordinate , Nintendo's president of HAL. Unfor- then-president of Nintendo, president, Satoru Iwata, has tunately, by the time he be- Hiroshi Yamauchi, to select become the face of many of came president the company Iwata as his successor. In their news releases. So who had almost gone out of busi- doing so, Nintendo moved is this man, and how did he ness. He turned the company away from being the Yamau- rise to the position he is in around, and today HAL is a chi family company, as Iwata today? And is he suited to respected Nintendo studio. is the first president of Nin- remain in his position in this While he was rising tendo to not be part of that time of flux in the gaming through the ranks of HAL, family. market? Iwata was made a board Iwata's time at the top As perhaps may be ap- member of Creatures, an- has been turbulent. Only a propriate for a gaming com- other Nintendo-affiliated few years after his promo- pany, Iwata started as a game game development studio. tion, Nintendo reached new programmer. He majored He had experience working heights with the Wii and the in Computer Science in with Creatures, since it was DS. The Wii outsold even college, and as soon as he involved with Earthbound. the Nintendo Entertainment graduated in 1982 he joined Its best known project, System, which had far less HAL Laboratories, which however, is Pokémon. As a competition. However, this was so named because they board member of Creatures, peak was followed by a pre- wanted to be “one step ahead he ended up being involved cipitous fall, with Nintendo of IBM.” HAL is a subsid- with editing Pokémon Red posting an annual loss for the iary of Nintendo that is best and Blue in order to allow for first time ever in 2012, an known today for making the different English script, event from which the com- Kirby games. There Iwata the development of Pokémon pany has still not recovered. worked on a wide variety of Stadium, and the develop- This has led some people to games including Earthbound ment of Pokémon Gold and believe that Iwata is no lon- and Balloon Fight . A com- Silver. His assistance helped ger suitable to be Nintendo's bination of his programming make up for the fact that president. For instance, many and people-management Game Freak, the primary observers, including some of skills allowed Earthbound to developer of Pokémon, was Nintendo's investors, are of go from entirely non-func- chronically understaffed at the opinion that Nintendo tional to complete in only the time. In part due to suc- should start making games one year, and his advice to cesses such as these, in 2000 for other platforms, such as use floating-point numbers he was moved from HAL smart phones. Nintendo has strongly resisted doing so, was in trouble as its release nior developers once a week. and rumor has it that Iwata’s date approached, he offered Clearly, with Iwata at the personal objections, not a the team a one-year exten- helm, Nintendo will always company-wide consensus, sion. This is in stark contrast focus on delivering a qual- are the reason for the resis- to the previous console Zel- ity, fun experience, even if it tance. Another reason some da title, Wind Waker, which comes at the cost of lower- people have called for him ing profits. to resign is a perception that "Iwata took a The arguments for and he may be overstretching against keeping Iwata as himself. In 2013, he took on 50% pay cut." president in many ways the position of CEO of Nin- mirror the possible paths tendo of America in addition was developed mostly under Nintendo could follow as it to his duties as president of his predecessor. The game moves into the future. On Nintendo's main Japanese was released in a noticeably one hand, it could follow branch. This year, he missed unfinished state – data left the rest of the gaming in- the Electronic Entertain- over on the disk indicates dustry. Like its rivals Sony ment Expo, the largest video that as many as three more and Microsoft, it could make game trade show, as well dungeons were planned, a powerful system to lure as Nintendo's annual meet- which would have almost third parties to make high ing of shareholders due to a doubled the main part of cost, graphically advanced “growth in [his] bile duct” . the game. Even when no titles, and it could follow Some worry that this health the lead of Square Enix and problem was caused in part "He ended up Sega and sell titles on smart by him working so hard for phones and the like to cush- the company. Nintendo’s doing squats in ion the blows when a big recent woes, his perceived front of the en- game does not do well. This conservative outlook on mo- risks being outcompeted or bile and PC gaming, and his tire development being forced into spending health problems have all led team." everything on a big gamble. to a class of people saying it On the other hand, Nintendo is time for Iwata to move on money is at stake, he focuses could continue doing what it to another role. on fun rather than conve- did successfully with the Wii On the other hand, one nience. He ended up doing (and not successfully so far of the strongest arguments squats in front of the entire with the Wii U) – make its Iwata supporters have is his development team of Wario- own unique games, mostly overall humility and devo- Ware: Smooth Moves when ignore what other companies tion to gaming rather than they showed their demo to are doing, and keep its ven- profit. After a poor 3DS him, despite the fact that erable back catalog locked launch in 2011 and a drop in he could have moved just to Nintendo systems to con- profits in 2014, Iwata took the Wii Remote rather than vince uncertain gamers to a 50% pay cut, despite the his whole body. Similarly, buy Nintendo systems. This fact that his base salary was a when shown a Gameboy risks Nintendo becoming relatively modest $770,000, Advance game that could completely irrelevant to the as opposed to, say, the presi- be controlled by rotating gaming industry as a whole, dent of Square Enix, whose the system, he proceeded to locked into a tiny niche of base salary was closer to put the game on a spinning nostalgia that cannot last in- $1.54 million. Unlike most office chair just to see what definitely. cost-cutters, though, he fo- would happen. He also tries cuses on quality rather than to keep an eye on how game For complete citations, quick iteration. When the development is happening find this article on the development of The Legend personally, through having Frankly Speaking website of Zelda: Twilight Princess lunch with Nintendo’s se- franklyspeakingnews.com. WelcomeLyra Silverwolf toeach personFrankly who resurrected SpeakingAdditionally, we need you Editor in Chief Frankly Speaking four years to join Frankly Speaking. Po- ago has by now graduated sitions are flexible, so if you Welcome to the sixth vol- and moved on. have a new idea for a position ume of Frankly Speaking, I'm incredibly proud to be or would just like to help, Olin’s student-run, monthly a part of such a momentous please reach out to me. We newspaper. year for our tiny, yet tremen- need enthusiastic, passionate The ongoing mission of dously powerful paper, but students to fill the following Frankly Speaking is to fos- we need your help to con- rolls for this upcoming aca- ter communication between tinue publishing. 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