Rally for the Suspension of Members of Kappa Delta Rho

Kathryn R. Falvo
Krf158@psu.edu

Let me begin my brief remarks today by saying thank you to our organizers, and to all of you
who were able to come today to share our grief, our outrage, and our demand.
I work, as many of you here also do, as a counselor advocate for people suffering from domestic
abuse and sexual assault. In that capacity, I spend a lot of time telling women that it is okay to be
angry and I want to give you the same message. I think at this political moment it is important
for us to hold on to our anger to use it to bind us together, to stir us to action. To use it to love
one another better. We are angry with and for one another, and it is important for us to grasp this
emotional moment and use it. Thank you for being angry with me.
As Im sure many of you have read, President Barron has issued a thoughtful and committed
response to the actions of Kappa Delta Rho. He stressed the immorality of the fraternity brothers
their disrespect for both the law and for human dignity and the necessity of action on the part
of the University. I am certain that we all share his outrage, and that we all want to see change as
much as he does. For his timeliness in this matter I think we can all be grateful.
But he also made another argument, one which I wish to speak about more critically. He warned
his audience about us. He warned that there would be people clamoring for expulsion. And he
suggested that these people would be unreasonable. Disrespectful of the rights of male students.
Instead he stressed the need for due process in both criminal and disciplinary investigations.
I am not here today to tell you that we should abandon due process. Im not even here to argue
that these men should be expelled. I think our leaders have made our case very clear we are
requesting temporary suspension while we try to have faith in the courts to judge these men
fairly.
But I am here to make the point that the University and the law are not the same body, and they
do not have to respond the same way. Of course we will cooperate with any legal investigation.
But you as a University do not need to wait for the courts to reach a verdict before you remove
these men from campus not to expel them, but to suspend them while the courts do their work.
Let me explain why you should deviate from the legal system on this point. This is not the first
time issues of sexual violence have torn apart a University campus. This is not the first time there
has been incontrovertible evidence that rape culture is pervasive, and that it is intimately tied to
fraternity life. Due process is a noble goal. And it is the responsibility of our legal system to
assume these men innocent until they are proven guilty. But the University is not the law, and the
evidence we do have is sufficient enough to know that each and every member of that fraternity
was complicit in creating and maintaining a culture of sexual violence that makes women afraid
to be members of this community.

You say in your remarks, President Barron, that you are shocked by the actions of these men.
Are you? Because we arent. Those of us who are women who live on this campus, who teach,
befriend, counsel, and love other women we are not shocked. We know it from personal
experience. By the experiences of people that we love. But we also know it from the thousands
of other schools that are struggling with these issues, and with the women who have sacrificed so
much to make their experiences public. When you tell me that you are shocked, what I hear is
that you arent listening.
You have no excuse not to be familiar with these issues. Can you really live on this campus and
tell me that you dont know what rape culture is? Shock is a privilege that women do not have.
Shock is an emotion that people hide behind in order to absolve themselves from the
responsibility of addressing a culture we are all implicated in.
These actions do not take us by surprise. Perhaps you are merely shocked at the stupidity of men
who got caught.
Your priority as administrators and educators should be to create an environment where all
students feel safe to learn. Where women feel safe being in class and walking on campus. Can
we really assume that the best way to do that is to allow these men to remain on campus? In our
classrooms? Are we really more worried about these mens reputations than we are about the
safety of our women? And what does that say about our priorities as a school? About who can
thrive on this campus?
It strikes me that innocent until proven guilty seems to offer the benefit of the doubt to those
already in power. What about the innocence of the women in those pictures? Why do we work
from the assumption that these men have no responsibility instead of the assumption that these
women have been harmed and are continually harmed when they are forced to face their
aggressors in class? Suspend these men while the courts do their work. They have the right to
due process of the law but in the meantime you have the power to make this campus a safer
place for women.
As I stand before you and speak of this event, I do not feel shock. No what I feel is exhaustion.
We are tired of having to prove that rape is real. We are tired of providing evidence of rape
culture. We are tired of worrying about the rights of the people who create that culture. Before
you clamor for the rights of these men, think, for one moment, about the right that these women
have to be safe. Please suspend all members of this fraternity. They are complicit in this crime.
Please show Penn State and the country that we will not stand for sexual violence.
You have a rare opportunity to send a clear and incontrovertible message to all the fraternities on
this campus. It is a message this University needs right now. Are you really going to lose the
opportunity to do take concrete action against sexual violence on our campus? To tell female
students that you will make a stand for their safety? I was impressed by your words. I am
impressed by your intent. Because of that, we are standing here today with faith in you to do the
right thing. Please dont let us down.