President's Office

 

Thanks to Billy Jenkinson and to Ellen Hamilton for your invitations. The people in the Pee Dee Coalition against Sexual Assault and Domestic Abuse are doing a remarkable job. Sexual assault, family violence and child abuse are crimes that rob people of their sense of security and self. For 20 years you have been making a difference in the Pee Dee Region and I congratulate you on this anniversary.

 

I was asked to talk about how you change a culture and to share some of my experiences from the Air Force Academy and The Citadel. So I will talk for a while and then be happy to answer questions.

 

First, I’d like to talk about the national scene in the area of sexual assault on college campuses. This will not be news to most of you here today.

 

In February of this year, a study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence entitled “Risk Factors and Consequences of Unwanted Sex Among University Students” found that in a representative sample of 178 students at a small liberal arts university, 23 percent of the women and 7 percent of the men surveyed had experienced one or more incidents of rape. The most frequently cited reason for the assaults was impaired judgment due to alcohol.

 

This mirrors evidence collected by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2000 which found that 20-25% of college women experienced a completed or attempted rape during their college years.

 

When the Pee Dee Coalition did a survey of two local colleges in 1997, you found that what was happening on campuses in this area is similar to what is reported in national statistics.

 

Even more disturbing are two more statistics from the National Crime Victimization Survey which found in 2002 that 25% of girls and 17% of boys will be sexually abused by the time they reach their 18th birthday.

 

My last assignment on active duty in the Air Force was at the United States Air Force Academy where I was sent after the Academy had made national news because of reported sexual assaults.

 

What we did was determine what the situation was…get all the information out in the open so that we would stop being killed by surprises, rumors and evidence that people had ignored because it seemed too embarrassing or too painful to address.

 

After I was named president of The Citadel and before I took office, I reviewed all kinds of surveys, talked with parents and cadets and, because of my previous experience, I recognized some troubling trends . So I decided after I got here that at The Citadel, we also needed to get some current data to determine the situation with regard to sexual assault and sexual harassment.

 

We conducted a survey about a year ago and found that our campus was similar to those here in the Pee Dee region and those represented in the national surveys.

Nearly one out of five female cadets said they had experienced one or more sexual assaults since they had come to The Citadel.

About two percent of the male cadets said they had been victims of sexual assault – that’s lower that the national figures but any assault is one too many.

 

What I have described here is the first stage in changing a culture – the preparation phase where you collect information, assess your situation and develop a baseline which serves as a measuring stick and reference point for future assessments.

 

At both the Air Force Academy and at The Citadel, we released our data to the news media after I had first briefed our cadets, parents, faculty & staff, and alumni. You may remember the media attention our reports attracted last August.

 

This is what I would call a very painful look in the mirror. It forces people to recognize that there is a problem. And once all the facts are out in the open, you can begin to discuss the problem in order to start finding solutions.

 

That look in the mirror is the second step in changing the culture.

 

Let me say here that the efforts on sexual assault and sexual harassment are just one of a multi-faceted effort we are making at culture change at The Citadel. At The Citadel, we say we develop principled leaders. But we have discovered that we have to do more work in that area because we draw students from the same society that fosters the ethics of doing what you can get by with, cheating to get ahead and excessive drinking as an adolescent rite of passage. So we are addressing a number of areas in our efforts to change culture. These efforts are designed to help our cadets, who come to The Citadel with many of these values reflected in society at-large, become better aligned with our core values.

 

At The Citadel we have launched a Values and Respect program which focuses on five areas:

·      Sexual harassment and assault

·      The Honor system

·      Human Dignity

·      Alcohol and substance abuse

·      Leadership development

 

The program provides primarily education and training as well as stronger enforcement of existing rules to help cadets understand what it means to be a principled leader.

 

The Values and Respect Program is a work in progress. As we continue to work with our education and training, we have entered the third phase of changing a culture – turning the tide. This is the stage where all of the cadets – not just those who have come from homes that instill values like those at The Citadel – ALL cadets will recognize what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

 

There are two final stages to culture change – creating a new culture and embedding that culture. The final stage – embedding the culture – is a never-ending process that relies heavily on continued education and training. We know that we cannot let up or relax because this is one journey where there is no final destination. The trip continues and renews each year as new students arrive on campus to become cadets.

 

So those are the five stages in culture change. This is not easy but it is an immensely rewarding venture.

 

Now I would invite you to ask any questions.