Newspapers / Gardner-Webb University Student Newspaper / Oct. 28, 1998, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page 2 Wednesday^ October T&, 1998 The Pilot Around Campus Oct 29 Honors Mystery Dinner M. Soccer v. Limestone 3:00 PM, Soccer Field Volleyball v. Wingate 7:00 PM, LYCC Oct 30 Fall Ball YOTS Film Festival The Day the Earth Stood Still 111 Comm Studies Hall Oct 31 Football V. TUsculum 1:00 PM @ Tusculum W. Soccer v. F-M 2:00 PM, Soccer Field Nov 3 Distinguished Artist Series St. Louis Brass Quintet 8:00 PM, Hamrick Hall Nov 5 Fine Arts Recital 9:25 AM, Hamrick Hall Nov 6 Volleyball v. Citadel 7:00 PM, LYCC Nov. 7 VIP Day Football V. Presbyterian 1:30 PM, Spangler Stadium Nov 12 Distinguished Artist Series eletro acoustic music 8:00 PM, Hamrick YOTS Film Festival Bob Roberts 111 Comm Studies Hall Nov 14 Football V. Mars Hill 1:30 PM, Spangler Stadium Nov 19 Fine Arts Recital, 9:25 AM, Dover Chapel Nov 24 GWU Symphonic Band 8:00 PM, Dover Theatre Dec 2 YOTS Film Festival An Angel At My Table 111 Comm Studies Hall Dec 3 Festival of Lights GWU Choirs 7:00 PM Dover Theatre Dec 7 University Orchestra 8:00 PM Dover Theatre Dec 10 Fine Arts Recital 9:25 AM Hamrick Jan 13-14,1999 Grease auditions Koestner tells of date rape Mary Jones Pilot Staff “I decided that I was going to be brave” said Katie Koestner, who a year after being raped by a fei- iow student at the College of William and Mary began to tell her story She said that it is impor tant for her to speak on the 29th of every year, the day she was raped, even though it's hard. “It's the best way to cope,” she said. When nationally known date rape awareness speaker Katie Koestner spoke at Dimensions Tuesday, Sept. 29, the room was silent. No books swished. There was no murmuring. There was only occasional laughter when she made a funny com ment. She spoke the whole hour and when she finished, the room burst into applause and a standing ovation. On the third weekend of her freshman year at the College of William and Mary University. Koestner was raped by a fel low student in her room after a date. She told the crowd at Dimensions what she remembers of the night-his comments, her thoughts, her actions, even the color of the carpet and the walls. She says, “I liked him.” He was a pop ular guy on campus and she felt lucky to date him. But, after saying no over 12 times, her raped her. She says “When I was 18, date rape didn’t exist.” Her case divided her campus. Her own roommate didn’t believe her and on the day her rapist was convicted, a neighbor in her dorm went out on a date with him. Her parents do not support her in her work. She says “I am up here alone.” If she stopped speaking, she says her parents would talk to her. That’s how much it means for her to speak, she says. “I want to see a world free of rape.” She emphasized that if one man would stand up and say that rape was wrong, he would make a greater impact than she could ever make. She said, “If you are a man sitting in this room and don’t like rape, what will you do to stop it?” She challenged men to stand up and to not even laugh at rape jokes. “It takes a strong man to stand in the face of your peers. Be angry now. Take a stand now.” “ She told the girls that she would not tell them what to wear and what to do. “The best defense is your own self-confidence. Decide what to take and what not to take.” Koestner said that she hears an aver age of 10 stories of rape at each school, no matter what the size or type. She said that since being on campus since Monday night, she had already heard four stories. She said that one in four women are raped or sexually assaulted. She said that all that takes is a mother, a sister, a girl friend, and a daughter. She said not to think that it will happen to someone else. She said that kind of thinking scares her. “It could happen to you.” Rachel Nutting said, “I was surprised by the statistic that one in four woman are raped or sexual assaulted. I didn’t realize that it was that prevalent. It was a good reality check for me. I thought - never in this perfect Christian world.” Amanda Keene said, “I think that her coming and talking was something that unified the campus. Her story was some thing everybody could relate to at some level, the compassion for her really unit ed everybody.” Matthew Miller said, “I think she did a good job. She made good points and came down to everyone’s level. I liked the way she presented the one in four statis tic.” There were different reactions to Koestner’s story. She acknowledged that some people would say that she was naive to ask a man she had only known for a couple weeks back to her room to dance to • romantic music. She said that she knows that many people would say that they would not have made the same choices that she did. She stressed that she was very naive when she was 18. Some people were more skeptical. Franklin Tallah said, “Some of my friends didn’t want to hear it. They thought it was male-bashing. I have two sisters and I wouldn’t wish anything like that to happen to them. At the same time you have to be logical. I’m interested in knowing what the guy was feeling. I don’t agree with the guy at all. I wouldn’t be able to stand anyone doing that to my sis ters. I don’t think she was wrong.” “I heard a lot of people say she was naive. She was too trusting, but, you don’t know how you’re going to react unless you were there,” said Natalie Morgan. Katie Ragsdale concluded, “Just because she might have been naive about the whole thing doesn’t matter. If she was standing naked in front of him and said no, it’s still wrong. No means no.” Doug Searcy had heard Koestner speak at Davidson last year and said that he “was pleased with her ability to connect with people and provide her experience in a very real way so people could under stand the issue of date rape.” He said, “specifically for Gardner- Webb, date rape is something we don’t talk about and the more we realize its an j issue for us, the more we can do to educate j ourselves and hopefully resolve the issue.” | He said he “hopes the impact is long- | term. We are effected today because of our I recognition of how important the discus- | sion of this is. I hope we begin to take | steps personally and as a community so j that we can help people going through this | or prevent it for others and make it not as | much an issue in the future.” | Individual pockets of people are affected by this whether its happened to a | friend or someone in a family. Hopefully | this has helped them to deal with it. I Others may have never heard of this or | don’t think it happens that much. Th(‘ awareness stems conversations that multi ply even when she’s [Koestner] not here.” SEE GWU Students page 3 | Challenging date rape Kitlie Kx’stncr started to speak a year after her rape. Since then, Katie Koestner appcated on the Junti 3. 1991 cover of TIMH maga/ine. She worked with HBO in i9Ql to make the l.Ifestorics DcKudrama entitled. “No Visible Bruises; The Katie Koe.stncr Story." vShc graduated Iroin the coilcge of William and Mary in 1994 Magna Cum Lainie and Phi Beta Kappa. She has since presented iicr program to hundreds of thousands of students ai over 500 coHcges, liigh schools. £U)d military institutiojts in nearly 50 states. She has appeared on tclevisioji shows including tlic Oprah Winfrey Show, Gcraldo, NBC Nightly News, l^ry King (,ive, and Kntertainmeni Ttmighi. Articles about her strary have appeared in the New York Time.s, Los Angeles Tribune. ChScagt) Sun*Timcs, and hundreds of other ncwspa|)crs and publica tions. She hiis"been Ihe keynote speidcec ^ several international and national cotii^ertces on sexual ass^t. “The best defense is your own self- confidence. Decide what to take and what not to take.”
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