A group of LSU students held a sit-in protest outside of the University’s football facility in response to the suspension of two LSU officials who mishandled sexual assault allegations, not allowing athletes or LSU faculty to leave the premises.
Protestors were prompted to converge at the Alex Box parking lot before rallying upon the LSU Football Operations Center 11 a.m. Monday and stayed until shortly after 2 p.m. There were around 50 students attending the sit-in, blocking all entrances and exits from the parking lot outside of the LSU Football Operations Center.
The University hired law firm Husch Blackwell to investigate the University’s existing Title IX practices after a November USA Today report revealed that Deputy Athletic Director Verge Ausberry was aware that former LSU football player Drake Davis assaulted LSU women’s tennis player Jade Lewis. After the report was released Friday, the University announced that two LSU officials, Ausberry and Senior Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar, would be placed on unpaid suspension and would undergo sexual assault training.
Student group Tigers Against Sexual Assault (TASA) organized the sit-in at the LSU Football Operations Center hours after the release of the Husch Blackwell report. The organization had previously demanded at a protest last fall that any University employees found to have covered up sexual assault be immediately terminated.
The Husch Blackwell report recognized the University’s precedented reluctance to terminate employees as a consequence of sex-based offenses. The firm found that the University was more likely to give a sentence resulting in suspension or probation instead of expulsion, and the University’s current process for determining sanctions is inadequate.
“Our review of the files has shown that the University’s sanction of choice for findings of ‘sexual misconduct’ are ‘deferred suspension’ and ‘deferred probation,’” the report read. “We found that the University’s guide with respect to violations of sexual misconduct does not appropriately capture the escalating and mitigating factors commonly utilized to determine the severity of a sanction.”
Protestors initially blocked the doorways into the LSU Football Operations Center but then altered their plan and began to block off the entrances to the parking lot of the building, not allowing any vehicles to leave the property.
Athletes attempting to leave the parking lot became frustrated with the students blocking their way, saying that they had classes to go to. LSU football player Aaron Moffitt argued with the protestors saying “I got a dog I need to go home and feed.”
When a group of protestors were asked if they felt bad because the athletes were not able to leave for class, they answered with a resounding “no.”
Co-president of TASA Angelina Cantelli said the organization chose the Operations Center as opposed to the administrative athletics building because it symbolized the privilege of LSU athletes who they believe are often treated differently in sexual assault cases.
“We chose this building because it is a symbol of athletes’ privileges on campus,” Cantelli said. “No one else gets a building like this. This serves as a picture of the ways that athletes have been treated differently when it comes to sexual assault. Furthermore, this is where Coach O [Ed Orgeron] works and he hasn’t commented on the matter at all. We want the people in this office to care about this issue.”
The protestors were intermittently chanting phrases such as “Get some nerve, fire Verge” and “Say it once, say it again, no excuses for violent men.”
Many protesters came prepared with signs, some of which read “LSU is complicit, suspension is not enough” and ”There’s no LSU community without accountability.”
Some students attending the protest expressed that for some people, campus doesn’t feel safe. Political science and international relations senior Ana Waskom believes that campus safety could be improved if individuals who covered up sexual assault would receive appropriate punishments.
“As a woman on campus, I would feel a lot safer at least knowing that the people who covered this up would get actual consequences,” Waskom said. “That’s why I’m here.”
The need for a unification of the LSU community to combat the issue of students feeling unsafe on campus was expressed by mass communication sophomore Charlie Stephens.
“I think this isn’t a female-only problem; we want everyone to feel safe at the University,” Stephens said. “This is a show of solidarity for everyone that has been [victimized] and the fear people feel on campus, I think it’s important for male [students] to be here.”
Mechanical engineering junior Jaali Crenshaw Henninger showed up to the protest after seeing the event shared on social media. Henninger expressed his fear that the problem of the University mishandling sexual assault allegations involving athletes will continue to occur due to the University’s prioritization of athletes over regular students.
“I really hope this is not a situation where it happened and it continues to happen,” Henninger said. “LSU puts sports above everything else, hence why they have million dollar facilities while the library has holes in it.”
“We support our students and their right to speak freely,” LSU Media Relations Director Ernie Ballard said. “We look forward to continuing the dialogue with them as we work to implement Husch Blackwell’s recommendations. This is a long and difficult process, and we appreciate student input.”
TASA co-president Angel Upshaw vowed that the organization will continue planning demonstrations until their demands are met by the University.
“We will keep having demonstrations until someone is fired,” Upshaw said.
Students speak at hearing
A Louisiana State Senate select committee meeting was held Wednesday to receive responses from public Louisiana universities on how sexual misconduct cases are handled on campus. TASA also prompted students to come out and show support at the meeting via social media.
LSU Interim President Thomas Galligan answered questions from members of the committee on the failures of the University in regard to its handling of Title IX cases. Galligan acknowledged the demand that any employee found responsible of covering up or mishandling Title IX cases be terminated.
“There are a lot of people I wish I could fire, and there are people who think it would be unfair to terminate them,” Galligan said. “We opened the books to Husch Blackwell to do a full investigation of all of this. For me, the books remain open.”
Former LSU student Samantha Brennan, who sued LSU after the University withheld Title IX documents regarding an investigation into former LSU football player Derrius Guice after he took a nude photograph of her without consent, spoke at the meeting about the information included in the Husch Blackwell report when the committee took statements from students.
“They cherry-picked what benefited them and omitted everything that damned them,” Brennan said. “This is bad, but the full story is way worse.”
Mass communication junior Ricky Bryant also spoke at the meeting about his personal experience dealing with sexual assault his freshman year at the University.
“This is a topic that impacts women heavily, but men are not immune from sexual violence. I didn’t get help because I knew LSU would protect my abuser,” Bryant said. “I knew the figurehead was more important to LSU than the survivor. Survivors should not have to relive their experiences before a legislative caucus to get their University to take action.”
Former LSU tennis player Abby Owens publicly identified herself for the first time as a survivor of sexual assault by Guice in 2016 and spoke on how the University’s failure to correctly investigate Title IX cases may have contributed to a lack of safety for students on campus.
“I think it’s just another example of LSU failing us,” Owens said. “It makes me mad to think of all the other victims that came after me and Sam, which could have been prevented if they would have properly investigated and do what they were supposed to do.”