Reports surface of ‘sex competition’ in Patrick Hall

SJU Residential Life, Faculty Residents, Resident Assistants and Title IX officers are investigating allegations that St. John’s students on the first and second floors of St. Patrick Hall started a competition over who can have the most sexual interactions with Bennies.

On Wednesday, the administration sent an e-mail saying they were aware of the allegations and were conducting an investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to come forward and contact Jeff Glover, the assistant director for student support. So far, the school has been unable to track which students are behind the competition, so instead a mandatory floor meeting for all residents was held in recent weeks to discuss the issue and start a larger conversation.

Liam Miller, the RA on Pat 1, and Glover first learned of the allegations a few weeks ago.

“When I saw the email, I was disgusted,” Miller said. “I knew that something had to be done immediately.”

Glover said he first learned of the issue from the father of a current SJU student. The student became aware that his girlfriend’s name was on the list of names part of this alleged competition, and his father expressed concern to Glover. It is unclear whether this list exists in a physical form or is purely digital.

“Immediately we went into our protocols to collect as much information as we can,” Glover said. “At that time we were not able to get any information.”

In particular, Glover said he was seeking information on any students who may have circulated this list or anyone who may have been on the list so he could reach out and notify them.

“With the numbers of people who know about it, it surprises me that we haven’t been able to get a copy of anything,” Glover said.

Students have reached out to express concern and dissatisfaction with how the situation is being handled, but so far nobody has provided Glover with any names of students involved.

According to Miller, there were point values assigned to various factors, but the alleged competition’s details are currently unclear. According to two St. Ben’s students familiar with the situation who wished to remain anonymous, they believe the competition is run through a group chat, but it is unknown how many students are involved. The Record does not generally grant anonymity to sources but will do so for this case due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Due to a lack of actionable evidence, Glover turned towards education efforts. Miller coordinated with Glover, SJU Director of Residential Life Dan Morgan, professor Kari-Shane Davis Zimmerman and Faculty Resident Greg Miller to develop a plan of action, involving a mandatory floor meeting for all residents to discuss the issue and start a larger conversation. They organized four sessions across two days, and residents could choose which session to attend.

“[The meetings were] a way to start a conversation about rape culture and the implications of toxic masculinity on our campus,” Miller said. “You can’t just say ‘boys will be boys,’ there has to be acknowledgement and there has to be accountability.”

Glover hoped students would come forward after the meetings. There was also an opportunity to discuss how these issues could be dealt with as a community and what else could be done. No students came forward with information after the meetings.

“Worse than trying to empathize with people who are outraged about it is not being able to give them the direct justice that they want and that I want,” Glover said.

Without information, Glover cannot take action to deal with potential perpetrators.

“At times there are people who I think feel like we don’t care about these issues, or that we think boys will be boys and we try to sweep things under the rug,” Glover said. “And that’s always really hard to hear, because I don’t, I don’t know sometimes how to better, I guess, to express how serious we take this.”

The two St. Ben’s students expressed concern that the conversations might not have been harsh enough on perpetrators.

“We’ve had conversations with a lot of our guy friends about it and a lot of it is… [implying] girls are making [a] big deal about it and then we get told that we’re being overdramatic and that we’re trying to ruin people’s lives,” one of the Bennies said. “That’s just been a consistent thing, that they don’t think that these comments or games are wrong. They just think of it as part of their lives.”

The other Bennie said similar things about interactions with Johnnie friends.

“I feel like a lot of people that we know, guys that we associate with are like ‘oh, well, we would never do that, that’s just their problem,’ but then they will say comments and do other things, maybe on [a] lesser scale, but that still are all part of that same cycle of things,” she said. “I feel like they don’t really understand that they play a small role in a lot of this stuff too.”

“They made that choice; we’re not trying to ruin their lives; they chose to do their actions, and now they’re not owning up to them,” one of the Bennies said. “I’m not ruining their lives, they ruined their own lives.”

The Bennies also voiced concerns that Johnnies might not come forward with information about the competition or other concerning allegations on campus. They said they were aware of several concerning allegations towards various students and were concerned that Johnnies might not be taking the issue seriously.

“I think a lot of guys don’t want to come to terms with the fact that their friends or themselves would do that,” one of the Bennies said.

This issue speaks to a larger culture on campus.

“It’s raising the awareness of bystander intervention,” Glover said. “Where are the Johnnies who hear this? There are Johnnies who know this. There are Johnnies who know something, and they’re not saying anything. Which is a… culture of silence.”

Glover is concerned about the attitudes that led to any competition forming.

“It’s more just the fact that this isn’t healthy to be having this list at all or to be having any sort of competition and that could lead to somebody pushing boundaries and could lead to an assault,” Glover said. “Sexual assault stems from this inability to see somebody as a person.”

Preventing future situations and changing the campus culture involves more than single sessions.

“What more can be done? Can these sessions happen on a bi-monthly or monthly basis?” Miller said. “These sessions can go a long way in furthering those continuing dialogues.”

The Bennies agreed that proactive work is better than reaction.

“Be proactive opposition,” one of the Bennies said. “Don’t just wait to do damage control.”