The Student Senate held a meeting on Wednesday, March 3 where they discussed the recent sexual assault occurrences and working with Fish Camp to prevent these instances.
The “Increased Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Resolution,” authored by Senators Emily Lucas, Megha Viswanath and Diversity and Inclusion chair Iman Ahmed, discusses incidences of sexual assault relating to Fish Camp and calls for action to prevent further assaults.
Ahmed introduced and discussed the origins of the resolution with the Student Senate.
“This was spurred by a recent article that came out by The Battalion,” Ahmed said. “It did spur a lot of passion in a lot of students, and a lot of senators came together wanting to work on this issue. So, we thought the best way to do that was to really focus on how can we focus on sexual assault awareness and prevention, and then with that we did make sure to collaborate extensively with Fish Camp to ensure that any statements that we made were done in association with them, through their approval and through measures that they do plan to pursue.”
The resolution states Fish Camp by-laws no longer contain a rule that condemns counselors that become romantically and/or sexually involved with attending freshmen.
“A rule barring Fish Camp counselors from having sexual or romantic relationships with the freshmen prior to October of the same school year is absent from the Fish Camp Constitution and By-Laws,” the resolution reads. “The Texas A&M Student Senate calls for the inclusion of a rule in the Fish Camp Constitution and behavioral agreement that explicitly details that there should be ‘No sexual or romantic relations between freshmen and counselors throughout their entire membership term in Fish Camp,’ as well as adding the accountability procedures from the behavioral agreement into the Fish Camp Constitution.”
The resolution also called for measures such as inclusive defense training and mandatory training for all directors, chairs, advisors and counselors for Fish Camp.
“The Texas A&M Student Senate recommends for the implementation of mandatory Green Dot training and certification for all Fish Camp advisors, directors and chairs, alongside a modified Green Dot training for counselors of every Fish Camp term to accommodate for the size of the organization and current limitations on in-person training,” the resolution reads.
The authors were questioned about a part of the resolution that states, “More than 50 percent of college sexual assaults occur in the months of August, September, October or November.”
“From my research and my reasoning, I think a lot of that stems from the vulnerability of incoming students,” Lucas said. “You’re a new student, you’re trying to get acclimated, you’re trying to make friends and you can be more easily taken advantage of.”
The authors of the resolution were also asked about how changing the by-laws would prevent future sexual assaults within the organization.
“It seems from our conversations with Fish Camp none of these laws were explicitly mentioned, they did have a behavioral agreement, but even then it focused more on other things and not necessarily the nature or kind of these sexual relationships or romantic relationships that arise, and so we believe by really specifically detailing those in their constitution and by-laws will emphasize the rules that they do need to follow and would really push to make sure those are enforced,” said Ahmed.
The resolution ultimately passed with a vote of 43 in favor.