Debate Response Reyanna James

A strength for Hillary Clinton, and simultaneously a weakness for Donald Trump, was addressing racial issues. While Hillary Clinton acknowledged the rampant racism in our criminal justice system, saying “that if you're a young African-American man and you do the same thing as a young white man, you are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted, and incarcerated.” Trump on the other hand, called for “law and order” and a reinstatement of stop and frisk laws that were deemed unconstitutional because they disproportionately targeted blacks and latinos. On the issue of race, Clinton was the clear winner.

Another strength of Clinton’s was her ability to bait Donald Trump. She was able to push his buttons, and his true temperament came out. He became defensive and insulting, even suggesting that in the next debate he would talk about Bill Clinton’s indiscretions, but not at that moment because Chelsea was in the audience. Trump was also constantly interrupting both Clinton and the moderator, making him appear arrogant and rude.

Trump’s main strength was when he called out Clinton as just being another politician, all talk and no action. He stated that she has been in politics for upwards of 30 years, but hasn’t done much of what she says she has. Another strength of his was referring to her emails, an issue that is one of Clinton’s main weaknesses.

Overall, I thought Clinton was the clear winner. She had clearly prepared more, and it showed in her thoughtful and statistically accurate responses.

Hunting Ground Response Reyanna James

I think sexual assault awareness needs to be heavily focused on those statistically most likely to commit sexual assaults in high school and on college campuses. In athletics and fraternities, there is a culture of sexual assault. To break this down, these groups need to be specifically targeted.

Laura Dunn founded SurvJustice after tragedy, struggle, and eventual triumph over an experience with campus sexual violence. The organization’s mission statement is to “increase the prospect of justice for all survivors of sexual violence through legal assistance, policy advocacy, and institutional training.” It is a non-profit organization that is funded by donations. I would say it gets mostly positive press, being referenced mostly in articles that report on sexual assault and are telling a victim’s story.

Thomas Neumann and Henry Finer - Fixing the Rape Culture in College

Henry Finer & Thomas Neumann

AP Gov. p.5

We can raise awareness for sexual assault and rape by standing with the victims and not victim blaming. We need to make it easy for victims to share their experience and they should feel comfortable going to the police and school administration. An idea we have come up with to decrease the rape culture in colleges is to educate the fraternities on rape culture and its effects around campus. We think we should do these seminars for fraternities since they play a huge role in perpetuating rape culture. There's such a big rape culture in colleges because people except it, stigmatize it and it is escalated by the young adults binge drinking. People are afraid to speak out because they feel they will be the odd one out and feel ashamed. Ending the rape culture in college is the huge step in decreasing rape in general since it will make people speak out about it more and make rape less.

End rape on campus (EROC) Was founded in 2013 by Annie E. Clark and Sofie Karesek. The organization's key objectives are to end campus sexual violence through support for the survivors, rape education and policy reform on campuses. EROC gets its funding through donations off its site. They are also backed by NEO philanthropy which gives them money to do what they do. EROC has been portrayed as being a great organization doing good in the news from all the articles we found such as USA today, Huffington Post, ESPN and more.

Henry Finer - Debate

Henry Finer

Hillary Clinton Strengths:

• I thought Hillary did a good job keeping calm and collected and getting her points across even when Trump would interrupt or be rude towards her.
• She seemed mature up there especially when next to Trump
• Another strength I saw with Hillary was using her experience to her advantage by talking about what positions she's held through her life and
• I thought something that is subtle but can leave a huge impact is body language, which Hillary Clinton I thought did a great job at during the debate.

Hillary Clinton Struggles:

• A weakness I saw in Hillary was her not attacking Trump as much as I thought she could and should have

Donald Trump Strengths:

• Trump speaks with a passion and fire
• I thought Trump looks strong in the beginning making some good points to his strengths such as making broad comments on how he will fix America which I think works well for him.
• The “not just another politician” angle Trump uses I also thought was a strength of his, especially with so many people not being trusting of politicians (Hillary being one of the main politicians) and not thinking the government has done anything for them.

Donald Trump Weaknesses:

• Trump seemed to be just saying the same things hes been saying all along not really bringing anything new to the table
• He seemed immature up there by just some of the things he said and how he would interrupt Hillary or the moderator.
• As the debate went on Trump seemed to get less and less coherent and would make worse and worse points

Albert (Fritz) Gallun Debate 1

To begin I don't think that during the debate there was much progress made, not many topics were covered. There was a lot of back and forth on issues being discussed on the campaign trail and in the news over the past couple months but it was interesting to see how both candidates would address these problems. For Example I thought that Hillary did a very good job at handling Trump's attack in reference to the emails. Another area where I thought that Hillary was very strong was staying calm and not getting dragged into donald Trump's shenanigans where he tries to bait people into saying absurd things by inciting emotions but Hillary stayed strong and even exposed him for this. One area that I thought Hillary could improve was sounding more passionate, especially during her opening statement it almost sounded rehearsed and lifeless. I want a candidate who is passionate about America. I also thought that Hillary could have done a better job of Making herself look better then trying to make Trump look bad. doing this would make Hillary look much more mature and help her prove herself as a figure that is capable of presidency. I thought that Trump did a very good Job of being passionate and Animated in everything he said it made him seem very believable and confident in himself and this country. However this will bring me to his weakness I think that he should try to restrain himself better from making obscur comments and just simply lying it makes him look very immature and it makes the debate much easier for Hillary. I think that Trump also did a good job of checking Hillary. Although his timing may have not been appropriate every time he kept her in check and made her look unfit at times. I believe that this debate could have gone a lot better for Trump if he didn't interrupt all the time and try to insight conflict he was acting very childish. To conclude I think that Hillary won this debate and set a good tone for her campaign and teh rest of the election.To begin I don't think that during the debate there was much progress made, not many topics were covered. There was a lot of back and forth on issues being discussed on the campaign trail and in the news over the past couple months but it was interesting to see how both candidates would address these problems. For Example I thought that Hillary did a very good job at handling Trump's attack in reference to the emails. Another area where I thought that Hillary was very strong was staying calm and not getting dragged into donald Trump's shenanigans where he tries to bait people into saying absurd things by inciting emotions but Hillary stayed strong and even exposed him for this. One area that I thought Hillary could improve was sounding more passionate, especially during her opening statement it almost sounded rehearsed and lifeless. I want a candidate who is passionate about America. I also thought that Hillary could have done a better job of Making herself look better then trying to make Trump look bad. doing this would make Hillary look much more mature and help her prove herself as a figure that is capable of presidency. I thought that Trump did a very good Job of being passionate and Animated in everything he said it made him seem very believable and confident in himself and this country. However this will bring me to his weakness I think that he should try to restrain himself better from making obscur comments and just simply lying it makes him look very immature and it makes the debate much easier for Hillary. I think that Trump also did a good job of checking Hillary. Although his timing may have not been appropriate every time he kept her in check and made her look unfit at times. I believe that this debate could have gone a lot better for Trump if he didn't interrupt all the time and try to insight conflict he was acting very childish. To conclude I think that Hillary won this debate and set a good tone for her campaign and the rest of the election.

Albert (Fritz) Gallun Until it happens to You video response

before we watched The hunting ground I was unaware that campus rape was as common as it is. I believe that this is one of the major issues with how it is being handled on campus' all over the country. To raise awareness for this very serious problem universities should take more initiative in supporting survivors instead of blaming them. On top of that I think that to help survivors their should be more resources for them. In the hunting ground they said that at some schools there were programs for people accused of rape to get help but not those who were actually raped. I think that if this were to change and we could give people an outlet where they can open up and help survivors feel less lonely and know that they have a strong support system behind them. I researched Students active for ending rape or SAFER at http://www.safercampus.org/. SAFER was founded by a group of students at Columbia University in 2000 after they successfully reformed sexual assault policy. SAFER's objectives are to provide information on rape so people can be more educated as well as offering advocacy for survivors. SAFER receives a majority of its funding from donations online. For the most part it seems like SAFER has been portrayed in the news respectfully and many people are in support of the organizations idea and what they are doing.

Bronson Engel- Debate 1

When I watched this debate the thing that really got on my mind was how Hillary would talk and the words that she chose. When Mr. Holt would ask Trump about an issue he did not look down at his notes but he spoke his mind and spoke of his plans for what the issue was. Of course he is not good with words and the response he came up with might of had some good meaning but the way he said it he sounded like a complete idiot. Then when Hillary would respond she would say her speech from her notebook and it would be said with a bunch of big words that only educated people would use and then when I really listened to it she was saying the same exact thing that Trump was saying. One thing I didn't like what Trump said was when he proposed and supported the idea of stop and frisk which has been happening in New York forever. I did not like that idea because I believe in privacy among all individuals. But one thing I did agree with Trump on was that we have to stop being the worlds police because we are spending so much tax payer money defending other countries but we can still help protect other countries as long as they pay us. I didn't really agree with much of what Hillary said because she makes so many promises that she will not be able to keep so I don't know which one of her promises will actually happen. 

Lauren Kelleher Video Diary

1.  The way we can raise awareness for sexual assault it to destigmatize the victims of rape and sexual violence. The stigmatization that exists is helping the attackers and discouraging the victims. Survivors feel that they are not able to come forward because of legitimate reasons that unfortunately, are probably going to become reality. Being called a liar, a slut and an attention hog are probably all going to happen to survivors that come forward. The accused assailant sometimes are not guilty this is true, but all you have to do is look at the numbers to see that someone lying about sexual assault is overshadowed by the true accounts. Lady GaGa’s “Til it Happens to You” music video has been viewed over 35 million times that is comprised of people who don’t know about rape and people who have been raped and everything in the middle, this video is a great step towards making sexual assault real to many people. And making sexual violence a real thing to people who don’t want to see it will bring awareness to the cause.

2. A. SurvJustice was founded by Laura L. Dunn in 2013 after she was sexually assaulted by two crewmates and struggled and eventually triumphed to get justice for herself.

     B. SurvJustice’s key objectives are in a wordle on their webpage; justice, innovation, expertise, uncompromised, and survivor focused.              

     C. The organization receives its funding from donations which are split up into angle donors, and warrior donor. The angle donors go to fighting for justice for a specific survivor. Warrior donor’s money goes to going up against big companies or institutions.   

     D. SurvJustice and unparticular Lauren Dunn is portrayed in the media as being a lawyer, advocate and well informed fighter for justice for sexual assault victims, saying “was my personal moment of justice as a survivor, that what happened to me would never happen to anyone else.”                                      

Zoe Lydon- Hunting Grounds assignment

Sexual Assault on college campuses is a major flaw in our education system. We live in a culture where the assailant in a sexual assault is often never punished and at times praised. Especially in places like college campuses where rape culture is able to thrive without anybody standing up against it. In our society sexual aggression is encouraged and rape is validated. People make jokes and statements everyday that they don’t even know contribute to our rape culture. One way we can raise awareness in order to support victims of sexual assault is to make an effort to show others that they are contributing to the problem and they may not even know it. Ending rape culture will help destigmatize rape and show victims that what happened to them is not right nor their fault. Raising awareness about rape culture could include the smallest acts, even just by teaching your friends, or standing up against rape jokes and victim shaming.

Know Your IX is a youth-led organization started in 2013 by Mahroh Jahangiri and other fellow college students from across the country. The main goal of Know Your IX is to try and help end sexual assault on school campuses. They want to do this by educating people, raising awareness, and supporting victims. This organization mainly focuses on educating people and victims about their rights. Everyone deserves justice for their sexual assault like any other crime and Know Your IX wants victims to know that. This organization has an extremely positive reputation and is supported by many other organizations for women’s and victim rights. This organization is a non-profit organization and they mainly receive funding through donations.

Nick Baumann Presidential Debate 1

The debate that just occurred was sub par and the candidates seemed immature. However, there were some strengths for each candidate, and they made strives to connect with the voters. One strength of Hilary was that she made an effort to speak to the black community and other minority groups including women. She acknowledged that inner cities were in shambles and that she would change that by increasing gun control laws. This was one weak point of Trump, when speaking on the black community in the inner cities, he threw out facts like 3,000 shootings in Chicago and 4,000 deaths as the effect of it. This is data that was not fact checked and cannot be used credibly. Another weak point of Trump was when Clinton was speaking on how he should release his tax returns and how he has evaded releasing them to the public, his response was, "That's because I'm smart." This, along with other outbursts and interruptions, caused Trump to look like an amateur of debating. A strong point for Trump was that he talked very much about the economy, and spoke directly on how he is going to fix America's trillion dollar debt. Another strong point of his was his motto to, "Break the Mold." No doubt that Trump would break the mold as the president, but would this be a good thing or bad? Clinton definitely made an effort to shut down Trump and disprove all of his points. This is a high point for her because most claims that Trump made, were rebutted very well by Clinton with solid evidence. However the weak points for Clinton were her ability to not get involved when Trump was clearly egging her on and making personal points about her time in the Senate. Also she refused to release the emails that many Americans desire to know the topic of. Overall a low-point win to Clinton is in effect here.

Ethan Hawker and Nick's response to Lady Gaga video and Hunting Ground

Lady Gaga's video was empowering and didn't hold anything back. Also the video was exposing and meaningful. The overall message of the song was nobody knows how sexual assault feels, unless they are to experience it themselves. Ending sexual assault on college campuses starts with the awareness and the acknowledgment of it. As seen in the Hunting Grounds documentary, the acknowledgement of campus rape by school officials is poor and there are minimal charges even if the accused rapist is prosecuted. In Lady Gaga's video specifically, the victims are seen with writing on their bodies. Things like, "I am worthless," many people may be asking why, but that is the whole point of the video, that you won't know until it happens to you. The Hunting Ground connects directly with her song because these incoming freshman were overjoyed about college, but the experience became a nightmare when they became the victims of sexual assault. They had nobody to turn to because even the school administrators didn't back them, and telling their parents was something they couldn't even imagine doing at first. Overall, Lady Gaga's music video should be wider spread for the awareness of sexual assault.

Natalie Lovinger Hunting Grounds Response

1. Since many women don't fell comfortable reporting their rape, they go unreported and victims feel alone. Without hearing other people's stories, no one knows that there are others in the same position. If there are spaces created so that survivors can talk about their experience the survivor will be able to see how many people are going through the same thing and that there is support for them. An important aspect to creating the space is that it is a safe space. If survivors are told their stories are false, or that no one wants to hear, they will not feel safe and no one will want to share their stories.

2. a. Surv Justice was founded by Laura Dunn after she was sexually assaulted in 2004 at University of Wisconsin in Madison.
b. Surv Justice aims to help sexual assault survivors by aiding them in the legal aspects of justice as well as supporting those who want to make legal change.
c. Most of the funding comes from donations.
d. Most of the media mentions of Surv Justice are in relation to their work on rape cases.

Elliot Mollie Hunting Ground Response

1. In order to raise awareness about sexual assault on college campuses there needs to be a definite change in the rhetoric and tone towards sexual assault survivors, perpetrators, and the claims of sexual assault in general. The persistent ignorance and rape culture in our society is the main reason why sexual assault continues to be a pervasive threat on our college campuses. I believe that the stories of trauma need to be shared more often, if only to combat the belief by many that sexual assault is “not that bad”. This victim-blaming, uncaring, and unwilling rhetoric surrounding rape and sexual assault is the reason why even after having evidence and proof of rapes many authority figures in our country overlook sexual assault claims. The only real way to change this mindset is to show people images and stories like Hunting Ground and Til it Happens to You. We have gotten past the need for numbers and facts, and into the time for personal feelings and emotion. After watching these films I was much more moved to take action to combat sexual assault than I was after Googling how many rapists go free.

2. Our activism organization was the EROC (End Rape On Campus). The two founders of this organization are Annie E. Clark, who is the executive director and a published author, and Sofie Karasek, who is their Director of Education and a subject of The Hunting Ground. This organization’s key objectives are to raise awareness about campus rapes and to directly support victims and their families. They also want to push campus, state, and federal policy reforms that make sure that no rapist goes without punishment. Through this, they hope to put an end to the normalized campus rapes going on in many colleges all throughout the country. This organization is currently internet exclusive. They have no paid staff and receive no substantial funding from any government organization. Furthermore, it is important that we aid not only the EROC, but all organizations that seek to expose the frequent but ignored rapes going on on college campuses. This organization has also been praised on the news, not only because they have done good things, but also because this is a relatively isolated organization. It isn’t too well-known, nor is it adequately funded, but the articles that are written about it from major news outlets have nothing but good things to say.