… with this article from yesterday’s New York Times:
I can’t imagine how campus must have changed since I was a student. I lived on campus for four years, and I swear I never witnessed anything like the things this article describes. I remember “Mother’s Rugby” being an affable group of sports nuts, and nothing more. I knew one member because we were in a class together — he was a very nice guy. During one walk around Fredericksburg, he actually defended a couple of female companions from a few locals who were about to harass them.
I don’t even remember too much controversy on campus connected with any social or political issues. I wasn’t aware of any organized vocal feminist community, or anyone visibly opposing feminists either.
In 1991, I think, there was some controversy connected with a … Multi-cultural Center? I think it was an office dedicated to advocating for students who were members of racial minorities? And when the gay students demonstrated for social acceptance, there were a few psychos wearing homemade anti-gay t-shirts (suggesting, of course, a Freudian defense mechanism for their own unconscious impulses).
But there was nothing like the events we’re currently reading and hearing about.
I might just stop reading the news, so that I can preserve my image of the college that I still love.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 
Don’t stop reading the news and DON’T preserve your outdated image. I love MWC and have benefited from my MWC education, as I believe that you have, and that’s exactly why we should be informed and demand that UMC admin properly access what’s happening and take proper action. Frankly I wasn’t aware until I read your posts (thanks BTW), but I need to read more so that I can properly give my feedback as an alumni. I am deeply saddened that this occurred, saddened that women (and probably others) do not feel safe on campus, and very worried that UMC was not taking this issue seriously enough. Again, I don’t know what steps have been or are being taken, but I would like to see all future UMC students feel as safe as I did. OK, in the interest of openness, I felt a little threatened by the locals around Fburg, but not on campus…
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Wow. Very well said, Rick. Your response here is far better than my blog post. Well done.
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Don’t be so humble, Eric. Your post addresses what is going on with you, and your reactions to this awful news.
I don’t even know what to say, except that rape or the threat of it is a problem that women face all the time. College /access to alcohol can make it a lot worse
Universities do their best to sweep it under the rug, because they want tuition money, etc. That’s all colleges, not just MWC.
I knew a few rugby players when I was there, too, and they were good guys.
Okay it’s late and I need to go.
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