Meet the Staff
Rose S. Marshall (She/Her)
Freshman year, I sat in Champlain’s main presentation room while a man on stage talked about all of the good we Student Advisory Boards were going to do for the school. There were three boards present: Mental Health Awareness, Diversity and Identities, and Sexual Violence Prevention. I was on the Diversity and Identities board, but was sitting at table with members from all boards and grades.
Halfway through the mandatory ice breakers, a phone was passed around my table with a list. But not just a list, The List. On it were the names of known Title IX violators, some of whom had been reported but had had no disciplinary action taken against them. As a Freshman, this stark reality rattled me.
Since that day, I’ve tried my best to use my skills and time at Champlain to make small steps towards change. For my first two and a half years, I worked at the newly-founded Women’s and Gender Center, creating a welcoming and supportive community space on campus. While studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland I interned with an LGBTQ+ education-based non-profit, where I went around to schools all over the country to talk about the importance of LGBTQ+ inclusivity.
These passions and my ever-slow-march towards change has, unsurprisingly, found its way into my writing. Themes including feminism, self-love, mental health, LGBTQ+ rights, and sex education inspire many of my pieces - and I hope they continue to well into my post-grad life.
This capstone project seemed like the only right way to end my time here. To create a platform fit to lift up others’ voices and shed light where people are afraid to look.
Gale Proulx (They/Them)
The first time I heard anything about Title IX at Champlain College was in my second semester. One of the student publications I contributed to released an article regarding various people on campus who had to deal with sexual violence. I can still remember the day I sat in disbelief reading about what was happening. Up until this point, Title IX was not a term I was familiar with.
The summer after my first year at Champlain College I had learned that not only were events happening on Champlain campus, but I was directly working with one of the perpetrators mentioned in the article released earlier that year. Without knowing it, I was earning a reputation as a “rape apologist.”
Due to an odd set of circumstances, I was unable to easily terminate my working relationship with the perpetrator. Stuck in a position I didn’t want to be in, I tried to make the best with the resources I had to ensure that none of my coworkers were hurt. During my second year, I devoted my bodies project to researching sexual violence on college campuses and their impact on college communities. I also spent the next year and a half trying to make sure no repeat offenses happened while I was working with the perpetrator.
By studying abroad in Dublin my third year, I was finally able to take a break from this toxic environment, but it did not last long. When returning for my fourth year, I heard about another Title IX case within the first week of classes. At this point I felt I had to do something. Rather than avoid the issue, I decided to yet again confront and improve the still broken system that I was indirectly involved with since my first year.