Today, we have the second part of our Q and A with Harley Harrison, the former news editor at Ferris State University’s student newspaper, The Torch. Harrison, who graduated in 2018 with a degree in technical/professional writing and Spanish, served as the news editor at the paper and helped shepherd some extensive and in-depth looks at sexual assault issues on the campus.

For a look back at Part I, click here.

As a journalist, and as a Title IX-affiliated individual, what advice can you give to student journalists who want to get started on a piece about sexual assault, but don’t know where to start or are worried about what might happen if they do? How did you get started and how did you avoid creating problems for yourself and your sources in your work?

I love this question because I don’t think there is ever an easy way to go about covering sexual assault. But first, I think student journalists need to realize that there are many, many basis to cover.

When we talk about campus sexual assault, we often think about victim vs. campus administration vs. accused (especially after stories like Nassar). But in reality, it is more like a web of communication. You not only have administration, but you also have housing, campus police, advocacy groups, women’s shelters in the area, and hospitals. All of these organizations can impact a case or how cases are generally handled.

For example, the hospital in Big Rapids didn’t always have nurses on staff who could conduct rape kits, so survivors had to go all the way to Grand Rapids to get testing. This meant that a lot of survivors weren’t getting tested in time and, therefore, there was a lack of evidence. Another example is that the women’s shelter started collecting clothing donations so that survivors wouldn’t have to return to the dorms from the hospital in hospital gowns or scrubs (clothes are collected as evidence). These organizations all function together to support students, but when one organization isn’t helping survivors, it can lead to the mishandling of the situation.

The other aspect that student journalists have to realize is that the way a story about sexual assault is conveyed could have negative impacts on other survivors. For example, a story that accuses the Title IX Office of not believing survivors is going to discourage other survivors from seeking the Office as a resource. You really have to contemplate if it’s worth it. You have to ask yourself if the story will do more harm than good.

What suggestions would you have for student journalists who want to talk to victims of sexual assault without doing more harm than good? My great fear as a reporter would be (and probably still would be now) that I’d fumble over myself too much or that I’d ask a question that I shouldn’t be asking/a question that would really hurt the person. What advice do you have here?

I think my experience as a survivor is going to be more influential for my advice than my experience as a journalist. I naturally knew how to talk to survivors because I am a survivor. Some aspects are really simple and standard across the board for all survivors.

For example, don’t use the term “victim” when speaking to them. Always use the term “survivor” because that’s what they are. Using the term “victim” only victimizes them further and can be construed in so many ways. For legal reasons, you may have to write in the article “accuser”, depending on the story, but don’t blatantly interview a survivor only to remind them that they are a victim.

Another example of a broad standard is that reporters should not blame the survivor while asking them questions.  A common question that survivors get asked is “Were you drinking?” or “What were you wearing?” But the truth is, it doesn’t matter because what happened to them is still wrong.

Sexual assault is the only crime where the victim of the crime is also the one accused. You wouldn’t ask those questions to someone who just had their laptop stolen, so don’t ask those questions to someone who has been sexually assaulted. As a journalist, you want them to feel empowered to speak freely with you, rather than feeling ashamed of their story.

Yet, there are also a lot of aspects about interviewing survivors that are quite complex because every survivor is different. The majority of survivors experience a type of PTSD and sharing their story can be extremely traumatizing for them, but it varies for each survivor.

For example, writing is always very personal for me, so it’s a lot harder for me to write my story than to share it face-to-face. But I have met survivors who can’t fathom the idea of verbally sharing their story and they would prefer to write it. It can be really hard as a journalist to determine what is going to be triggering for a survivor so it’s important to keep all options open.

You have to be really patient and soft when asking questions. Allow the survivor to share their story at their own pace and to make decisions about how the interview will be conducted.. Ask only open ended questions and stray away from putting words in their mouth. If they need a break, give them a break. If they need a friend there to hold their hand, allow it. Most importantly, be prepared to hear details that are very difficult to hear.

What would you most want to tell people about your experiences with these pieces and what would you most want to have student journalists know if they had an interest in going after this topic on their campuses? Any words of wisdom?

My general advice, which coincides with any topic a journalist is covering, is to do your research first. There are many resources out there that have statistics about sexual assault on campus that can provide great credibility to your story. Fortunately, there is probably a consent-driven or bystander group on campus that has a lot of experience with talking to survivors that can coach a journalist more thoroughly.

Most campuses also have at least one medical professional who is trained to speak with a survivor, and they may also have tips on what kinds of questions to ask. Don’t forget the importance of including resources in the article because roughly 25 percent of the women who read the article are survivors and many of them may need help.

Anything you think I missed or anything you’d like to say beyond what I covered?

I think the most humbling idea to keep in mind is that approximately one in four women and one in ten men (even more for transgender and non-gender conforming individuals) have been sexually assaulted in the United States.

If you (the journalist) are not a survivor, keep in mind that someone you love, someone you sit next to in class, or even someone on your staff is a survivor – even if they haven’t told you. How you write the article will have a major impact on how that individual trusts you.

One of the most difficult and yet relevant coverage topics for college media outlets is sexual assault. From deep data dives to survivors’ stories, collegiate journalists must find a way to approach this topic with a sense of determination and yet maintaining a delicate nature.

The Torch, the student newspaper at Ferris State University in Michigan, developed some of the broadest coverage I have seen on this topic, and not just in the wake of #metoo or the Kavanaugh hearings. Advisers Steven Fox tipped me off to the work of his staff and the “strong voice” of his former news editor Harley Harrison.

Harrison worked at the Torch during her time at Ferris, serving as a news reporter in 2016-17 and a news editor during her final year on campus. You can find some of her favorite pieces here and here. Additional coverage, such as the look at the Title IX department itself and the process of reporting sexual assault, demonstrated the paper’s wider view of the issue itself.

During her time in school, Harrison also worked as a writing consultant at the campus writing center and as a student assistant in the Title IX office. She graduated May 2018 with a double major in technical/professional writing and Spanish and now works as a technical writer at Centria Healthcare Autism Services in Novi, Michigan.

A journalist, an advocate and a sexual assault survivor, Harrison has a distinctive perspective on the topic at hand, and she was willing to share her thoughts the subject in an email interview. Below is a Q and A with minor edits for clarity and focus:

What kind of drove you and the staff to look into this topic? Was it the national trend of statistics or was something happening on your campus at that point that got you involved in this area? What made it important to you to cover at this point and in this time?

I think that I was always naturally drawn to the topic of sexual assault because I am a survivor myself. It didn’t start to influence my work at the Torch until I started working at the Title IX Office with other survivors who inspired me to raise awareness. When I became News Editor, I started having my reporters write more and more about sexual assault. Everything I have written is mainly opinion pieces and editorials because I feared that my work at the Title IX Office would make me biased towards sexual assault coverage. I also outsourced a lot of the coverage to my reporters and my EIC, Angie Graf, to maintain unbiased coverage.

That being said, I think the Me Too movement really launched our coverage into the next gear because, for the first time, everyone around us actually wanted to talk about a topic that is usually shunned and private. We realized that we couldn’t miss the opportunity to cover a shift in campus culture.

In January, I had a survivor reach out to me because her case was mishandled by the school and she wanted to make it public. I had to outsource the story to the EIC and one of my reporters because I knew too much from the Title IX standpoint. Due to an open-records issue, it never ended up being published before my graduation, but it was the first time we actively interviewed survivors and their supporters. Finally, by the spring, the Larry Nassar case was a huge topic that we tried to cover.

It put me in a very difficult position because the Title IX Office became a critical topic and I couldn’t share any confidential details with my staff at the Torch. I also knew that it had to be covered because I knew many survivors at Ferris would see everything happening at MSU and wonder if the same thing would happen at Ferris.

Bringing awareness to sexual assault became a constant goal in every aspect of my life. It was natural for me to find it essential to be covered at the Torch.

How hard were these stories to do and which ones were more or less difficult to do? I’m asking because in some cases, the difficulty comes from administrators who don’t want the “numbers to get out” and have people think of the campus as unsafe. In other cases, it’s victims who want to come forward and make people aware, but the trauma is so difficult, they just can’t speak to journalists at all. How tough was this to do for you, the staff and the campus as a whole?

I’ve actually experienced difficulties with both administration and survivors, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that one is more difficult than the other. The Title IX Office at Ferris has always been open to sharing numbers and the Campus Climate Survey was public for anyone to see. In fact, the Title IX Office was very transparent up until the Larry Nassar case. At this point, administrators asked that the Title IX Office only communicate with the media through a spokesperson.

It was quite the struggle for me because I knew the Title IX Office had good intentions, but they came across as if they were hiding something because of the new lack of transparency. I’ll never forget sending my reporters from the paper to speak with my superiors at the Title IX Office and have them being turned away.

As for speaking with survivors, I wouldn’t use the term “difficult.” While it is traumatic for survivors to share their stories, they usually want to if they are coming forward to the press. We weren’t seeking them out. They were coming to us. We also had a lot of survivors on staff, so I think everyone was quite sensitive to how interviews and confidentiality were to be handled. Because of my work at the Title IX Office, I never interviewed survivors for the Torch, however, I did coach my reporters to do so with sensitivity.

What was the reaction to your publication of these pieces? Was there some sort of increased awareness? Did people tell you to knock it off? Was the school more attuned to the issue after your work or did everything kind of go on as business as usual?

We had really inspiring reactions to the publication of our pieces. I even had survivors come up to me and confide in me after we published. I like to think that our work at the Torch is partially why more students reported sexual assaults that year in a higher rate than ever before and why more students were open about taking the Campus Climate Survey. For the first time, students were having open conversations about assault and they were learning about how to access the resources they needed.