The editorial goes on to say university administrators can change the rape culture on our campus through “funding” and “official channels,” suggesting the coalition tone things down in order to make that happen.

Does the editorial board know members of the coalition have been in talks with administrators since January regarding designing a university-funded consent campaign aimed at educating students at MSU?

Do they know that just weeks after the coalition’s first occupation of MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon’s office, administrators changed parts of the sexual harassment policy, making it easier for survivors to go through the judicial process?

Of course, these are important steps to changing the culture and climate at MSU, however, money and bureaucratic policy changes mean very little in terms of affecting change when the university remains silent as two alleged rapists allegedly are celebrated on the basketball team.

We can discuss all day about how to educate our peers about sexual violence, but until rapists actually see consequences for the violence they inflict upon women students, the message being sent is that rape is not a serious offense.

The editorial also criticizes the four students, including myself, who were arrested during the Day of Rage action inside of the Administration Building, writing that they did so to “feel important” and to get press coverage.

The members of the coalition who remained in the building did so to make it clear they were making a claim to that space.

The editorial board failed to mention that, during the coalition’s “sit-in” in the Administration Building, nearly 35 students sat in a circle and spoke to each other about the issues regarding sexual violence on campus that need to be discussed and acknowledged.

The coalition and other students who attended this event did so to make it clear we intend to reclaim space and power, amid the ongoing disenfranchisement and de-facto restriction of spaces for women students on this campus.

“Sitting-in” or occupying the Administration Building sends the message that we will not be marginalized anymore. However, the coalition used this reclamation of space not only to send a message to administrators and those with power, but also in a constructive manner by facilitating democratic discussion about the experiences students on this campus have had and the issues they feel need to be acknowledged.

During this teach-in — before police threatened students with arrest — participants were engaged in discussions about what rape culture looks like on this campus, consent and coercion, sexist language and how to confront and educate peers who support rape apologism and victim-blaming attitudes.

It is unfair to suggest the coalition is uninterested in these methods of making change when we already are engaged in them.

The editorial criticizes the coalition for the message and imagery that was painted on the rock on Farm Lane during the Day of Rage. The purpose of that day was to express our anger with the fact that women are being raped at this school and that very little is being done to hold rapists accountable.

Painting a gun on the rock is symbolic because we are waging a war on sexual violence. We want rapists to know their behavior cannot and will not go on without consequence. This radical and militant response to rape culture is necessary. Sexual violence and misogyny are tools and symptoms of a patriarchal society such as ours, therefore a radical approach to eliminate rape is necessary.

If the editorial board truly is concerned about this issue, we challenge it to express its dissatisfaction with the status quo, the administration, the prosecutor, the alleged rapists on the basketball team, etc., rather than with the coalition’s activism.

Mitch Goldsmith is a State News guest columnist and a social relations and policy, women’s and gender studies senior as well as a member of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence. Reach him at goldsm4@msu.edu.