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GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 21 In a paper he wrote in the spring of 1992, Antioch Col - lege student Dan Shoemaker said, “Looking back over my time at Antioch (1988–92), I can think of no single issue that polarized the community as much as the Sexual Offense Policy and the process through which it was gener- ated.” First developed in the fall term of 1990 amid tension on the Antioch campus, the Sexual Offense Policy — now the Sexual Offense Prevention Policy, or SOPP — has gone through a number of revisions, and the attitude toward it at Antioch has changed signifi - cantly. On Oct. 14, 1990, two Antioch students were physi - cally assaulted on Livermore Street. Six days later, another Antioch student was assaulted in front of Deaton’s Hard - ware and was subsequently hospitalized, according to Shoemaker’s paper. Female Antioch students reacted to the sexual assaults with a women-only “Take Back the Night” march, and a “Face and Fight Rape” discussion in the Womyn’s Center, during which about 15 women started formulating a new sexual offense policy that would require the college to hire an advocate to deal with reported cases of rape, sexual assault and persistent or insis- tent sexual harassment. This advocate would determine the guilt or innocence of accused community members. In November, the Womyn of Antioch, as the group identified itself, presented its demands to AdCil, the college’s Administrative Council, and at the campus community meet- ing. The Dayton Daily News reported that the students who wrote the policy had threatened to issue a national press release about Antioch’s failure to support rape survi- vors if no progress was made on the policy within a week. The People’s Record, an Antioch student newspaper, reported that the proposal SEX POLICY DRAWS NATIONAL ATTENTION By EVELYN LA CROIX FromTwo Hundred Years of YellowSprings, 2005 ▲ The Womyn of Antioch, formed in response to assaults on female students, formulated and presented the Sexual Offense Policy — the first of its kind in the nation — to the college in 1990.

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