“We don’t take a passive or laissez-faire approach,’’ said Margaret Ross, BU’s head of behavioral medicine, noting that the school offers a wide variety of resources, including two highly trained on-call crisis counselors, one of whom counseled the woman who accused a hockey player of rape this week.
But women’s advocates at BU said bigger changes would be needed to address a pervasive “rape culture’’ at the school, one they said was exemplified by recent comments by longtime hockey coach Jack Parker.
In an interview with the Globe Thursday, Parker said he would cooperate with the task force but he doubted campus culture could be changed dramatically.
“It’s certainly different than it was in the ’70s. Sexual mores have changed,’’ he said. “There’s girls on every floor; there’s no men’s and women’s dorms. The idea that hooking up is OK - I don’t think that term was even used in the 1970s… . Ninety-nine percent of these problems start with alcohol and sex. That’s a bad combination.’’
Ross said she disagreed that the culture could not be changed.
“The most important concern is that every student should feel safe and cared for. Anything that interferes with that is something BU needs to address actively,’’ she said. “It’s not just ‘boys will be boys.’ That’s not OK at this university. It should never be OK.’’
Parker’s comments enraged undergraduate volunteers at BU’s Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism.
“Let me try not to use expletives,’’ said Ariana Katz, a senior who co-directs the center. “He’s saying that boys will be boys, and it’s alcohol’s fault, and rape is happening because there are women everywhere? No. These assaults and his response tarnish every single hockey trophy BU has ever won.’’
Katz said she welcomed the school’s new hockey task force but she said the problem extends beyond athletics. For instance, since Jan. 22, three female students have reported that someone tried to film them with a cellphone while they were in dormitory showers.
