Dr. Henry Cloud wrote a book called Integrity wherein he describes it as “the courage to meet the demands of reality.” When it comes to confronting assault issues, too often I fear we are not courageous enough to deal with the reality and the challenges that come along with it.
Life is forever confounding and challenging. As a professional, first in the insurance industry and then higher education, I always believed in leaving my intensely personal issues at home, safely out of mind from day-to-day work responsibilities.
Verelyn Gibbs Watson
A consultant was urging me to speak up as issues of sexual assault and campus violence attracted more and more attention. He argued that it was essential for me to share thoughts as the president of the largest accredited honor society in the Association of College Honor Societies. We’re also an honor society with a 70 percent female member population.
But in thinking this through, I was very hesitant. I came to realize my past was holding me back. I had never spoken publicly about the relationship violence I had experienced many years ago. Calling for high achievers to raise the bar and speak up, while I remained silent about my own experiences, just felt wrong.
Perhaps some can compartmentalize their lives and plow ahead without integrating what they have seen and reacted to. This was not possible for me. I realized in order to write about issues of sexual assault and campus violence, I needed to first explain what had happened to me, and that would not be easy.
I kept being encouraged that the higher ed community would welcome public statements from someone like me. I was assured many college presidents and association leaders felt they couldn’t weigh in as the Justice Department was launching investigations and other elements were making the environment very fraught.
