The University’s United Student Government (USG) is under fire with claims the organization is perpetuating rape culture following a Facebook post that was shared by one of its executive cabinet members.

Shanah Hupp, USG’s Recording Secretary and also a Community Mentor (CM), shared a photo from the Facebook page “Disciples of New Dawn” that featured a provocatively dressed woman with words “NO MEANS NO” superimposed over it. The photo’s caption stated “Before you ask every man in the world to change their fundamental physiology to suit your irresponsible behavior, maybe you can concentrate on something you CAN change, like your slutty outfit!” Hupp added to this, “Exactly.”

Sophomore sports, art, and entertainment management major Livia Rice took notice and began calling for Hupp to be removed from her positions. She asked in a Facebook post that students email USG and Student Life and “tell them you will not allow the spread of rape culture by accepting this person as a representative.”

“It was obviously unsettling because she is in a position of power in two different organizations on campus,” Rice said in an interview on Oct. 27. “It was inappropriate and just incorrect.” 

Hupp apologized for sharing the post.

“I’m taking this as a learning experience. I made a mistake and I realize that,” Hupp said in an interview on Oct. 31. “I’m sincerely apologetic. I’m extremely sorry that it happened, but I am definitely learning and…will continue to learn. I hope that everybody, including myself, including USG and including Point Park as a whole, can learn from this.”

Following the initial complaints, Rice had meetings with both Student Life and USG.

“I had a meeting with the Dean of Student Life and the person who deals with CMs directly, and they assured me that they are taking reasonable action to combat the issue,” Rice said.

Rice’s meeting with USG resulted in a different response, according to her.

“They made excuses for the whole thing,” Rice said. “I asked if they were going to punish her in any way, just to put her on probation even until she gets educated…and [USG President Julian Singleton] said they wouldn’t because they believe that 85 percent of the student body believes in what she posted, they just don’t publicly say it.”

Rice feels as though this response from USG helps contribute to rape culture and that the organization is “blowing it off completely.” 

Following the meeting with USG, Rice began an online petition on change.org titled “Recognize that a majority of students do NOT believe that clothing is a justification for sexual assault.” The petition uses the claim that Singleton said “about 85 percent” of students agree with Hupp’s view as a main talking point, claiming that it is both inaccurate and an “extreme abuse of power.”

Singleton claims that this quote is inaccurate.

“It’s actually a misquote…Maybe that was possibly our own fault for not recording our discussion, but that’s not at all what I said,” Singleton said. “My actual quote, we were talking about education and educating students, and I said ‘About 85 percent of students are uneducated about sexual violence on college campuses’…So it was sad for me, because I would never say anything like that, and that’s not at all how the organization feels about sexual violence.”

USG Vice President Andrew LeDonne added that the wording of the alleged quote in the petition was suspicious.

“If you look at the petition, she has in quotes ‘85 percent of students’ and that’s where the quotes end. Then she includes whatever else she wants to say. If it was an actual quote, the entire thing would be in quotations,” LeDonne said.

According to Singleton, USG’s handling of the matter will focus much more on education rather than handing out punishments.

“We have taken necessary precautions and steps, mostly centered around education. We had [Assistant Director of Title IX Compliance at Point Park Elizabeth Rosemeyer] discuss with us all of what Title IX does,” Singleton said. “We’re taking an educational approach rather than condemning, because we don’t feel that condemning someone and completely ostracizing them, so to speak, is the most effective way to really educate them.”

Rice’s petition, which at the time of publication had reached 236 signatures, is set up in such a way that each signature sends an email to both USG’s email and Hupp’s personal student email. According to LeDonne, after a certain point, emails are only sent for every five signatures, but USG still finds it inappropriate that Hupp receives the emails personally.

“[Rice’s] focus went from Shanah, to Shanah and Julian, to now all of USG and our general position on it,” said Thaddeus Covaleski, Treasurer of USG. “So at this point, she should no longer be targeting Shanah by herself. The fact that she’s still targeting Shanah, to us, that seems to be a bit much. If you want to educate the students, then educating should be your main goal. It shouldn’t be educating with, on the side, making sure Shanah is miserable because she made one mistake.”

To Hupp, receiving the emails has been part of the learning experience.

“To have it right there in front of me, it definitely opened my eyes,” Hupp said. “I don’t know how to put it any other way than: I want to learn.”

USG has made a conscious effort to educate its members on how they should present themselves on social media, according to Covaleski.

“We’ve talked to our senators about how you represent  the school, you represent us, you represent yourself on social media,” Covaleski said. “Chances are if you have to think about it, don’t do it.”