A little over a month ago, would-be junior Richard Walsh decided he had had enough of DePauw University and of what he said is a toxic culture of privilege.
That culture, Walsh said, is inseparable from a greek system that he believes fosters binge drinking and un-prosecuted sexual assaults.
"Students use drinking as a way to cope with stress and larger issues, and it's a widespread issue," Walsh said. "People fail to see that it's a problem, and those that do don't have enough power to make it an issue of discussion."
Walsh pointed to a common saying on campus.
"There's always the joke that it's not alcoholism until you graduate," Walsh said, "but it's not very funny."
A strong student who was heavily involved in campus organizations, Walsh started his own business on the town square and rebuilt Greencastle's city website as part of his Bonner Scholar volunteer project.
But he felt unable to connect with the campus community, and last semester he moved off-campus with his partner.
"It kind of hit me that if I have to leave DePauw in order to be able to go to DePauw, I don't belong at DePauw," Walsh said.
Myrna Hernandez, greek life coordinator and assistant dean of campus life, said data shows unaffiliated students like Walsh are more likely to leave DePauw than students in greek houses.
"Ultimately I think that [greek life] equates to a sense of belonging," Hernandez said. "Whatever that group is, people feel a sense of belonging that contributes to them staying."
When a student decides to withdraw, Associate Registrar June Wildman conducts an exit interview to learn the student's reason for leaving. The comments vary, she said.
"I don't always feel that I get the whole story," Wildman said.
Wildman also said that the sense of belonging or "finding a niche" is important to students wanting to stay at DePauw. She also noted that sometimes greek life is what makes students stay.
In seeking to change the culture of the university, Walsh said he found that the culture intertwined with the greek system.
"If you try to, you just get thrown into the anti-greek category," Walsh said. "It's very hard to work with that as somebody who's trying to improve campus culture."
Walsh said he was also tired of campus sexual assaults going unprosecuted, saying five of his friends were assaulted without a case going to court.
Cara Setchell, associate dean of students, estimates that in the past five years, the average number of cases that come before the Sexual Misconduct Board has been about three a year.
This year, there have been seven hearings.
The university's efforts to increase awareness, Setchell said, are a possible explanation for the increase in reported sexual assaults. This increase also could drive up the number of cases that go to a sexual misconduct hearing, she said.
Setchell said increased bystander intervention, which has been a point of emphasis for the university, will help remedy some of the factors that led Walsh to leave.
"The whole premise is, we as a community who cares for each other and wants to have a culture of care, each individual has the obligation to step in and intervene when something doesn't look right," Setchell said.
Setchell believes that this approach can stretch beyond binge drinking and also apply to racial bias and events that could lead to sexual violence.
"Everybody wants to turn a blind eye to [sexual assaults] because it doesn't exist here, because we are a culture that doesn't teach individuals that they are rapists," Walsh said. "It's not just DePauw. It really isn't. It's everywhere, but we have the ability and the resources to create an educational experience out of what's happening here. And nobody's willing to listen to it because it requires change and to move away from tradition."
Walsh believes privilege is one of the biggest underlying issues at DePauw.
"It's a very privileged thing to be able to ignore privilege," Walsh said. "As a white, male, seemingly heteronormative, English-speaking individual, I can just waltz through pretty much any problem that I have and not have to worry about backlash at all, but I have friends who can go through the same problem and receive no support."
Kelley Hall, associate dean of academic life and part time professor of sociology, said that she has had students that have expressed feelings of not fitting in.
"I understand and see the privilege and difference that gets connected to how students experience the university," Hall said, "and in that way with a particular dominant culture on campus that would have privileged statuses, I can see how that would wear down and frustrate and lead some students to feel alienated to the extent that they would choose to leave DePauw."