In a social media post that went viral on Wednesday evening, a student expressed her concerns about a recent assignment that asked students to write their “own fact scenario of an encounter between a man and a woman that ends up in rape.”
Peyton Gualtieri, a senior political science major, posted a video about the assignment on TikTok where it quickly gained attention and now has over one million views. In the video, she shared her shock and read the assignment for “Law and Deviance” posted by professor Denise Turner on Canvas.
The following day, the professor acknowledged her students’ concerns in an email to the class where she apologized, and updated the course assignment for that week.
“While this topic is undoubtedly challenging and difficult to engage on, my intention with the video and course reading was to bring rape culture and the pervasiveness of victim blaming and shaming to the class so we could have a constructive dialogue,” Turner said in her email to students.
University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said Pitt is aware of student concerns and “has taken appropriate action internally to address them.” The University met with the professor to discuss how to approach difficult course topics in a mindful manner. Stonesifer added that the professor made herself available to discuss concerns with students, and that the University also contacted the students who expressed concern about the assignment.
In an interview with The Pitt News, Gualtieri said the assignment lacked sensitivity and did not provide students who may have experienced sexual assault an alternative assignment.
“I was completely taken aback and shocked that someone would ask people who could potentially be survivors of sexual assault in that class to basically recount what happened to them,” Gualtieri said. “That’s just so triggering, because some people aren’t ready to voice their traumas yet, and that’s almost just outing them as well.”
Gualtieri noted that along with writing about a scenario of sexual assault, the assignment also asked students a series of questions, including one that read, “One part of rape culture surrounds teaching women how not to be raped rather than for men to be taught not to rape. Suggest two ways on how men should be taught not to rape.”
“Sexual assault and rape can happen between anyone and anywhere even among people that know each other,” Gualtieri said. “It can happen anywhere between anyone, it doesn’t have to be man to woman, woman to man, it can be same sex. So there’s just a lot that was insensitive about the whole assignment.”
The updated assignment on Canvas no longer asks students to write about a sexual assault scenario, but still includes a question about how to teach men not to rape, which Gualtieri told The Pitt News is a “very biased and ambiguous question to ask of students.”
After the initial shock of the assignment, Gualtieri decided to bring the matter to university administration and contacted Carla Panzella, dean of students. While Panzella did provide Gualtieri with support resources, given that the incident involved an academic course assignment, she connected her with the Academic Dean’s office. Adam Leibovich, dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and the College of General Studies, reached out to Gualtieri on Thursday afternoon offering to meet with her to discuss her concerns.
Liliana Orozco, a senior law, criminal justice and society major, also posted about the assignment on TikTok.
“At first the assignment caught me by surprise and I couldn’t get myself to write something like that,” Orozco told The Pitt News. “After emailing the professor with my concerns, she was kind and understood where I was coming from. I believe the professor had good intentions with the assignment. It was just coming across wrongly.”
Turner did not respond to a request for comment from The Pitt News. A University spokesperson said Turner is not releasing an additional statement aside from the email to her students.
Turner said the course syllabus notes that the class covers crimes of violence and “some of this material can be disturbing.” According to Gualtieri, the course material itself is not the issue rather the way in which students were asked to engage with the material.
“I’m very aware of law classes and how they operate. And I’m not sensitive to the topics that they talk about,” Gualtieri said. “I think the whole thing just should have been approached in a different manner. It wasn’t about the topic. It was about the wording of the assignment and just overall how she asked us to basically just make up a story where someone’s getting raped.”
The professor’s email also noted that she used the same assignment in previous classes as well, which led to “engaged, interactive discussion and learnings.”
In her initial video, Gualtieri received some backlash from commenters asking why she was trying to get the professor in trouble — something Gualtieri said she never intended to do.
“I wanted to bring light to the fact that there are going to be authority figures that you have to challenge because you can’t sit back and let these types of things occur when it can be seriously detrimental to people’s mental health and wellness,” Gualtieri said.
She said she wants to make sure the University is accountable for the assignments professors give to their students and that the professor knows the assignment is “very upsetting and insensitive.”
“While the intersection of academic freedom and free speech can be a challenging dynamic, the University does not shy away from controversial conversations and topics when they are relevant to the learning process and preparing our students,” Stonesifer said.
Gualtieri posted a follow up video on TikTok in which she shared screenshots of her emails with the deans and the email Turner sent out to the class. In the follow up video, she said is satisfied with the professor’s response, but that the incident “could have been avoided.”
Gualtieri said she is happy Turner apologized to students. She added that while she is working on finding the words she wants to say to the professor, she plans to reach out to Turner to discuss her concerns directly.
However, she doesn’t think she will complete the updated assignment until after speaking directly with the professor.
“More explanation needs to go into what the requirements of the assignment are — which is part of the reason why so many people were triggered.”
Orozco said she appreciated that the professor reworded the assignment.
“If you’re a student and wonder if your voice is too small I can reassure you that it isn’t,” Orozco said. “Speak up against what you believe is incorrect, because clearly we can be the change.”