University of Connecticut Athletics
Brenda Tracy Gives Moving Presentation to Student Athletes
11/5/2019 12:28:00 PM | Husky Advantage
Brenda Tracy, a registered nurse and sexual assault survivor, shared her story in a presentation to UConn student athletes at Gampel Pavilion on Monday night.
Tracy goes all around the country to different universities to share her story and raise awareness for sexual and physical assault. She said she does most of her work with athletes because they have the best platform to make a difference.
"I'm not here because I think you guys are the problem," Tracy said. "I'm here today because I know that you're the solution, specifically you men right now here in this room."
Tracy started a campaign in 2017 called "Set The Expectation" as in college coaches setting the expectation that their athletes behave correctly. Part of the campaign is a pledge that attaches athletes' eligibility to their behavior in addition to their grades. Many teams all over the country have already signed the pledge.
The other parts of her campaign are raising awareness through sporting events and education. Power Five programs all over the country have hosted "Set The Expectation" games and events to help raise awareness for sexual and physical assault.
Tracy said she believes educating young men and specifically athletes about topics like consent and healthy relationships is very important because society doesn't treat athletes the same way as everyone else. Rather, athletes are seen just as a commodity.
Athletic director David Benedict said that UConn is on board with Tracy's campaign.
"There's accountability here," Benedict said. "Understand that we have high expectations here on how we treat each other. We expect that there's regular respect … Everyone in here plays a role in holding each other accountable. We're a family. We expect you to treat each other like family."
Tracy gave a lot of background to why she does what she does now, including an emotional and powerful account of her attack back in 1998. She was gang raped by four football players while at a get-together with her friend. She said the attack stays with her to this day.
"This type of trauma lives right here," Tracy said. "It doesn't just go away like a faded memory or something like that … So when I hear people say things like, 'Get over it, it happened a long time ago,' that's not how this works. And that's probably one of the worst things you can say to a survivor. It's just not how it works. It lives with you forever. It changes your life forever."
The football players were never punished because Tracy was told she didn't have a case. She ended up going back to school to become a nurse.
Over the next 16 years, Tracy was able to raise her two sons in comfort, but she said she felt like she was living a "double life." On the outside, she was successful, but on the inside, she was struggling with many things, and that negatively impacted her relationship with her sons.
Finally, in 2014, Tracy came forward with her story, and she said it felt liberating to do so.
"It was a really amazing moment for me," Tracy said. "I had been living a double life for 16 years, and in that moment when my story went up online with my name and my face on it, it was like I became one person. I became Brenda Tracy: registered nurse, single mom, rape survivor. It was the most freeing moment of my life."
She was met with a positive response from the community, and she found out through an investigation that Oregon State, the district attorney and the police had covered up her attack to protect the football program and the school. She wasn't able to do anything for herself, but she became active in legislation and has helped pass eight laws in her state to help other victims.
In 2016, Tracy started going around sharing her story and has since been to over 90 campuses. She started her campaign to deal with a problem that has affected her greatly. She said she knows assaults are committed by just 10% of the population, so she goes around to talk to the 90% to encourage them to be an active part of the solution.
"I hope that you'll choose to use your platform, and I hope that you will choose to think about the things you're doing, the things you're saying, the way people are interacting around you," Tracy said. "Everybody deserves to just come to school, party, play sports, do whatever and be ok."
For more information on Tracy and her campaign, you can visit settheexpectation.com.
