Council Hears Sexual Assault Policy Proposal

Author: Taylor Johnston

The Sexual Assault Policy Group brought a proposal before the Community Council on Tuesday, Oct. 14 to recommend changes in the judicial and reporting process for sexual assault crimes, including a means to report assaults anonymously and have assault cases tried in ways more sensitive to victims. An additional discussion with the College attorney at the Oct. 20 Council meeting followed this initial report.

Based on over a year of research, discussion with the college community and deliberation, the group proposed the use of an anonymous reporting form to better account for the number of assaults that take place on campus and the establishment of a subgroup of the Community Judicial Board that could review sexual assault cases more privately, and by way of teleconference, with the victim.

This new judicial procedure would allow a victim to bring his or her assaulter to justice without having to face the assaulter in the same room.

Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson convened the Sexual Assault Policy Group, chaired by Associate Dean of Student Affairs Kathy Foley-Giorgio, in 2001. The group, which included Elizabeth Brookbank '04, Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah, Assistant Director of the Center for Counseling and Human Relations Virginia Logan and Cook Commons Dean David Edleson, set out to review and improve the College's assault policy after a number of community members expressed concern when the college reported surprisingly low sexual assault statistics.

"I have never in all my years here had anybody suggest that I minimize this issue [sexual assault]," explained Edleson, in reference to the problem of under reporting. "It's hard to get people to come forward on this. The administration has done its best to give every option to victims. If [the community doesn't] hear anything [about an assault], then the victim decided not to come forward. We need to respect this decision. It's often the victim that needs to put it behind them the most."

With this in mind, the group devised several possible means to make it easier for victims to take action against their assaulter in the least emotionally stressful way possible, or at least have their experience included in the College's crime statistics. They recently succeeded in updating the College Handbook with a revised definition of sexual assault and structure for assault policy, and have now begun to petition the Community Council for the other proposed changes.

As Brookbank explained at the most recent Council meeting, the group hopes to solve the problem of under reporting and give some kind of voice to victims who may not be inclined to bring charges against their assaulter through the report forms, in which victims can anonymously give details about their experience. The forms could contribute to assault awareness on campus and aid the Department of Public Safety in maintaining a safe environment.

"The ideal situation would be for someone to make a formal report," Brookbank explained. "Obviously, though, that's not happening, so we are trying to encourage it [with the anonymous report form]. If there are only one or two sexual assaults [recorded per year], that's pretty intimidating for victims considering coming forward."

The College attorney and several Community Council members voiced misgivings about the intentions of the report form, feeling it may actually discourage formal reports by providing a way to skirt judicial action, or leave accused students vulnerable to those who may abuse the form. As Council member Andrew Feinberg '04 explained, "I want to see this form implemented, but [we need to] avoid creating a whole other headache."

Some Council members also raised concerns about the proposed changes to the judicial procedure, which would allow sexual assault cases to take place with only four members of the Community Judicial Board instead of the usual eight in order to minimize the number of people with access to intimate details of sexual assault victims. Though these members and the College attorney felt this change may infringe on the rights of the accused, Edleson, Logan and Brookbank defended the importance of the procedure as a means to encourage victims to take action.

Community Council and the Sexual Assault Policy Group plan to meet again next week to continue discussion on ways to make the proposals feasible.