Forum focuses on sexual assault policy

  Over 50 students, male and female, gathered at a forum held by Prevention, Awareness and Community at Tufts (PACT) last Thursday to address sexual violence and policy in the Tufts community. Entitled "I Was Raped on Campus, Were You?" the forum brought students together with members of the administration for a broad discussion on Tufts' policy on sexual assault, which some students have called inadequate and ineffective. At the forum, students expressed concerns about both the policy itself and about overall on-campus awareness regarding sexual violence and victims' options.

The policy, found under the "Equal Opportunity" portion of the university's index of policies and procedures, reads: "The university supports the right of the victim/survivor of a sexual assault to decide how best to utilize various university, community, private, and public remedies to address crimes of sexual assault" and then lists the phone numbers for the Office of the Dean of Students Affairs, Office of Equal Opportunity and the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) in Medford, Boston and Grafton.

The forum was planned by the students of PACT and Elaine Theodore, coordinator of Tufts' Violence Prevention Program and was attended by Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter, TUPD Captain Mark Keith and sexual assault clinician Susan Mahoney. Theodore served as the moderator. 

Carter explained how, in practice, the policy generally works. Alleged victims can pursue their case either on or off campus. Should they choose to do so on campus, they are advised to contact the Office of the Dean of Students Affairs where, Carter explained, she would help them seek counseling and medical attention and take them through their disciplinary options. This includes placing a stay away order, which does not prohibit alleged perpetrators from being on campus, but does prevent them from having any contact with the victim.

"We do the stay away order to give [the victim] time to think, and when they're ready to file a complaint they can," said Carter, adding that many students choose to take time before filing an official complaint.

When a student files a complaint, the alleged perpetrator has 48 hours to respond. From this point, the victim and perpetrator can decide either to do a mediation session, in which they meet with a mediator to come to a private agreement, or to undergo the disciplinary action process.

Reitman added that the university system moves quickly, allowing for a quick removal of a convicted student. "When a claim is made, it is adjudicated within two weeks," he said.

Keith explained that students who choose to take their case to go to the police are assisted by officers who have completed modules of training for dealing with such cases. Evidence is collected and the students proceed through the court system.

An oft-cited study, conducted in 1987 by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), found that 28 percent of women had experienced rape or attempted rape in college. Such instances, however, are rarely reported at Tufts; disciplinary action has not been taken against a perpetrator in years.

Although it is widely believed to be the most common kind of rape, acquaintance rape is rarely reported at Tufts. "We seldom get cases reported like that," Keith explained. "Since September of this year, we've only had one case reported directly to us."

The Office of the Dean of Student Affairs has had three cases of sexual assault reported this year.

Students at the forum suggested that a general lack of understanding regarding the policy might contribute to what many perceive to be a consistent underreporting of sexual assault crimes.

Before the forum, senior Wagatwe Wanjuki explained that PACT believes that the policy lacks clear expression of sexual assault and the judicial process associated with it. "If you were looking at this, what would you do? It seems like you're on your own, and you don't know what happens when you call the dean," Wanjuki said.

At the event, Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) displayed policies from a number of New England liberal arts colleges, including Bowdoin College and Colby College, which both had sexual assault policies several pages long.

While Tufts' policy is explained in various pieces of university literature, one student called for a clearer, more organized method of sharing it with students. "It seems like what I'm hearing is that there are a lot of pamphlets, but if something happened, I don't think a victim would want a pamphlet," the student said. "It seems like a passive approach by Tufts to help students."

Alexandra Flanagan, a junior, explained that this is one of the first problems the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs needs to address. "We need clear guidelines of what the survivor can do at each step, how to proceed if you're assaulted and how to get help," she said.

Others believed that the policy itself might be the cause of the low reporting rate as compared to the NIMH's findings. "If these statistics are correct, hearing that you've only heard of three cases this year is more than troubling. It tells me that there has to be some force against women being able to speak here," graduate student Tina Johnson said.

Wanjuki explained that many students view the overall policy as ineffective. "I know someone who didn't report her assault because, knowing other peoples' experience, she didn't think she would get anywhere with it."

Flanagan echoed Wanjuki. "People don't have trust in the system," she said.

Reitman explained that most students tend to settle their cases in mediation. "When we first started doing disciplinary hearings and dealings with accusations of sexual assaults, in those first years there were seven, eight and eleven each year," he said. "About 50 percent of people who had those situations left the school because they chose to withdraw rather than face the possibility of an adverse finding in a hearing."

Today, Reitman says, mediation and student-initiated withdrawals have become the norm.

Reitman added that, while he makes mediation available to those students who want to use it, he is unsure about its appropriateness as a course of action.

"When I first started, we did not allow cases with physical violence to go through mediation, and a big part of me thinks we still shouldn't," he said. "This changed when victims said to us that they would feel empowered by having a refereed conversation [with the perpetrator]."

While some students expressed dissatisfaction with the mediation process, others voiced the opinion that the student judicial process is the wrong place to deal with sexual assault. "Sexual assault is dealt with the same way as if you were caught stealing or cheating," Wanjuki said.

One student called for an awareness campaign to help students understand what sexual assault actually is. "I was raped and I was terrified to speak out against it," one student who wished to remain anonymous said outside of the forum. "I see the student who did this every day, and he may have no idea that he was wrong. What's the program for students to learn that what they did was wrong?"

SAFER presented a list of proposals to the administration to redress the grievances expressed at the forum. They suggested including a definition of sexual assault in the official university policy, including all resources for survivors in the policy, proper training for all faculty members dealing with sexual assault, and a governing body to be associated with the process.

Reitman said that he was grateful for what he learned at the forum and looks forward to addressing their concerns. "I know that we can always improve the current situation," he said in a follow-up e-mail to the Daily. "The policy and its associated system are of limited use if survivors don't feel they are effective. Several students pointed out best practices at other schools that they say work better than those currently in place here. We are open to change."

Carter said that she too would be looking to make appropriate changes to the policy. "Our office is always open to reviewing our systems to ensure that the student judicial process is accessible and supportive to their needs," she said in an e-mail to the Daily.

Theodore said that within nine days, she will release a statement that will address the university's plans for improving its sexual assault policy, starting with making basic information more accessible. "Addressing the system will take longer," she said. "We want to lower the bar to accessing this system and address its systematic problems."