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."