Students will have a chance to ask questions and voice their opinions on the university's revised sexual assault policy and judicial process in an open forum with administrators tonight in Metcalf Hall.
A panel featuring Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter, Clinical Nurse Specialist Susan Mahoney and Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Capt. Mark Keith will answer questions from the audience and explain the changes to the university-wide policy on sexual assault and the new judicial adjudication policy.
The forum is part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming taking place over the month of October and culminating in "Take Back the Night," a march and candlelight vigil against sexual violence that will take place right after the forum.
The administration at the beginning of the semester implemented a more comprehensive and accessible university-wide policy on sexual assault and announced an overhauled judicial process for cases of sexual assault.
Elaine Theodore, coordinator of Tufts' Violence Prevention Program, expects that the forum will convey the thoroughness with which administrators have approached the revisions.
"I hope that students will see that there's been a lot of hard work done and be heartened by the fact that the administrators do care and have been listening," she said.
Jessica Liu-Wong, a senior and co-president of the student group Students Active For Ending Rape (SAFER), which worked with administrators on the new policies, hopes the meeting will inform students about the revised sexual assault policy and judicial process.
"I was hoping that when students come in and ask questions they find out the information that they need and that they're more comfortable about using the sexual assault policy," Liu-Wong said.
The event, sponsored this year by SAFER, the student group Prevention, Awareness and Community at Tufts and the Health Education Department, has been held annually for the past three years.
Liu-Wong expects the event to be more interactive this year, given the university's active role in revising the sexual assault policy and the adjudication process.
"They've done a lot of work on it," she said. "It's different [this year] because the administration has been very involved in creating the policy," she said, referring to the forum.
Michelle Bowdler, senior director of Health and Wellness Service, said that administrators are open to giving student opinions serious consideration.
"From my perspective, I always feel like this is not a one-way forum," Bowdler said. "Although it's billed as an opportunity for students to ask ‘administrators' about the policy and so forth, I also think it's an opportunity for us to ask students ... ‘what do we need to know in order to work with you as partners on this issue?'"
Liu-Wong said that the purpose of the forum has evolved since its first year, when students raised strong concerns about the sexual assault policy in place at the time.
"The first one was really just a heads-up to the administration that there were huge problems with the policy," she said.
Bowdler agreed, adding that the revamped policy should change the tone of the forum.
"I think that the Tufts community should feel very good about the fact that when these forums first started, a lot of students were asking for more information. … In the past three … years, there has been a lot of progress," she said.
Bowdler was confident that the new policy would meet with student satisfaction.
"I feel really good about the policy that is posted. … It makes a strong statement about the seriousness of sexual assault and how it will be addressed," she said. "Hopefully that has been conveyed already, and I think that the forum is a time to talk further about that."
Liu-Wong said the forum should help convey to students the improvements in the university's process for dealing with sexual assault and for making the situation less traumatizing than it was under the previous policy.
"A huge issue with the policy before [was] that everyone knew it had a bad rap," she said. "If students understand that people are really [trying] to make this policy actually work and to help them get through what they're dealing with, they'll use it."
Theodore hopes the forum will encourage more students to seek assistance from the university in situations of sexual assault.
"I hope students will be somewhat more familiar with the policy and feel more comfortable about reporting sexual violence," Theodore said.
