As the national public discourse surrounding sexual assault and rape has converged around recent stories like this month's case at Steubenville High School in Ohio, Tufts students and faculty continue to evaluate the effectiveness of the recently updated Sexual Misconduct Policy - specifically with respect to its accessibility, and the support and respect it lends to victims.
According to Jill Zellmer, Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) and the university's Title IX coordinator, Tufts' current sexual misconduct policy is the result of a summer of work on the part of students and faculty.
"The new policy ... is clearer, stronger and more equitable," Zellmer said in an email to the Daily.
This policy was a welcome change, according to sophomore Kumar Ramanathan, one of the organizers of the student group Action for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP).
"Historically, the processes [before] were terrible," Ramanathan said. "[It] would engage in a lot of victim-blaming in the structures that you would go through and the people you would speak to."
The policy, which can be found on the OEO website, identifies and describes behaviors that are considered sexual misconduct, ranging from sexual assault and rape to stalking and sexual exploitation. Sexual assault is defined within the policy as "the act of committing unwanted physical contact of a sexual nature, whether by an acquaintance or by a stranger." This section goes on to clarify its terms, including who exactly constitutes an acquaintance.
Ramanathan explained that while the policy is not perfect, it works well to address students' needs.
"There are some problems in the policy with definitions, but in general it does a good job at taking a broad and thorough look at different problems, defining them quite clearly, and then setting up a specific process that survivors go through," Ramanathan said.
According to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, all university officials have an obligation to report the occurrence of sexual misconduct to the OEO.
"[This helps the OEO] to identify patterns of predation on the campus," Reitman said. "Because you may have three conversations that are about the same predator, and unless you connect those dots, you're missing the need to address a situation that could be dangerous potentially."
The policy lays out the variety of immediate resources available to sexual assault survivors, including the option of filing a report with the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD). Reitman explained that for students looking for confidential resources that will not lead to reports being filed, there are only two resources present on the Medford/Somerville campus - Tufts Health Services and Tufts Counseling and Mental Health Services.
The policy also includes a list of university officials who act as Sexual Misconduct Reporting Liaisons, who serve as contacts for students who wish to report an incident, passing all information to the Title IX Coordinator. According to Zellmer, the OEO launched the tool EthicsPoint to the university community at large, which can be used to anonymously report sexual misconduct as of the beginning of this month.
"In the past, faculty and staff utilized EthicsPoint for OEO-related matters of discrimination and harassment reports," Zellmer said in an email. "However, with the system upgrade, OEO has rolled out this reporting tool to all students and community members . . . with information or knowledge about any OEO-related matters, including discrimination, harassment and/or sexual misconduct."
EthicsPoint also allows for more interactive features, including the ability to live chat anonymously with a Title IX investigator.
"Through this feature, an investigator looking into the reported matter can 'talk' with the reporter via live email and ask questions that may assist in the investigation but also preserve the privacy of the reporter," Zellmer said.
If a student reaches out to the OEO or a sexual misconduct liaison to file a formal complaint, the Sexual Misconduct Adjudication Process goes into effect. This process of reporting sexual misconduct is described in detail in a 20-page document. The OEO provides a one-page flow chart summarizing the process.
The process, which debuted at the beginning of the school year, was reformed in accordance with guidelines laid out by "Dear Colleague" letter that was sent to colleges and universities throughout the country from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in 2011.
The new process eliminated the use of a hearing in front of a judiciary panel comprised of students and faculty to determine whether an incident constituted sexual misconduct, Reitman said.
The current system begins with a student filing a complaint, which includes filling out paperwork that details the sexual misconduct and a confidentiality/non-retaliation form that is later signed by the respondent, the student accused of misconduct. After that point, the OEO begins to conduct its investigation, and the respondent can accept the charges.
"We laid out a new system of fact-finding interviews conducted by an investigator in the Office of Equal Opportunity rather than continue to do what we used to do," Reitman said. "What was bad about [the old system] was that it forced victims to be confronted by . . . alleged perpetrators and that was very difficult to do."
If the investigation finds that the respondent should be disciplined, they are then directed to the Dean of Student Affairs and Judicial Affairs offices, who determines the punishment.
Despite the extensive changes made to the adjudication process, many students continue to feel that the policy does not provide enough support for victims of sexual assault. Sophomore John Kelly was one of the first sexual assault survivors to experience the new adjudication process this fall and found it to be problematic.
"To say that the sexual assault process is alienating is not a strong enough word," Kelly said. "It's not indicative of the mental and emotional harm that the university causes when someone goes through this process, myself included."
Kelly stressed that the new process requires neutrality of most individuals involved. "There's a way to handle individuals who have been violated physically, sexually and emotionally, and the university had not made itself familiar with that.
There is an attitude... that is very punishment-oriented," he said.
He suggested that this was in part because the individuals who deal with sexual misconduct cases beyond the OEO, including Reitman and Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter, often also handle situations where students break university policy such as violations of the alcohol policy.
Kelly added that the OEO was gracious in helping him navigate the ins and outs of the adjudication process. He joined senior and TCU Vice President Meredith Goldberg in drafting legislation in the TCU Senate to create positions of victim witness advocates and accused witness advocates to the process of sexual misconduct.
Kelly said he first learned about these individuals when he began to report his assault with the Middlesex County Police Department.
"This is a position that functions as someone who [is] with the survivor from the very beginning and is with them through all steps of the process," Kelly said. He explained that they help to bring continuity to what is otherwise a very lengthy and disjointed process. Kelly also said that the faculty members with whom he had met about the proposed change have so far been receptive.
Zellmer said this would bring support to those involved in sexual misconduct investigations.
"It is important for all parties to feel supported and have assistance when going through the investigative process - either as an accused party/respondent or as a victim/survivor/complainant," Zellmer said in an email. "However, since OEO must remain a neutral party, we cannot fulfill either of those advocacy functions."
Another proposed change, according to Reitman, would reform the appeals process, specifically as it relates to the Committee on Student Life (CSL).
As it stands now, if a party wishes to appeal the decision made by the Dean of Student Affairs or Judicial Affairs offices, they must appeal to the CSL, which includes students.
Because sexual assault cases must remain confidential, this violates the same standards of anonymity conditions as the old policy - something Reitman said the adminstartation is working to fix.
"There will always be changes to the policy as the OCR creates new regulations on how to handle sexual misconduct, particularly on college and university campuses," he said.
Freshman Leah Muskin-Pierret, who is active in ASAP, added that she hopes to see changes to other university policies to improve students' comfort with reporting sexual assault.
"The policy says that leniency will be considered if students report an assault that took place while they were intoxicated, but there is a fear that there will be retribution for breaking the alcohol policy," Muskin-Pierret said.
She added that another big step the university must take when it comes to sexual assault is moving beyond policy to address awareness and help educate the community. Currently, she said, this responsibility is falling to groups like ASAP and the Consent Culture Network as the university has not placed much funding in awareness efforts.
Zellmer agreed that there is a need for greater awareness, and that she hopes to be able to work to provide this.
"[I] look forward to continuing to partner with other offices around campus to achieve greater awareness and education on sexual misconduct matters with the goal of eliminating sexual misconduct from occurring at Tufts," she said.
