Tufts Action for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) and the Consent Culture Network (CCN) released an online open letter to university administrators on April 29 proposing reforms to the Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policies.
According to John Kelly, one of the co-writers of An Open Letter on Policy and Institutional Reform and a member of both ASAP and CCN, the letter is part of a yearlong endeavor that involved many student contributors.
Weve been changing sexual assault policy and trying to eradicate rape culture from Tufts, Kelly, a rising junior, said.
The recipients of the statement, who included University President Anthony Monaco and Provost and Senior Vice President Davis Harris, along with several other administrative leaders, replied to the signatories with a letter of their own on May 11. In their response, the administrators expressed their appreciation for students work on the topic.
[Sexual violence] is an issue to which we have devoted considerable energy and resources over the past several years, they wrote. Your input is invaluable and we hope this will be the beginning of many substantive conversations in the future.
The reply also offered a plan to create a working group in order to further discuss policy reform. The group, composed of interested students and staff, would meet regularly to discuss the large number of topics raised in the original letter.
Several years ago, we created a similar group when we developed the new sexual misconduct policy and found the sharing of information to be very beneficial, they explained. Please tell us if you are interested in creating such a group when you return in the fall.
Kumar Ramanathan, a rising junior who worked on the letter, explained that ASAP and CCN started their initiative by first gathering information about the sexual assault policy and researching ways to improve it.
After spending the past year looking at it in different ways and learning through both experience and research, we decided a couple months ago that the best way to go about this would be to get a few people to do the work, do the research, talk to the right people and put it all together in one place, Ramanathan, a member of ASAP and CCN, said.
The online version of the letter allows readers to add their signatures at the bottom, along with the names of those who wrote it. As of press time, there were more than 350 signatures on the letter.
We thought it was important when it was done to send it out to everyone and say, If this is something you feel passionately about, please sign onto it, Ramanathan said.
The letter also allows signatories to list their involvements at Tufts, which, according to Ramanathan, helps show that sexual assault policy reform is important to a wide base of people.
We wanted?to get the point across that rape culture doesnt discriminate, he said. It affects people of color and queer folk in specific ways, but in terms of affecting people, it doesnt discriminate.
Ramanathan connected ASAP with CCN to combine these groups knowledge on the sexual assault policy into one letter. Many of the recommendations in the letter arose from survivors experiences, which ASAP and CCN collected.
He got together a bunch of us and we added in the parts that we had been working on individually or in groups, and we made it into a cohesive document, Kelly said.
Students also examined other universities sexual assault policies to determine how the Tufts policy should change, Kelly said. He explained that colleges often wait for other higher education institutions to take the first step in enacting changes before taking steps of their own.
ASAP and CCN mostly looked at schools of the same educational caliber as Tufts, but some policy recommendations are based on policies from schools around the country, Kelly said.
None of the things were asking for are unprecedented, Ramanathan said. Some of them even are called for by federal regulations and laws. So were hoping that what it does is that it shows that this [change] is possible, this is necessary, and that it isnt too difficult to figure out if a bunch of students can go out and do it.
One of the most important changes that the letter outlines, according to Kelly and Ramanathan, is the creation of a sexual assault prevention and response office similar to those at other universities. Though Tufts used to have such a position, it was removed when a modified sexual assault policy went into effect in 2010.
The next step is to continue following up with the administration to make sure they engage with the identified reforms, Kelly said.
We would very much like to have a chance to sit down with the university administrators and get something concrete in writing regarding this, and I guess the next step is to just stay on them, he said.
Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) Jill Zellmer praised students efforts in improving sexual assault policy in the past, citing students involvement in the most recent changes released in October.
Prior to my arrival, I know that students were involved in improving what was then called the Sexual Assault Policy at Tufts, Zellmer told the Daily in an email. The new policy, developed in a collaborative effort with students and the administration, is clearer, stronger and more equitable.
Zellmer said that though the OEO and other offices are always looking for ways to improve the policy, the current policy is one of the better policies in the country and reflects federal requirements.
We have made great strikes and are always looking for ways to continue to improve, she said. We will continue to enhance the Sexual Misconduct Policy if necessary and in response to trends or patterns that the Title IX [Sexual Misconduct] Coordinator may identify.
