Dean of Students Robert Hradsky recently monitored a town hall style meeting for university students and faculty on the progress of sexual assault prevention at American University. He opened the event by discussing the recently enacted SaVE (Sexual Violence Elimination) Act, which revises the previous Jeanne Cleary Act. The Campus SaVE Act was introduced by U.S. Senator Bob Casey and House Representative Caroline Maloney, and the act complements both Title IX and the Violence Against Women Act.
The Campus SaVE Act addresses the violence women often face on college campuses. This gender-based violence ranges from stalking, to intimate partner violence, to experiencing rape or attempted rape.
Dean Hradsky said American University is already in compliance with the revisions the SaVE Act calls for. The new act requires universities to comply with four specific areas:
1. Transparency: Universities must disclose any reported violence against women in their annual campus crime statistics report. In addition, survivors of violence have the rights to change academic, living, or work environments; to enforce a restraining order; and to receive information about counseling, health, and mental services on campus and in the community. Here is the AU 2013 Annual Crime Report.
What AU is doing: Dean Hradsky reported that American is adding discrimination towards an individual’s “national origin” and “gender identity” to the university definition of hate crime. American is also working on creating a document that explains different organizations, people, and services on and off campus where survivors of violence or assault can seek guidance and support.
2. Accountability: Minimum standards for institutional disciplinary procedures regarding domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking are clarified. All proceedings should be prompt, fair, and impartial investigations. Both parties can have other people present during a proceeding and both parties will receive written outcomes of the hearing at the same time.
What AU is doing: Ensuring that everyone on the university’s proceeding panels has received extensive training on domestic and sexual violence. Dean Hradsky said American continues to be in compliance with everything outlined in this accountability section.
3. Education: The SaVE Act requires universities to provide educational programs for students and employees. This includes primary prevention and bystander intervention programs for incoming students and new employees, information on risk reduction and how to recognize warning signs of violent behavior, and how to provide ongoing prevention and awareness.
What AU is doing: Dean Hradsky explained American is in compliance with this standard by requiring all staff and faculty to complete online education modules about sexual assault and domestic violence . He said the majority of education is directed at incoming freshmen students through the ‘Haven’ portion of AlcoholEdu. This will be the first academic year that staff will have an online sexual assault prevention component of their training.
4. Collaboration: The collaboration standard is relevant more to the Act rather than colleges. To see those in collaboration with the SaVE Act visit the official Clery Center website.
Michelle Espinosa, Assistant Dean of Students, spoke after Dean Hradsky and professed her appreciation for the PEERS program on campus (Peer Educators for the Elimination of Relationship and Sexual Violence). This program is run by Sexual Assault Prevention Coordinator Daniel Rappaport and requires PEERS students to attend 30 to 40 hours of training on sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking. PEERS students partner with DC programs and organizations, such as the DC Rape Crisis Center, to further their education on different methods of prevention, bystander intervention, and post-assault support.
“Students work best with their own peers,” said Assistant Dean Espinosa, expressing her belief that students are more likely to respond to educational outreach from their own peers than from administration.
Currently the only students who receive extensive education and training in gender-based violence and intervention are PEERS educators and Residential Associates. Assistant Dean Espinosa would like to find a way for more students to receive in-depth education, but said it is challenging to get students to show up for a seven-hour or longer program. She is partnering with Kerry Diekmann, the Coordinator of Women and Gender Programming in the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, to research the ways other universities educate their students on violence against women. Their hope is to modify other universities’ successful programs and implement them at American.
In addition, education outreach has recently been expanded to include educating Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) students. David Rappaport recently led a training for all DC students involved with ROTC. Rappaport said there were about 200 students at the training.
The meeting was then opened to a question and answer session. Many students challenged the University’s lack of progress in expanding educational programs and criticized administration for making it difficult to report a sexual assault and follow through while abroad.
**More to come on this debate! Stay tuned for next week’s article discussing the question and answer portion of the meeting and whether or not sexual assault prevention education is successful at American.**
In the meantime, visit American U Peers on Facebook for details on events and activities happening this month at American in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
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