The University of Virginia’s president, Teresa Sullivan, recently spoke to the campus community about what’s next in their push to end sexual assault on campus and strengthen their policies for survivrs. UVA has recently updated their Sexual Misconduct Policy and have introduced new Anti-Sexual Assault Regulations following a November Rolling Stone article that exposed a mishandled rape case on their campus.
Sullivan announced an Ad Hoc Group on Climate and Culture that will meet this spring to decide how to implement new policies that will change harmful behavior on campus. “We divided the issues into three categories — prevention, response and culture — and we now have a working group of students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni assigned to each category,” she said. The groups will be “working carefully, but briskly,” and are expected to produce interim reports by March 16 and final reports by April 30.
The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) and student group Feminism is for Everybody (FIFE) at UVA led a campaign to shape UVA’s proposed sexual assault policies in December, encouraging comments on the policy from students, alum, and Virginia residents. One of the changes they’d proposed was the creation of a Coordinated Community Response Team that would be “dedicated to finalizing the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy and ensuring that the final version is streamlined, clear, and responsive to community concerns.” Although UVA activists were excited about Sullivan’s announcement, they also want to be sure that activists and survivors of campus sexual assault will be included in the Ad Hoc group.
“This working group is a really important element in bringing about new policy on campus because it brings many people with different perspectives to the table when discussing implementation,” said Alyssa Seidorf, an FMF National Campus Organizer. “I urge the university to continue such a community group in the implementation, education, and training process.”
Sullivan also announced that the university will be 1 of 28 participating in an April survey organized by the Associate of American Universities to assess the sexual assault climate on campus. The university plans to use this data to shape future education and prevention strategies for the future.
“People know that most forms of sexual violence are seriously underreported,” Sullivan said. “One of the things a climate survey does, that’s one with a large enough response rate, is it lets you estimate the incidents of sexual violence in a different way from reported cases.”
Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 1/16/15; Cavalier Daily 2/2/15; Feminist Newswire 11/24/14; Feminist Campus
