More than 699 people have signed a petition to amend the University’s Sexual Violence policy to make it more comprehensive in its definition of sexual violence.
The petition also asks the University to change the victim assistance procedure and to adopt a zero-tolerance policy.
Junior Eliza Schultz, whose article “The Inadequacy Of The Johns Hopkins Sexual Violence Policy” was published in Monday’s edition of the JHU Politik, began the petition on Tuesday because she felt her article, and the issue of sexual violence in general, was not receiving enough attention on campus.
Schultz and sophomore Carlene Partow have been actively spreading the petition via their personal social media accounts.
“We’re getting the traction that we need to really pressure the University,” Schultz said.
Partow and Schultz said that they want the University to make the Sexual Violence policy more specific so that students can properly identify and report sexual misconduct to the administration.
“[We want] to delineate what does constitute sexual assault because not everyone has [taken a course in] sexual education that contains a consent portion,” Partow said. “Not everyone is well versed in what is and is not okay. I think it’s really important from an educational perspective, because we are a university, to explain to everyone what constitutes sexual assault, what is not okay and what people’s rights are.”
Schultz said that the current policy deters victims from reporting sexual crimes because the language is too vague.
“There is a lot of wiggle room for the University to not punish the perpetrator or not move forward in investigations,” Schultz said.
Partow said the petition’s call for more specific definitions of acts of sexual violence along with more specific punishments for perpetrators will keep the University accountable.
“We don’t want to give the University any reason to not respond,” Partow said. “We want to make it very clear what we expect.”
Schultz also recommended that those accused of sexual violence be asked to switch classes or dormitories at the accuser’s request instead of the other way around. In her Politik article, she wrote that she felt this aspect of the policy blames the victim for the violence committed against them.
Both Partow and Schultz said that they have received an overwhelmingly positive response from fellow students, many of whom told the pair that they were unaware of the policy beforehand. They also plan to present a referendum to the Student Government Association (SGA) executive board at the next SGA meeting on Tuesday.
“[SGA president-elect] Janice Bonsu has been really supportive,” Schultz said. “We hope that by Tuesday when we present our referendum to the SGA, we will have gotten 1,000 signatures.”
After speaking at the SGA meeting, Schultz and Partow plan to take their ideas to Provost Robert Lieberman. They said that they expect some pushback from the administration.
“It’s in the University’s best interests not to be dealing with PR scandals related to sexual assaults happening on campus and it is easier to keep it quiet when policies aren’t very clear and people are deterred from reporting,” Schultz said. “Carlene and I are two undergraduates, [and] in the grand scheme of things, we don’t have a lot of power. We have a lot of conviction.”
Partow said that her biggest concern was not a refusal to change the policy, but rather the possibility of verbal support from the administration without follow-through.
“What I’m most concerned about is that we’ll get a positive response [or] they’ll assign a task force, and then nothing will happen,” Partow said. “I think that is harder to deal with than a flat-out no.”
Schultz said she believes that the second sentence of the University’s Sexual Violence policy, which states “the University is particularly concerned about the increase in reports of sexual offenses occurring on the nation’s campuses,” is indicative of the gap in understanding about the problem of sexual violence at Hopkins.
“It does not say, hey, this is happening here,” Schultz said. “[It’s] very ironic because this school has been in the forefront in terms of change in human health.”
