In response to President Obama’s new White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, the administration announced last Friday that it is establishing a Sexual Violence Working Group to improve the University’s policy about and responses to reports of sexual crimes.
Although two petitions about this issue — one written by junior Eliza Schultz and sophomore Carlene Partow, and another compiled by the College Democrats, the Sexual Assault Resource Unit (SARU), the Hopkins Feminists and Voice For Choice — have been proposed in the last month, Provost Robert Lieberman said that this plan has been in the works since the beginning of the academic year.
We’re thinking about the issue as an institution in an ongoing way to make sure that we’re living up to the standards that we set for ourselves [and] that we’re implementing policy effectively,” Lieberman said. “We’ve been looking very carefully to refine and clarify policies to make sure that they comply with Title IX and that they convey our sense as a university of what’s important [for us] to do to respond to the issue.”
In a University-wide email, Lieberman and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger wrote that the working group, which will begin meeting over the summer, will also meet with experts on the issue to receive informed recommendations for the University’s policy.
The email also announced the creation of a confidential Sexual Assault safe line for the Homewood and Peabody campuses, which will allow victims to talk to a trained counselor who can provide support and information. These counselors will also be able to accompany a victim to the hospital, if necessary.
Additionally, the email announced the creation of a website detailing the University’s policy and resources for victims, similar to one of the requests in the student group petition. Lieberman said the website will be launched before the end of the summer.
“While we’re confident that these and other efforts under way will contribute to a safer, more supportive Johns Hopkins, we know there is much more to be done,” the email stated. “To provide for the security of the individuals who live and learn here, the university must be ever vigilant and willing to adapt and evaluate its efforts.”
Lieberman also said that the existing Sexual Violence Policy, which Schultz and Partow’s petition proposed changes to, doesn’t adequately represent what the University does in practice and what they should be expected to do in response to reported sexual assault.
“There’s no question that we need to clarify a lot of the way policies are expressed,” Lieberman said. “One of the first and most important things that the working group will take on is to look at what we have written down in our policies and make sure that we are conveying as clearly and unambiguously as possible what we mean by sexual violence [and] what resources are available to students who feel like they’ve been victims.”
Lieberman said that several of Schultz and Partow’s suggested changes do actually happen in practice, even though they are not currently outlined in the University’s current policy. Schultz and Partow’s petition calls for alleged perpetrators to have to change classes and housing arrangements at the victim’s request instead of the other way around.
“It’s up to the accuser to choose whether he or she would rather move out him or herself, which is sometimes the person’s preference, or whether it would be more comfortable if we asked the accusee to move,” Lieberman said.
While Schultz and Partow’s petition also called for the University to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on sexual violence, Lieberman said that the University already has such a policy.
“This is something that we cannot tolerate on campus. The goal of policy is to make that real,” Lieberman said.
As the student group petition proposed, Lieberman said that the administration is looking into revising the sexual violence education component of Freshman Orientation in addition to establishing year-long educational programs.
“We’re looking at orientation to reach everyone and reach them in a way so that something will sink in and that will carry through their whole time at Hopkins and not just be something that they hear the first week at Hopkins,” Lieberman said. “The goal is for everyone who is part of the University community to be educated around this issue.”
Lieberman will be meeting with Schultz and Partow on Friday to discuss their petition and the University’s response to sexual assault on campus.
“I really want to listen and hear more about their concerns, begin a conversation about what we’re doing and address some of the questions that they raise,” Lieberman said. “I’m thinking about this as the beginning of a process of working with students and others to raise the profile of this issue and make sure that we respond decisively.”
Lieberman and School of Nursing professor Jacquelyn Campbell attended a White House press conference about the Obama administration’s new task force and the launch of NotAlone.gov, a resource for both students and university administrations who are dealing with sexual violence on their campuses.
The White House Task Force will also be working with colleges and universities nationwide to address sexual violence on their campuses and is considering legislation that would require schools to conduct surveys in 2016 to gauge the attitudes towards sexual violence on their campuses.
The Task Force’s first report mentioned the School of Nursing’s upcoming study of sexual assault among student intimate partners that will examine relationships between individuals of all different sexual orientations.
“Schools are uniquely suited to identify gaps in the research and develop methods to address them ... We invite others to join this collaborative — and to add their own research brains and resources toward finding solutions,” the report states.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 20 percent of college women and four percent of college men will be sexually assualted. 90 percent of collegiate victims will be assaulted by someone they know.
