Univ. Senate Renews Debate Over Sexual Assault Policies

At its first meeting of the new school year on Friday, the University Senate returned to an issue that has been the source of controversy at Columbia for over a decade: the procedures in place at the University to deal with accusations of sexual assault.

The Senate's Task Force on Sexual Misconduct presented its findings and recommendations at Friday's meeting, generating prolonged debate on the topic. Senate manager Thomas Mathewson, said he had expected a fairly routine hearing of the Task Force's findings, but in fact senators discussed the issue for almost an hour.

Columbia currently has a formal policy on sexual misconduct, as well as an Office of Sexual Violence Prevention and Education, which includes the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program. But the task force found that there continues to be widespread misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about these offices and the policy.

"One problem is the gap between the really tremendous resources that Columbia provides and students' utilization of them, on the one hand, and awareness on another hand," said Patricia Grieve, Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Professor of the Humanities and chair of the task force.

Grieve added that a lack of awareness of resources on campus may be typical of college students, but that the nature of incidents and accusations of sexual assault makes it necessary for Columbia to reach out to students.

"Because [sexual assault is] such, indeed, a traumatic incident, we really do have to try harder to make students aware of the resources," Grieve said.

Additionally, the task force found that many advocacy and support groups on campus, both administrative and student-run, had a perception of a lack of institutional support for their programs.

In the past, one of the main areas of concern about the sexual misconduct policy was the disciplinary proceeding. Although there is a special hearings panel for these cases that can recommend disciplinary action, the actual penalties are left up to the Dean of the student's college, and can vary greatly from the recommendation of the panel. The student group reform sexual assault policy was formed in the 2003-04 school year partly to address this particular concern.

The Senate's task force was formed in September 2003 in response to concerns raised by the former director of the Office of Sexual Misconduct and Prevention-the precursor to OSVPE-about what she saw as a lack of support from the University for her office. It began meeting monthly in February 2004 and finished its report in April. The Senate did not take up the report at its final meeting last May because it was preoccupied with the vote on the question of returning the Reserve Officer Training Corps to campus.

Senators expressed concern about some of the task force's recommendations, including changes in the policy's wording, especially changing the use of "sexual misconduct" to "sexual assault" and focusing on the role of the hearings panel within an educational community rather than in a criminal setting.

"In reading the policy I didn't see it anywhere explicitly that students would be advised ... that this is not the same as a legal procedure and that they have the option of reporting the sexual assault to the police," one senator said.

The Senate will return to the issue at a future meeting for further discussion and possible votes on the task force's recommendations.

Paul Duby, professor of earth and environmental engineering and chair of the Senate's executive committee, said that the chairs of the Senate's ROTC task force presented their findings and the body's vote on the question-which rejected the return of ROTC by a vote of 51 to 11 in May-to the University Trustees at their June plenary meeting, advising them that the Trustees did not need to take any action on the issue. Duby added that he and professor of astronomy James Applegate, one of the co-chairs, will meet with Provost Alan Brinkley to discuss the task force's recommendation to strengthen support for Columbia students currently enrolled in ROTC programs at Fordham University.

The Senate also conducted some routine business, including passing resolutions to change the name of the School of Dental and Oral Surgery to the College of Dental Medicine, to establish a Master of Science degree in engineering management systems, and to establish a dual M.A./M.P.A. program between the School of International and Public Affairs and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The next University Senate meeting will take place Friday, Oct. 21.