With the creation of a new sexual assault reporting policy earlier this year, students have been concerned about exactly whom the policy benefits. Last week, the first official draft of the policy was given to select students to look over it and provide feedback.
The biggest issue students found with the policy is the continued presence of a mandatory reporting requirement, which was disputed through an ASUO Senate resolution last fall. Such a requirement demands that every University employee report any case of sexual assault that comes to their attention, including resident assistants.
“I think it’s a shocking violation,” ASUO Chief of Staff Kerry Snodgrass said.@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/executive.php?a=12#toc29@@ “It’s a total affront to student rights.”
Snodgrass had previously volunteered with Sexual Assault Support Services@@http://www.sass-lane.org/@@, an off-campus organization that is currently contracted through the University to assist in sexual assault cases. Because of her time there, Snodgrass has been passionate about this issue on campus.
“It’s good to have it written down,” Snodgrass said. “(Before) it felt like a wild goose chase figuring out what the policy said.”
The current draft outlines procedures for reporting sexual assault, who is to be involved once it is reported and the variety of options students have in terms of support services.
The policy states that “having a clear and complete understanding of what is occurring on campus is critical to the University’s ability to take appropriate preventative measures.”
It also states that the University is “committed to respecting a victim’s confidentiality,” but many feel that with mandatory reporting, this becomes nearly impossible.
“I don’t think that the intention of this draft is to do what’s best for survivors,” former Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team@@http://swat.uoregon.edu/@@ volunteer senior Maneesh Arora@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Maneesh+Arora@@ said. “There’s not much about confidentiality — survivors don’t have a confidential place to go.”
Because the draft requires a group of at least seven people to become involved with any sexual assault report, Arora and Snodgrass are afraid that the control would be taken out of their comfort zone by telling any mandatory reporter.
Even so, the administration does not see a way to keep a report as confidential as students would like.
“Consistent with state and federal law, the University can make no assurances that the identity of a person who makes an anonymous report to a University employee will remain anonymous,” Associate Dean of Students Sheryl Eyster said.@@http://uodos.uoregon.edu/Home/DeanofStudentsStaff/tabid/189/Default.aspx@@
Because this is a first draft, the administration is expecting a number of conversations with the community and other drafts to help mold the finalized policy.
“Thus far, the student feedback has been meaningful,” Eyster said. “We will write as many drafts as needed to fulfill the University goals set forth in the document consistent with state and federal law.”