Dissenting Voices Demands for Sexual Violence Prevention and Response

Today (11/20) at 9am students from Dissenting Voices, Divest Grinnell, and Iowa Student Power Network met with Title IX Coordinator Angela Voos and Dean of the College Mike Latham to present these demands. We are publicizing our demands to the campus community as well, asking for your feedback and support.

  1. Give survivors the option to establish a point person for coordinating necessary Title IX accommodations. Students should be able to meet with one person and articulate their needs for housing, academic, and other accommodations. Then, that person can work with Res Life, Academic Advising, and other departments to put these accommodations into place. It is not acceptable to require a student to spend hours negotiating with multiple administrators, staff, and faculty members immediately after an assault.
    1. Staff members who could serve as point people include RLCs and case managers (Nicole Sexton and Bailey Thompson)
    2. Establish this resource by December 4, 2015
    3. Post a statement on the Sexual Respect website detailing this policy change
  2. Cut out all redundant administrative requirements for accommodations such as changing dorms, securing housing accommodations, withdrawing from a course, taking a reduced course load, establishing incompletes at the end of the semester, and taking personal leave to deal with trauma. The Title IX coordinator should be able to approve all of these accommodations, eliminating the need for students to submit multiple written or verbal statements to different departments at the College.
    1. Establish this resource by December 4, 2015
    2. Post a statement on Sexual Respect website detailing this policy change
  3. Begin a national search for a SHACS therapist (at least one full-time equivalent) who can provide trauma-specialized care to students at no cost. Trauma-related therapy must be supportive of survivors and culturally competent for students of color and LGBTQ students.
    1. Create SHACS hiring committee by December 18, 2015
    2. Start national search, with emphasis on recruiting diverse applicants, by January 25, 2015
    3. Identify promising applicants and make progress on the hiring process by the end of the school year–
    4. New hire(s) should begin working by the beginning of next school year
  4. If trauma-specialized, culturally competent therapy and psychiatric care cannot be provided on-campus or in the Grinnell area immediately, the College should provide transportation for students to and from these types of appointments at no cost. This remedy is merely an interim measure until these resources can be provided by the college long-term.
    1. SHACS to expand its student driver service to cover appointments within a 70 mile radius of the College by December 4, 2015
    2. Post a statement on the Sexual Respect website detailing the availability of this service
  5. Survivors need additional options for filing a complaint beyond working through campus safety and security, and these options need to be offered proactively, not kept opaque.
    1. Options for reporting established and made official by December 4, 2015
    2. Post a statement on the Sexual Respect website detailing this policy change
  6. Provide weekly updates for each party in a sexual misconduct investigation to let them know what progress is being made in their case.
    1. Institute this practice by December 4, 2015
    2. Post a statement on the Sexual Respect website detailing this policy change
  7. All staff and faculty members who handle Title IX cases must participate in training geared toward building better competence in dealing with the sensitive issue of sexual violence. Trainings should include education about perpetrator behavior, the impact of sexual and dating violence upon victims, and implicit bias training to address unconscious bias against women, students of color, students with a disability, and LGBTQ students involved in the conduct process.
    1. The College has already provided implicit bias training for some staff. We commend these efforts and would like to see them expanded.
    2. Locate perpetrator behavior and victim impact training resources by December 4, 2015
    3. Locate implicit bias training that can speak to the issue of sexual violence by December 4, 2015
    4. Contract with a training resource and send all-campus email update to the student body detailing this action by January 20, 2016
  8. Create clear, consistent guidelines for what is and is not admissible evidence in investigative reports.
    1. Begin review of standards for admissible evidence by December 4, 2015
    2. Establish guidelines by January 20, 2016
    3. Post a statement on the Sexual Respect website detailing this policy change
  9. Educate the student body about the definition of affirmative consent and the conduct outcomes for sexual assault.
    1. Title IX deputies visit each tutorial to discuss affirmative consent and the College’s misconduct process within three weeks of the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.
  10. Release the following external reviews:
    1. Review of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Spring 2014)
    2. Review of the Campus Climate (Spring 2015), relating to bias motivated incidents on YikYak
    3. These reviews should be made available to the student body by December 4, 2015

Statement of Solidarity: Dissenting Voices stands with Black student activists at Mizzou, Grinnell, and across the country. On Thursday, concerned students, faculty, and staff released a list of recommendations urging the College to address issues of cultural and institutional racism on campus. We concur with these recommendations, recognizing that sexual violence and racism are intimately connected.

#ConcernStudent1950 #InSolidarityWithMizzou

Leave a comment