School-wide Title IX policy updated to better address sexual assault

In an effort to better address reports of sexual misconduct on campus, Boston University officials adopted a new school-wide Title IX policy, BU President Robert Brown announced in a Monday email to the BU community.

Title IX protects people from exclusion, denial of benefits and discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity that receives federal financial aid, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s website.

“BU is committed to increasing awareness of sexual misconduct, eliminating its occurrence on campus, providing support for survivors, diligently investigating all reports of sexual misconduct and dealing fairly and firmly with offenders,” Brown wrote in the email.

Effective immediately, there are separate investigation and disciplinary processes for complaints against students than those filed against faculty, staff, affiliates and non-affiliates, the email stated. The new policy includes information regarding disciplinary procedures that outline how BU will work to resolve sexual misconduct complaints.

Brown said in the email that during the development process, the goals were to provide clear definitions of prohibited conduct, collect information about the university’s resources, describe reporting obligations of various positions and align with federal mandates.

Kim Randall, BU’s Title IX coordinator, said the changes aim for transparency in describing information and procedure.

“We are all revising policies and procedures to ensure that our students have a clear set of guidelines about sexual misconduct, knowledge of the resources available here on campus and also in the local community and an understanding of how to bring complaints or concerns about sexual misconduct to people on campus who can help,” she wrote in an email.

At the end of the spring 2014 semester, BU was placed on a list of 55 schools under investigation for inadequately handling sexual violence and harassment complaints under Title IX, The Daily Free Press reported on May 1, 2014. Other schools on the list include Amherst College, Emerson College, Harvard College, Harvard University Law School and University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Randall said the updated policies did not come as a result of the federal investigation.

“All of the Title IX investigations taking place across the country at many schools and colleges have informed both the Office for Civil Rights (the federal agency conducting the investigations) and the schools themselves of changes we can make to give our students the best information and support that we can, and to promote a culture of respect,” she said.

BU has developed training programs and increased outreach to students and employees,Randall said. In addition, the university will conduct a sexual assault climate survey for students in the spring.

“All of these are part of an ongoing effort to educate and support our community,” she said.

Maureen Mahoney, director of the Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center at BU, said she is a member of the task force that worked to update the Title IX policies.

“What changed is the new safety site pulling everything together to make it easy for students faculty and staff to find everything in one spot,” she said. “The president’s email can help raise awareness. Raising awareness is a really good step in prevention. Publicizing the new safety website and Title IX … can only encourage students to maybe participate more in prevention programming and become aware at what’s available.”

Mahoney said SARP works to reach out to students early on in their college careers to educate them about BU’s resources.

“We really hope that students pay attention to this, to look out for each other and to continue the discussion that we started at student orientation,” she said. “One of the things that we really try and do is we talk about this at student incoming orientation … we sponsor events, we have ads on the BU BUS. I think that we continue to do that … Maybe we need to be more assertive.”

Several students said they welcome the updated Title IX policies and hope the changes will have a meaningful impact.

Divya Hippolyte, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said it is great that BU is looking to make the reporting of sexual misconduct across campus simpler for students.

“It’s good to have resources and stuff, but I got the email, and I didn’t even know that it was an actual thing,” she said. “It’s different when it’s available. Will people actually use it? Are people comfortable enough to use it if something happens?”

Maia Patrie, a freshman in the College of Engineering, said although she has been at BU for less than a year, from what she has seen, the school is doing what it can to combat sexual assault.

“The school is obviously trying some things, but there hasn’t been any big cases here yet, so it’s hard to say if something actually came up how they’d deal with it,” she said. “BU always gives me a feeling that they’re going to deal with it well.”

Cayenne Outerbridge, a freshman in the College of Communication, said the policy changes will be good for BU, as long as they are enforced and managed.

“It’s good that they’re making an effort to make some changes,” she said. “It really shows that they’re listening to the students and caring about making BU a safe environment and a good place for students to live.”