MSU officials announced Monday their plan to update the university’s policy on sexual harassment by January 2015. In a campuswide email, officials released the draft of a new policy crafted in collaboration with a laundry list of university and student organizations.
The aim, Deputy General Counsel Kristine Zayko said, is to ensure MSU complies with the newest iteration of the Violence Against Women Act, a federal law that included new requirements with its renewal.
The White House Task Force Report and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also served as guidance for the proposed policy, Zayko said.
The new draft now includes definitions for what does not constitute consent. It also includes a section relating to relationship violence, which covers domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.
The new proposed policy gives amnesty for alcohol, drug use and possession violations on sexual violence cases, so that students may report incidents without fear of legal penalties.
In public events, such as Take Back the Night, where students and employees may disclose previously unknown instances of sexual harassment, under the proposed update the disclosures “are not considered notice” to MSU unless the victim files a complaint.
Zayko said the draft is subject to change as they get feedback from different agencies and the campus community, before the policy is submitted to MSU’s academic governance for approval.
“This is such a matter of importance to the campus community, we want to make sure that people feel they’ve had a voice in the policy,” Zayko said.
The Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives will hold two campus forums to discuss the drafted policy.
The forums will occur on Thursday, Sept. 18 from 12:30-2 p.m. in room 401 of the Administration Building, and on Sunday, Sept. 21 from 7-8:30 p.m. in the McDonel Kiva.
“The main goal is to listen what people have to say,” Zayko said. “If there are concerns about the process or currently what’s happening on campus we want to hear those things.”
The new draft of the policy, renamed the University Policy on Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct, was crafted while MSU is under federal investigation by Office of Civil Rights, or OCR, because of complaints about the university’s handling of sexual assault and harassment investigations.
Zayko submitted the new draft to OCR for review, even as the office investigates MSU’s previous policies and their implementation.
“I want to be proactive and get their feedback now, on the front end,” Zayko said. “Instead of waiting until we have a final policy and getting feedback later. I have been sending OCR updates.”
What has not changed, however, is the procedures used by the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, or I3, which investigates reports of sexual harassment and assault.
While previous guidance from OCR said “a typical investigation takes approximately 60 calendar days,” MSU’s timeframes, which are unchanged in the new draft, give the university 90 days to complete an investigation and 30 more to draft a report.
Zayko said “I would expect some adjustments” to I3’s procedures, but not until a new sexual harassment policy is finalized.
“Institutionally, we are making whatever process improvements we can to try to keep things moving along in an efficient and timely fashion,” Zayko said. “I3 is in the process of hiring additional investigators.”
Currently, the office has two employees for all university harassment and discrimination investigations.
In the email, Title IX Coordinator and director of I3 Paulette Granberry Russell also said MSU would created another “Task Force on Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence that will review our policies and programs over the last ten years and recommend further areas of improvement.”
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