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Graduate Students hold town hall to aid in mandatory sexual assault reporting

February 25, 2015

As part of a plan to increase reporting, the Graduate Employees Union hosted a town hall meeting on Tuesday focusing on mandatory reporting for MSU employees.

Mandatory reporting requires MSU employees, specifying in the meeting teaching assistants, faculty and staff, to report all cases of sexual harassment and sexual assault to the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives and the police.

The meeting was led by a panel consisted of representatives of organizations who deal with sexual assault on campus and off including Sexual Assault Program and Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention Team, Safe Place, University of Michigan's Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, President of GEU and a MSU special victims unit sexual assault detective.

Also on the panel were two students who shared their perspectives. One was a teaching assistant and gave input on her own experiences. 

Many employees needed clarification on the details of mandatory reporting and ways to help the victims who confide in them.

“I think this actual direction needs to be best again explained what this means for T.A’s, are we supposed be listening in on people conversations, what kind of agency do the students have in deciding to report it," graduate student and teaching assistant Kathryn Lankford said. "The ins and outs of it (mandatory reporting) I’m really interested in knowing because I care about my students.”  

Several attendees voiced their uncertainty of mandatory reporting while the panel answered questions and offered advice when dealing with victims.

The meeting clarified questions and cleared up confusion about mandatory reporting as well as the roles T.A.'s, staff and faculty play in combating sexual assault on campus.

"We are undergoing a cultural shift here at the university and in colleges and universities across the nation," Safe Place panel representative Erica Schmittdiel said. "Historically, people have not been held accountable for sexual assaullt on campus or off campus and that's a problem and we are trying to change that."

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