New Judicial Process Policy Revealed at Tufts University
This is the first year with a complete, new sexual assault policy. Personally, I think there is still a lot of things about it that alarm me (such as a SINGLE person deciding whether someone should be punished or not), but it is nice to see progress towards proper change.
Just wanted to share that the students of Tufts’ SAFER just had a victory! The complete new sexual assault policy has been made. You can check out their site here. It’s weird to think just two years ago I was being trained among some of these activists and they’ve done such a great job to create progress. I clearly have some personal investment since some of my friends and I helped jumpstart the movement for change. I wish I was able to support the students for longer, but they’re clearly doing a great job.
While it is great there is a new policy, I think this is a great example of how even though an administration may be willing to provide change there can always be improvement. It takes a long time to work towards a better sexual assault policy that students can feel like their rights are protected.
One thing I noticed that made me a bit uneasy is that they have a new confidentiality section.
Any information or written material related to a disciplinary case must be treated as confidential. Disclosure of such information to anyone other than the Dean or the fact-finder, legal counsel, support person or confidential counselor is strictly prohibited and may subject the person responsible for the disclosure to disciplinary action. Individuals with whom a student has shared disciplinary case materials are prohibited from disclosing them to others without the permission
of the Dean of Students or the Judicial Affairs Officer, and any disclosure by such individuals may subject the student who disclosed to them to disciplinary action.
A big part of the Center for Public Integrity’s investigative findings that schools have been big on gag orders. While they said that the outcome of the cause will/can be shared with the community, I can see the potential for this confidentiality clause to go wrong. What if the school handled the case improperly? It would be a huge conflict of interest to ask the Dean or Officer for permission to share how *they* messed up in address their rape and is showing the case information to another person, group, organization, etc. to see what those very people did wrong while doing their job.
However, it’s great to know that the SAFER group on campus are in touch with the administration about further improvements. The students have hit the ground running as soon as the semester has started to look over the policy and identify what they would like to see changed. I hope that progress towards the policy they need and deserve continues to go quickly!
Any information or written material related to a disciplinary case must be treated as confidential. Disclosure of such information to anyone other than the Dean or the fact-finder, legal counsel, support person or confidential counselor is strictly prohibited and may subject the person responsible for the disclosure to disciplinary action. Individuals with whom a student has shared disciplinary case materials are prohibited from disclosing them to others without the permissionof the Dean of Students or the Judicial Affairs Officer, and any disclosure by such individuals may subject the student who disclosed to them to disciplinary action.
source: Change Happens
Originally published at Tufts University Survivors of Sexual Violence. You can comment here or there.