Students Discuss Sexual Assualt Policy In Wake Of Trial -by Ariella Cohen After a two month investigation, the Judicial Board off-shoot that handles sexual assault adjudication, the Formal Panel, dropped sexual assault charges against junior Djordje Eremic and first-year Bosko Tomasevic, reinstating their status as students. The two respondents had been suspended from the College since the charges of a Sept. 25 incident were filed against them. This case was the first student-to student sexual assault case to be pursued through the College’s Formal Panel in the 2001-2002 year. While reviewed annually by a panel of both students and faculty, the College’s sexual offense policy and its adjudication record has remained in question since the policy’s 1993 inception. Based on the idea of consent, but lacking clear delineation of how “consent’” can be proven, the policy’s vagueness is often criticized. “The sexual assault procedure is nowhere near as clearly defined as the Judicial Board process. There is a lot more leeway for a sexual assault procedure to be widely construed by panel and chair,” senior Judicial Board member Charlie McCulloch said. “With J- Board cases you see what happened, a rule broken and you see how, but with sexual assault the entire event is usually more vague, much harder to weed out through testimony.” The policy does, however, allow respondents, complainants or administrators the right to appeal individual cases within 10 days of the panel’s conclusion. Since beginning her term as College President in 1994, Nancy Dye has remanded one Formal Panel decision. The panel eventually dropped the case without coming to a resolution. Student activists have raised several questions regarding the College sexual assault policy. Recently-hung posters call attention to various aspects of the policy including the effectiveness of the adjudication process. While the posters mention a class action lawsuit against the College, no formal action has been taken. The College has never previously been sued for its Sexual Assault Policy. Keeping statistical and confidential records of all incidents of sexual assault is included in the duties of the Sexual Assault Administrator. Along with facilitating sexual assault education on campus and providing options for students following alleged sexual assault, record keeping is one measure aimed at increasing awareness of sexual assault and insuring fair processing of sexual assault cases. While the administrator is held responsible for keeping record of all the actions of the Sexual Offense Review Committee, a statistical record of all “crimes of a sexual nature” that is also required by U.S. law and confidential files on complaints of sexual offense, no public records are currently kept regarding the adjudication and resolution of sexual offense cases. This semester the College Judicial Board will begin publicizing incident adjudication records. In the past week, Dye received three e-mails and two phone calls from the parents of students voicing questions and concerns about the Sexual Assault policy and adjudication process. These grievances were turned over to SORC, the faculty and student composed committee responsible for that yearly review. SORC last revised the policy in 1999.

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