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Team Hopeful After Panel Forum
To
the Editors:
On
Sunday, April 7 a panel forum was held to discuss sexual violence
at Oberlin. The speakers on the panel included sexual offense policy
administrator Camille Hamlin-Mitchell, President Nancy Dye, Chief
of Security Bob Jones, Ananda Timpane representing the Womens
Resource Center, Benjamin Joffe-Walt representing Men Can Stop Rape,
and myself, Becky Hempel, representing the Sexual Assault Support
Team.
Students submitted questions ahead of time for the panelists to
answer, and senate selected which panelists would receive which
questions. The format itself was received somewhat negatively, since
the audience was not allowed the opportunity to respond to answers
made by the panelist or ask further questions if they felt a panelist
had not sufficiently answered a question.
Despite our frustration with the format, SAST left the forum with
hope, born from the ground that had been broken in bringing students
and administration together to address issues of sexual violence,
and in the assurances administration had given students that they
are committed to ending sexual violence on this campus and willing
to listen to student ideas.
The panel was presented as step one in a long process aimed at addressing
sexual violence on this campus. Following the panel discussion,
a debriefing meeting involving the panelists only was supposed to
have been scheduled, but has yet to take place. The reason I was
given was that Nancy Dyes schedule has not allowed for a one
hour lunch meeting for the purpose of debriefing and following through
with the actions discussed on the panel.
Seeing as the debriefing has yet to take place and the end of the
semester is quickly approaching, I wanted to take the opportunity
to summarize SASTs concluding remarks regarding the forum,
as well as what our expectations for the future are.
Students and administration seem to have reached common ground on
some basic understandings at Oberlin: Sexual Violence is a problem
and education is one of the most effective approaches at an answer.
We look forward to a point in time when a two-way discussion can
take place between students and administrators about what the most
effective ways to educate about sexual violence at Oberlin could
be.
We would like to see Oberlin become a community that holds perpetrators
of sexual violence accountable for their actions, as this is the
first step in ending sexual violence. To do this, we need to, as
a community, view rape and sexual violence as the violent crimes
that they are, and NOT as sexual misunderstandings.
In terms of concrete ways that the administration can work with
students to approach these goals, there are many. A Permanent Professional
Educator on Sexual Violence, as was once mandated by the policy
before President Dyes term began at Oberlin, would be a good
start. Completing a national search to find a qualified individual
to fill this position would ensure that education about sexual violence
at Oberlin was top notch, as education is reputed to be in so many
other areas. This individual would be able to complete further trainings
of groups on campus including ResLife, Safety and Security and the
Deans, as well as take the onus off students, who up until this
semester have done all of the educational work on sexual violence
at Oberlin.
Also this would give Oberlin the opportunity to institute a mandatory
educational program that would reach all students, sending the message
of community wide accountability and also reaching individuals who
need the education and would not attend nonobligatory workshops.
On top of an Educator Position being created and added to the sexual
offense policy, a Consent-Based Policy (a policy that defines consent
explicitly), like the one submitted by the Sexual Offense Review
Committee last spring and currently lost in the shuffle, would be
a step towards eliminating sexual violence at Oberlin. Instituting
a consent based policy would eliminate the margin of variance in
definition that often allows for Oberlin to fail to hold perpetrators
accountable for their crimes.
Above and beyond these changes that the administration could choose
to implement next semester, it is necessary that Oberlin commit
to maintaining any progress that we make. This means backing any
of these changes with the funding and institutional support that
they deserve so that they do not disappear, like the Sexual Assault
Prevention Interns (of Spring 2001-Fall 2001) did.
What we choose to do with our time is of the essence and clearly
displays where our priorities lie. Follow-through is vital to maintain
the fragile progress we have made in beginning these discussions,
and I hope that the panel members and Oberlin community will prioritize
and commit to addressing sexual violence on our campus.
We look forward to, and very much expect to work with administration
next semester in following up on the goals for ending sexual violence
that they expressed sharing with us.
Becky
Hempel
College junior
SAST
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