Call to act: reform the sexual misconduct policy

As students have noted in multiple articles in The Chronicle, the Office of Student Conduct recently changed the time frame for students to report a sexual assault from two years to one year. We believe this change signifies an inexcusable failure on behalf of the OSC to truly understand the psychological damage that victims face and support victims of sexual assault in their healing.

On several occasions, Stephen Bryan, director of the Office of Student Conduct and associate dean of students, stated that in the past 10 years, 96 percent of cases of sexual assault were reported to the OSC less than a year after the incident. This fact may appear to negate the need for the statute of limitation to be more than one year. However, in 10 years, there have only been 27 individuals who have chosen to report their assault to the Office of Student Conduct in the first place. Dean Bryan’s statistics do not reflect the realities of this issue on campus.

There have clearly been more than 27 victims of sexual assault in the past 10 years; in 2010-2011 there were 65 victims of gender violence (rape, sexual assault and relationship violence) that sought services from the Women’s Center’s Gender Violence Prevention Office. Moreover, the Women’s Center’s figures do not, by any means, reflect the actual amount of victims, for according to the National Institute of Justice, 1 in 5 women are victims of sexual assault in their college years. The only fact that Dean Bryan’s statistics show is that Duke does not have a culture that encourages reporting and this culture is further buttressed by the recent policy change.

We are troubled by the lack of transparency with regard to the reasoning behind the statute of limitation change. For instance, in Raisa Chowdhury’s recent Chronicle article, Dean Bryan explains the change in the policy is an attempt to meet federal regulations outlined by the Department of Education in their “Dear Colleague” letter from April 4, 2011. The purpose of this letter was to advise universities on how to address issues of sexual violence on their campuses in order to be compliant with Title IX. Yet, this letter, which serves as the administration’s public justification for the change, mentions nothing about a specific reporting time frame. Therefore, the administration’s current argument does not explain or justify the change.

In a meeting with the Office of Student Conduct Advisory Committee last week, Ebonie was disturbed by some of the statements made in regards to this issue. One particularly concerning statement was made by Stephen Bryan, in which he alluded to the idea that he does not believe students are truly concerned about this policy change. He further emphasizes his point by noting that he has only seen “a certain subset” of students advocate against this issue. Despite March’s Breaking Out campaign by Develle Dish, in which students shared their personal survivor stories (please see the photo exhibit in the BC lobby this week), despite there being 39 Chronicle articles referencing sexual assault in 2012 alone—with five directly relating to this issue—and despite DSG passing a resolution denouncing the statute of limitations change, there just is not enough convincing evidence to show that students care.

Thus, we are calling on students to prove him wrong. DSG, Develle Dish and concerned students have released a petition denouncing this policy change and we need as many students as possible to sign. You can find the petition at tinyurl.com/petitionagainstsol, in the Women’s Center, sent to you through your email or through your friends’ social networking sites.

We understand that lengthening the reporting time frame will not automatically increase the number of victims pursuing disciplinary action. However, we see this step as part of a larger movement to foster a culture that encourages victims to come forward so that they are able to receive the necessary support. The countless student groups, the Women’s Center and the large number of students who have undergone PACT and Bystander Intervention Training are all working to foster a better and safer campus culture. The OSC and the wider Duke administration also has a role in setting the standard for Duke culture, and unless the University matches the efforts of countless students to improve our campus climate, our actions will not be as effective as they could be.

Thus, we call on the OSC to strengthen its already admirable sexual misconduct policy to better serve survivors of sexual misconduct on this campus. Even if just one student reports an assault after one year, it is imperative that the OSC and the wider Duke community support the victim in any way we can. Reforming the statute of limitation policy is a necessary step in the process of creating a safe, supportive campus culture.