3/14/2014 update: The ODE reported back in October that ASUO and the administration had worked out a deal to keep this funded. Now Randy Geller seems to have changed his mind. From the UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence blog, here.
In other news Jon Krakauer is apparently working on a book on the University of Montana rape case against football player Jordan Johnson.
2/16/2014: How to report a sexual assault at UO: If it’s an assault by faculty or staff, you go to AAEO Director Penny Daugherty. Good luck with that, Ms Daugherty isn’t even competent enough to file UO’s Affirmative Action reports on time. The Eugene Weekly report on the philosophy department allegations is here.
If it’s an assault by a student, you go to Dean of Students Paul Shang’s office. Hannah Golden has the story in the ODE:
The dean of students’ website provides a flowchart outlining the reporting process. However, interpreting it is easier said than done. Psychology GTF Carly Smith has witnessed how frustrating the process can be for students. In a class exercise, she divided students into groups, giving each group a different school’s sexual assault reporting process to examine using web searches. The only group that gave up, Smith said, was the one trying to decipher UO’s process.
The ODE article identifies just one of the ways the U of O is currently out of compliance with Title IX requirements.
Several years ago, a federal complaint was filed against Yale charging, among other things, that its procedures were too confusing and the offices for reporting complaints too inaccessible. Investigators reported, “We were told repeatedly that students who felt they had been victims of sexual misconduct did not understand clearly how or where to lodge a complaint and what the process would be once the complaint was lodged. Students described what seemed to them a confusing array of committees, boards, departments, o”ces, and individuals, all having some responsibility for receiving or resolving complaints, with the result that students often are unsure about their options.”
In the voluntary agreement settling the case, Yale agreed to streamline things dramatically and establish “one central location to handle formal and informal complaints”. Agreements like this send the message to other schools. (You can google all these documents; the same issues arose in the more recent U of Montana decision.)
At exactly the same time, the U of O was moving its affirmative action office out of centrally located Oregon Hall to an obscure off campus location, far away and unmarked. I was alerted to this by a disabled student who feared crossing the two busy streets to get there (incredibly, this is where disability discrimination is reported). His complaints received no response. Plus, there is the utter confusion that the ODE reports of how to proceed, etc.
We have seen positive steps since Mike Gottfredson and Jamie Moffitt took over. There needs to be much more.
While there may be other procedures for “sexual harassment”….
In terms of this headline, which is, “How to report a sexual assault at UO”…..It isn’t complicated: Dial 9-1-1 as soon as you are able and report it to the *Eugene Police Department*.
When you take the mandatory training and select the answer to report to “The police department”, the training will tell you that you are WRONG, you “should report to your institution’s HR department”, where they can quietly make your complaint disappear.
Defunding SASS? This is silly, but most of us have come to learn that rational decisions are not the earmark of this administration.