Commitment to addressing sexual misconduct

by | Oct 3, 2021 | Uncategorized

President Barron has invited Damon Sims, vice president for Student Affairs, to pen a guest blog post expressing Penn State’s commitment to combating sexual misconduct, and to share information on actions the University has taken to address this serious issue and offer resources and support for victims of sexual assault and harassment.

Penn State has long been committed to doing all it reasonably can to create and sustain a safe and supportive campus environment for all who study, work and visit here. That commitment embraces academic and nonacademic activities alike. It extends beyond campus boundaries to partnerships with the communities the University inhabits. It is half prevention and half response, and it involves collaboration and a shared sense of purpose among various parties both within the University and beyond.

This commitment to safety and support is perhaps nowhere more important than in our actions to address sexual misconduct. The unique impacts of sexual assault and harassment, their unusual and long-lasting damage, the centuries-old social history of gender-based discrimination, and our commitment to equity combine to compel the University’s deep determination to mitigate these harms.

Despite the profound progress made since the advent of Title IX, the #Me Too movement and related activism in recent years demonstrate that important work remains. The seeming intractability of sexual misconduct throughout our society has given rise to an impatience with progress and a sense that more must be done, and it must be done now. Students at various college campuses across the country have raised their voices this fall to condemn sexual assault and advocate for greater urgency addressing the issue. Several groups at Penn State, including the Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition and Students Against Sexist Violence, have joined this growing chorus.

The University administration understands this impatience and shares it. Even as we acknowledge progress made in the form of better and broader administrative structures and programs designed to effectively address these issues, we share frustration that sexual misconduct persists. Even as we point to substantial University resources and leadership committed to these purposes, including a relatively new Title IX unit within Affirmative Action and a separate, but related, Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response focused acutely on these concerns, we acknowledge that sexual assault and harassment still vex our community.

But this heightened activism and impatience with progress are not the result of increased numbers of rapes or sexual assaults at Penn State, where the numbers this year are generally tracking the patterns seen in pre-COVID years. Through September, there have been 44 reported rapes and sexual assaults at University Park in 2021. This number compares to 113 and 102 for all of 2019 and 2018, respectively. For the first six weeks of the fall semester alone, 20 rapes and sexual assaults have been reported at University Park. That number through the same six-week period was nine during last year’s unique remote learning experience, but the number was 20 in 2019 and 15 in 2018.

Of course, we know that for far too long sexual misconduct offenses have been greatly underreported. Among our many intentional efforts on this front in recent years has been an earnest attempt to strongly encourage those harmed in these ways to report the offenses they have endured. It is impossible to know what portion of reported cases actually result from a greater openness to report and the increased means for reporting. But our goal must remain the same and lofty regardless — to end sexual assault and harassment at Penn State and bring cases to zero.

The timely warnings we issue as required under federal law may or may not be helpful to this cause. They are intended to alert the campus community to the occurrence of a possible crime, heighten awareness, and aid in prevention. But they have been perceived by some among us as more than that, and they can be misleading. It is useful to understand that timely warnings are not an official source of data when calculating sexual assaults occurring on campus. These warnings are issued only when certain factors are present, including suspicion of a serious safety or security concern on or near campus that may persist or be repeated. These warnings are one means of addressing these issues, but only one, and they alone are not the best indicator of the current campus climate regarding sexual misconduct.

Because we know the importance of our work to minimize, if not eliminate, this problem among us, and we understand its seeming intractability, a range of interventions meant to improve upon the progress made has been deployed and includes a mix of additional strategies. For example, the energy and passion found in renewed student activism are being channeled toward constructive, tangible outcomes through a standing student advisory committee on this topic. These students and others will advise our Title IX and Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response offices, as well as the Student Affairs Research and Assessment Office, which administers the sexual misconduct climate survey at Penn State, ensuring representation of the student perspective in this meaningful work. In mid-October, student focus groups will gather with the staff leading related initiatives to discuss the Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey. And later this fall, a town hall moderated by President Barron will reflect on progress made and progress yet needed in our collective effort to end sexual misconduct at Penn State.

These steps will add to the collection of programs and processes already in place. Our work to prevent sexual misconduct begins with new students and their orientation to the University. We require all first-year students to complete a learning module on sexual assault titled “Penn State Safe & Aware,” before they may enroll, giving them the tools to recognize risks and develop skills that encourage their safety. University Police offers a free community education program on sexual assault awareness and prevention, which students and employees alike may request. The Gender Equity Center and the Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response offer prevention education, awareness and other events throughout the year.

Reporting sexual misconduct is never easy, but we have in place multiple mechanisms to ease the process for survivors and others. Our reporting system includes in-person, phone and online means, and accommodates anonymous reporting. The Gender Equity Center offers confidential support and advocacy and is available to helps survivors navigate the reporting process. This is not easy for any survivor — the investigators in the Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response are specifically trained in trauma-informed practices to handle cases with the sensitivity required.

At its core, though, our determination to end sexual assault and harassment involves each of us — the University’s students, faculty and staff, who comprise the citizens of this wonderful, exciting and meaningful learning community. The University administration must establish the necessary programs and services, ensure suitable staff and resources, enact the right policies and practices, and enforce expectations. But every student, as well as every faculty and staff member, shares a duty to one another to live their lives in ways that give no space for sexual misconduct of any kind. There is no one answer to this vexing, troubling problem, which often involves interactions between adults in private settings. The answer will be found only by way of persistence and determination, and only if we join together to insist on a community built on mutual respect.

This problem will not be solved overnight no matter how determined we may be. But the University administration remains committed to the hard work required through education, prevention and enforcement. We ask that all among us recommit themselves to this same purpose, so that ours becomes and remains a University community that is safe and supportive to all who learn, work or visit here.

 

Damon Sims reflects on meaningful change in Greek life at Penn State

by | Aug 26, 2018 | Uncategorized

This week, President Barron invited Damon Sims, vice president for Student Affairs, to share his thoughts on the progress the University has made to refocus Greek-letter organizations on safety at Penn State and across the nation.

Much has happened in the months since Tim Piazza’s tragic death after a night of drinking and hazing activities in the Beta Theta Pi house. The national spotlight on fraternity and sorority issues across the country has revealed the scope of the problems within many of these organizations everywhere and the profound consequences that too often result. Penn State’s own declaration that “enough is enough” has become a national cry, as colleges and universities of all shapes and sizes wrestle with finding the right balance and direction in their relationship with Greek-letter organizations.

Despite the deeply ingrained nature of the challenges of risky drinking, hazing and sexual misconduct, meaningful progress has been made. At Penn State, which quickly became a national leader on this front, we have successfully launched key initiatives aimed at re-focusing our Greek community on safety. The choice to lead the change requires new institutional responsibilities and challenges, but it is clearly the right choice.

Focus on safety

Nothing is more important to Penn State than the success and well-being of our students. Most of our students are young adults, enjoying newfound freedom and accepting commensurate responsibility for the first time. Much of what they learn is discovered outside the classroom — by making their own decisions, creating their own communities and leading their own activities and interactions. They require the necessary latitude in these matters if they are to become independent and responsible citizens in the world beyond Penn State.

And so it is with fraternities and sororities, where relationship building and autonomy have long been central themes. These organizations form lasting bonds among their members, creating opportunities for personal growth and providing support that adds value to the student experience. But with their secrecy, autonomy and internal loyalties may come risky activities that substantially jeopardize the safety and security of members and non-members alike. Foremost among these risks are those associated with the misuse of alcohol. Combine that misuse with hazing, and the results, as we know too well, can be deadly.

Leading change

When the behavior and culture within Greek-letter organizations not only threaten lives, but lead to a student’s death, and nothing the organizations have done over a period of years has meaningfully reduced the risks involved, the University faces two choices.

Either we can turn away from our association with these private groups because their behavior violates core University values, or we can demand the changes necessary to put these groups and their members on a safer and more sustainable path. Penn State’s senior leaders chose the latter — and better — possibility, and I am grateful we did.

As we begin a new school year, important changes in our relationship with our fraternities and sororities should be noted.

Most significant among them is that the University’s own staff now monitor the social activities in fraternity houses and manage the organizational misconduct process when apparent violations are found. In the past, the natural autonomy assumed by these private organizations, located, as many of them are, on private property beyond the University’s reach, led the governing councils to monitor and discipline their member organizations.

In exchange for the University’s continued recognition of these groups, which brings with it substantial benefits, we have set an expectation that our own newly established Office of Fraternity and Sorority Compliance staff will monitor these organizations and report to the University’s Office of Student Conduct any apparent violations they find.

This effort alone represents a sea change.

We now have inserted ourselves into the lives of these students in ways never done at Penn State, and rarely, if ever, done in any large public university. Penn State’s continued responsibility for managing individual student misconduct, coupled with its new responsibility for physically monitoring and then managing organizational misconduct within these groups, has led to the discovery of various violations, which has resulted in the revocation or suspension of multiple Greek-letter organizations in the past year alone.

Meaningful progress

Our students know the University is serious about addressing issues of excessive and underage drinking, hazing, sexual misconduct and overly large disruptive gatherings. We will continue to do what we reasonably can to bring those behaviors to an end and allow the good that results from Greek membership to flourish.

  • We are arming prospective fraternity and sorority members and their parents with information that allows them to make informed choices about Greek membership. Our new publicly available Greek Chapter Scorecard provides key information about the strengths and weaknesses of individual chapters, encouraging those considering the benefits of membership to make their decision with greater awareness.
  • Our newly expanded and mandatory educational initiatives, built around themes related to alcohol, hazing and sexual misconduct, continue, as do our restrictions on the number and nature of social events sponsored by Greek-letter organizations.
  • We have sustained our requirement that recruitment of new fraternity and sorority members be delayed until the spring semester, so that incoming students have the chance to gain a solid footing academically and personally before immersing themselves in Greek membership.
  • And our determination to provide robust resources to our Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, so that our constructive partnership with Greek student leaders will be enhanced, is fully in place.

Collective action; The Piazzas speaking on campus 

In response to questions about whether these efforts are likely to succeed, I have consistently said that I am hopeful. Hope and optimism, admittedly, are not the same. But as we begin a new year, my hope is increasingly edging toward optimism. Not least among the reasons for this change is the growing support we are receiving from students, alumni and others.

Of note among our partners in this effort are the parents of Tim Piazza themselves, who have bravely and vigorously advocated for meaningful change in the wake of their son’s senseless death. The Piazzas have brought together parents of other victims of fraternity misconduct, similar to how the University has brought together schools across the nation, in Chicago last spring, and in Washington DC recently, to talk about these issues and push for the change required.

The Piazzas will be on the University Park campus this week speaking to fraternity and sorority leaders, who will be convened by our Fraternity and Sorority Life staff. We are joined with the Piazzas in a deeply sincere quest for progress and change that avoids further pain for other families. I believe our student leaders are sincerely committed to the necessary changes, too.

It is a meaningful and challenging pursuit, and we remain at its beginning. But our hope can become optimism, and our optimism can become reality, if we stay the course, and I promise that we shall.

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