By Emily Costantino, Staff Writer
Additional reporting provided by: Victoria Durgin, Editor in Chief, Ted Wolfe, Managing Editor of Content, and Abby MacMillan, Arts & Entertainment Editor
Susquehanna’s Title IX office came under fire in September due to its approaches regarding sexual assault on campus. Now, halfway through the fall semester, university officials are promising changes in procedure and practice.
The Title IX process handles cases involving specific types of action outlined under federal law.
“Only certain forms of misconduct are subject to investigation under the Title IX, Sexual Misconduct, and Gender Based Violence policy. Those types of conduct are: sexual harassment, sexual assault (rape), fondling, statutory rape, incest, sexual exploitation, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking,” Interim Title IX Director Christine Pickel said.
At Susquehanna, victims of Title IX incidents can report to several offices on campus with varying degrees of anonymity in person or via phone. They can also use a reporting form available online.
The Title IX Reporting Form is meant as a resource for students to use to report incidents that go against the university’s Title IX Policy. These being issues of gender-based violence, sexual harassment and sexual violence, as outlined on the Reporting Form.
Pickel outlined what occurs when students use the online reporting form. Specifically, she explained that the Title IX Coordinator reviews the report and decides whether it relates to Title IX.
However, many students have trouble finding the specific form online.
An on-campus RA, who said they had to file seven Title IX reports for their residents within the first three weeks of this semester, said they had trouble finding it while helping their residents.
“It’s kind of buried,” the student said. “At this point, I have it bookmarked on my computer.”
The form can be found on mySU by using the search bar to look up “Title IX “or by clicking on the “Student Life” tab under the “Student Services” menu. On the Susquehanna website, it can be found on the Title IX page, which is located under the Campus Life tab.
If the action in question does relate to Title IX, then the student or the Title IX Coordinator must file a formal complaint in order to open an investigation.
If the action does not, then the student will be referred to a different office that can help them, such as Campus Safety or the Counseling Center. A student is referred to counseling to assist them in processing the trauma that has occurred, while Campus Safety is called to ensure that a student is physically safe.
Many students on campus, though, feel this process has let people fall through the cracks and left campus in the dark about how issues are handled.
Students speak out
These tensions spilled into an organized protest during a Let’s Talk event in September.
Sarah Wondwossen, one of the students who attended and spoke at the meeting, detailed her experience with reporting an instance of sexual assault to Campus Safety.
After having one of her friends call them, Wondwossen explained that Campus Safety visited her dorm room. They then proceeded to provide her with information on how to contact Transitions of PA and the Counseling Center, while also giving her the link to the Title IX Reporting Form.
When recapping these events, Wondwossen expressed that she felt unsupported by Campus Safety.
“All you [Campus Safety] did was dump a bunch of links in my email and leave,” she said. “At this point it’s just performative activism.”
Wondwossen is not the only student who feels incidents have not been handled well in the past.
“I love SU and the community but it’s getting harder to say that when student safety is a concern,” said senior Sydney Hergan.
Students spoke of hearing about “people to avoid” from their friends and upperclassmen, as well feeling the need to take safety into their own hands in order to be protected on campus.
Members of Susquehanna’s administration present at the Let’s Talk event assured students their concerns were being listened to.
When asked if he could “admit” the campus response to sexual assault is subpar, Assistant Vice President for Facilities and Campus Safety Chris Bailey said, “If you feel it has then it has.”
Senior Director of Inclusion and Diversity Dena Salerno echoed this sentiment after the talk.
“So, I feel like there’s a lot of work to be done. Obviously, that’s a broad statement, right. Because there’s obviously some really strong experiences and feelings around safety particularly. So, safety at large. And then sexual assault misconduct specifically. I really think that we need to follow up,” Salerno said.
These, though, are generalized statements about policy as a whole. After the Let’s Talk protest, students still felt specific concerns were not being adequately addressed.
Administration begins steps toward change
This led to several meetings between small groups of students and the Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Francy Magee.
After those meetings, Magee’s office emailed campus on Oct. 6 with a message concerning the next steps Susquehanna had decided to take. The email was signed by Magee and other staff, including Interim Deputy Title IX Coordinator Amy Davis and Interim Director of Violence Prevention Christiana Paradis.
“We acknowledge the pain that this topic is causing on campus and that it is not the only source of hurt in our community at this time. It is our hope that your having this information will help us move forward together in the area of Title IX and interpersonal violence,” the email stated.
Among those steps are the promise of additional training and programming focused on Title IX issues. The email also announced the university would create a dashboard to report updates on a monthly basis. Specifically, the dashboard will include information regarding the number of Title IX reports, formal reports and investigations. However, Davis and Paradis stressed that this program will respect and protect the confidentiality of all parties involved in the Title IX process on campus. That dashboard is expected to launch sometime in November.
Susquehanna will also create a student advisory board to discuss issues and help create and implement solutions.
“This board will be student centered,” Amy Davis explained. “We want to hear your voices.”
Aside from the participation of the Title IX Department, the student advisory board will include a number of students from different on-campus organizations. For instance, they plan to include representatives from It’s On Us, The Quill, the Student Government Association, the Gay Straight Alliance, Greek Life organizations and the football team, which happens to be the largest male organization on campus. They will also add an extra two to five students to balance out the other organizations in order to create an equitable and inclusive board that focuses heavily on confidentiality.
Davis and Paradis explained that the Title IX office has two major goals for this board. First, they aim to empower and educate students on Title IX and university policies regarding sexual assault, harassment and gender-based violence. They want to create a group of students who are experts on Title IX and how the university handles these issues. Second, they want this group to strategize how to improve communication between the university and the student body regarding Title IX. This will also allow the students involved in this board to vocalize concerns they and their peers have with certain processes and policies.
In the same email, Magee said the university would hold another open forum for students, faculty and staff to voice their feelings on the subject.
That dialogue occurred on Oct. 21 in Faylor Hall and was moderated by Magee and Davis.
Many of the same concerns expressed in September were brought up again, with students asking how administration would keep them safe and how much of the action was “just the university covering its own butt.”
Specific incidents involving alleged druggings at parties and the usefulness of no-contact orders were also discussed.
Bailey and Davis reiterated to students that they were always available to listen to student concerns.
Bailey and university President Jonathan Green also both noted that administration can only act on something once they know it exists, and that student-administration communication needs to be stronger at Susquehanna.
Title IX changes will continue to be discussed and change throughout the semester and academic year as staffing increases and projects such as the advisory board and Title IX dashboard are put into effect.
