To some Syracuse University community members, the university’s communication of information about sexual violence issues has at times been insufficient.

That concern was one among many shared by attendees of a public meeting held by the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Wednesday morning. About 25 people — mostly SU faculty and administrative members, plus a few students — attended the meeting in the Schine Student Center.

The hearing was part of the OCR’s ongoing Title IX investigation into SU’s handling of a sexual assault case. The OCR began the investigation in June 2016 in response to a student’s complaint alleging that the university failed to act “promptly or equitably” to the reported sexual assault case. The investigation is ongoing.

SU was also informed this week during OCR’s visit of another Title IX complaint filed by a different student. According to SU, a graduate student filed a complaint alleging a hostile work environment in her academic department.

The Wednesday meeting was the last of two OCR meetings held this week. Some of the key themes from the first meeting held on Tuesday afternoon repeated themselves at Wednesday’s meeting, including calls for more curriculum programs related to sexual assault and better communication between administrators, faculty and students about sexual assault issues.

Joy Purcell — one of the three attorneys from the office who led the hearing along with Grace Kim and Sandeep Randhawa — said the OCR’s visit to campus was meant to examine the university’s handing of sexual assault cases in general, not just the one the university has been under investigation for since June.

During the meeting, community members said they believed the university is trying to address the issue but more needs to be done.

Steve Davis, newspaper and online journalism department chair at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, attended the meeting and said there is not enough dialogue at the university regarding how individuals should help potential victims of sexual assault. Instead, he said, there is more dialogue about how people should avoid becoming victims.

“I thought that was a little troubling,” Davis said.

Davis also said that, based on his teaching experiences in the classroom, students reporting about sexual assault issues are often ignored or turned away by the university.

“I would like to see the university finds better way to deal with it,” he said, but added that the university is also overwhelmed with dealing with a range of other issues.

Another member of the audience said she was concerned about the reporting responsibility of sexual assaults. The person said graduate students are hired by the university to serve roles as teaching assistants and considered staff of the university. But she added that graduate students often do not go through the same training designed for faculty members on how to deal with sexual assault cases.

Pam Peters, director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, said after the meeting that the thoughts, information and experiences shared by SU community members during the meeting were insightful.

“I don’t think that there’s any school out there that is perfect,” she said. “But I think that a lot of people shared a lot of good experiences and positive interactions they’ve had with the Title IX office, my office, the Department of Public Safety and is clear that members of our community do have good knowledge and information about what to do, where to go. But there are other things we could probably do.”

Published on January 25, 2017 at 10:10 pm

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