One term after being commissioned by Dean of the College Lee Pelton to review the way the College handles cases of sexual assault, the Mediation Committee is comparing Dartmouth's mediation practices to those at other schools and has established the questions it needs to answer.
Pelton charged the committee with reviewing the College's non-disciplinary ways of handling incidents of sexual abuse and asked the committee to produce its recommendations before the end of Spring term.
But some students say the review is taking too long.
Co-Chair of the Mediation Committee Daniel Siegel said the committee needs more time to complete their mission, which he defined as "making a recommendation on whether or not there should be a relationship between mediation and the College disciplinary process."
"Pelton told us not to rush under any circumstances, especially considering the importance of the issue at hand," he said.
The other co-Chair of the committee, Undergraduate Official Affairs Officer Marcia Kelly, wrote in an e-mail message "at this point, the committee is still trying to arrange meetings and does not have anything conclusive to report."
Siegel, who is also the adviser for the Dartmouth College Mediation Center, said the committee has met three times -- once in the Winter term and twice this term.
In these meetings, Siegel said the committee has "reviewed the charts and the information given to them by Dean Pelton," as well as "looked at ways mediation is handled at other institutions."
Siegel said the committee has succeeded in "establishing the right questions to ask."
These questions, he said, have to do with the "relationship and the formal connections between the College disciplinary process and mediation," as well as whether "mediation can be conditional on the behavior of a third party."
Siegel also said the committee investigated "to what extent should College disciplinary process be informed," and whether it "should make recommendations."
He said these questions will be discussed in a meeting to take place before the end of Spring term.
He also said the Mediation Committee appeared as a response on the part of the administration to a student request, "the desire to have mediation as an option" in solving student disputes.
He said the main concern of the committee are incidents of sexual abuse, although it might expand to cover other issues in the future.
Emily Stephens '97, whose allegations against the College's mishandling of a sexual abuse case prompted the creation of the Mediation Committee, said she was disappointed with the progress made by the committee so far.
She also said the committee is taking too long to reach a resolution, and thereby "letting the issue flounder."
She said "by capitalizing on students' research and interest the committee would have been able to reach a resolution by the end of Winter term."
Last spring, Stephens said she was persuaded to resolve her sexual abuse complaint through mediation, instead of proceeding with a Committee on Standards hearing. Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith acted as Stephens' adviser in this case.
Stephens told The Dartmouth last year that Goldsmith suggested she participate in a "facilitated conversation" or a mediation, rather than a Committee on Standards hearing.
"Codification of the mediation process needs to be in place as soon as possible," she told The Dartmouth last week.
"Many women cannot afford the emotional pressure of going through a Committee on Standards or criminal procedure," she said. "These women should have the option of mediation, but they also need to know exactly how the procedure works."
She also said the way mediation is handled by the Dartmouth Mediation Center is not adequate to handle sexual abuse incidents.
"Sexual assault carries an inherent power imbalance between the parties involved" and so "mediators should receive special training to handle those cases," Stephens said.
