The Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault founded two years ago to combat sexual violence on campus and assist victims of sexual assault released three lists of recommendations on Monday to create a safer environment at the College, according to SPCSA chair Elizabeth Hoffman '13 and vice-chair Anneliese Sendax '13.
The three lists separately address students, faculty and administrators and were compiled from discussion notes written during the SPCSA's Winter Symposium, which was attended by the College's Sexual Assault Awareness Program coordinators, Sexual Assault Peer Advisors, Mentors Against Violence, Sexperts and members of Green Team and Gender Sexuality XYZ, Hoffman said.
The SPCSA reviewed the respective organizations' notes after the symposium's close. The committee's executive board of six people "fine-tuned" the recommendations, according to Sendax.
The SPCSA "has grown into a body that serves as a liaison between the College's administration and the student body," she said.
Among the SPCSA proposals are the creation of a Violence Prevention and Resource Center, the extension of a Continuing Education Program for convicted perpetrators of sexual assault and required First Responder Training for all deans, faculty members and athletic coaches, according to the committee's recommendations.
The goal of the recommendations is to reduce redundancy and increase efficiency by "creating a coalition" among organizations that do not often interact, according to Hoffman.
"It's not frequent that a [sports] team's captain will talk with a member of GSX and say, What are we doing, how can we collaborate on these issues?'" Sendax said.
Aurora Matzkin '97, the president's special assistant for student health, said that many of the committee's recommendations are "totally ready" to be implemented by the summer.
"More bystander trainings, first responder trainings, termly updates of course we can do that," Matzkin said.
The recommendations that focus on the administration's efforts to prevent sexual assault, such as the creation of a violence prevention center, will need further "development and thought," according to Matzkin.
"Most of our work on sexual assault has been a collaboration between the President's Office and the Dean of the College," Matzkin said. "We can continue with the conversation about the center for violence prevention."
The creation of such a center marks an idea that has been discussed on campus for a while, Sendax said.
The center would consolidate resources that are currently scattered across campus and are "too dispersed to be effective," according to Sendax. It would also provide a safe space for providing resources, since men may not wish to enter the Center for Women and Gender, the current location of the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program, she said.
Sexual assault is a community issue that requires "everyone's awareness, participation and active prevention," Hoffman said.
"It's a theme found throughout these recommendations," she said. "We need to set expectations of behavior for all people and put in place proper structures of support at every level."
The process of dealing with sexual assault would be made more transparent with the addition of a center, according to co-director of Mentors Against Violence, Ali Procopio '13.
Procopio said she expects the administration which has become more receptive to student issues in recent years to adopt most of the committee's "reasonable" suggestions.
Overall, the recommendations also serve to create more opportunities for student involvement in issues of sexual assault and violence on campus, Sendax said.
The SPCSA plans to release new recommendations annually, according to Sendax. The sexual assault committee that preceded the SPCSA's creation also issued yearly briefings, which led to the formation of the Safe Ride program and the hiring of another SAAP coordinator, she said.
"It's pretty remarkable to watch how this group has moved the conversation forward," Matzkin said. "We're excited to see them take a really good look at the work already being done here to prevent sexual assault and help survivors."
The SPCSA's executive board includes Hoffman, Sendax, Megan Jang '13, Anna Fagin '13, Christine Averill '13 and Will Scheiman '14.
