By the end of next week, the newly formed Georgetown University Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Council will post an online survey to determine how effective students find the current sexual assault programs.
Though it has not yet been finished, the survey on be.georgetown.edu will ask questions about any experience students may have had with sexual assault services, and what they know of it by reputation.
The short survey is the result of a new federal grant secured in January by Shannon Hunnicutt, sexual assault coordinator for Health Education Services. It will help establish “coordinated response protocol for sexual assault victims. Sexual assault victims enter different university systems for help. Coordinated protocol eases a victim’s entrance into the system.”
Hunnicutt explained that students can find advocates faster and become more informed about their options before choosing a course of action.
“This grant is a wonderful benefit for our campus, as we continue striving to create a safe environment for all our students. I am appreciative of Shannon Hunnicutt’s leadership in winning the grant and managing it effectively,” Todd Olson, interim vice president for student affairs said.
The grant proposal, written by Hunnicutt and Doris Bey of DPS, calls for the establishment of the Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Advisory Council (SARV) which will supervise the new changes brought about by the grant proposal. The council now consists of members of Health Education Services, Department of Public Safety, Division of Student Affairs, My Sister’s Place, a shelter for victims of domestic violence, as well as three student representatives. The three student representatives, Mary Nagle (COL ’05), Bridget Clark (SFS ’04) and Sharon Kim (SFS ’07), were chosen from written statements of interest.
SARV’s main goals are to create a 24-hour crisis response network for victims of violence and sexual assault.
“Professional Sexual Assault Victim Advocates will be hired to go on call and respond with DPS to deliver 24-hour crisis intervention and options counseling to student victims of violent crime,” according to the proposal.
DPS officers will attend a two-part training series on stalking, sexual assault and relationship violence. They will also be given “quick reference sexual assault and violence protocol cards” to carry while on duty. They will also attend national training conferences by September 2004.
Furthermore, faculty and staff will receive a handbook to help them respond to victims of violence, which will include a Rolodex of community resources, as well as anonymous reporting forms. The be.georgetown.edu Web site will also add information about violent and sexual crime, as well as options victims have to report the crimes committed against them.
Hunnicutt estimates that all changes will be completed by December of this year. Though the proposal calls for many changes, Hunnicutt stressed that it has no bearing on the adjudication process of the university. The changes deal entirely with university services and response to sexual assault, but not university policy.
Last April, Kate Dieringer (NHS ’05) filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against Georgetown University because of its adjudication policies, where victims of rape and other violent crimes must sign a confidentiality agreement to learn the result of the adjudication process.
The Department of Education asked the university to clarify its policy in writing in May, and has been in discussions with the university since then, Olson said in a January meeting with campus media.
“We’ve been very much committed to thoughtful and open conversation with these folks from the Department of Education,” he said. “I think it’s fair to say that they’ve expressed that they’re satisfied with the direction that we’re moving in so I think we’re moving in a positive direction.”