Folders created to help faculty, staff navigate sexual assault cases
Folders help faculty, staff navigate sexual assault cases
Now, when a student discloses an incident of sexual assault, faculty and staff can reference a folder with guidelines to direct them through the next legal, mental and procedural steps.
The folders were made available through the Division of Student Affairs office, with Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones and Associate Dean of Students Patti McSteen. The folders look like an ordinary file-folder, but contain information on sexual assault resources, codes and legal obligations printed directly on the folder.
In the summer, Hall-Jones said the folders would be completed and distributed to all faculty and staff by week one or week two of the semester.
Due to styling and editing problems, McSteen said, the release was delayed by five weeks after the initial release date.
“I wanted everyone to feel like they were equally invested in it,” McSteen said. “So I’m willing to let it take more time for everybody to feel like they had their eyes and their say and it looked how they wanted it to be.”
The folders are currently being packaged for distribution and will be distributed throughout the next few days, McSteen said. The mailing will be staggered as envelopes get stuffed, they will be sent off.
Folders will contain two handouts to give to students after discussion, which McSteen said is important because a student might not be able to comprehend or remember what is said during the discussion.
The project is not something new as several other colleges do the same type of folders, McSteen said. After a folder was released last year designed to help students in distress who disrupt the classroom, the two collaborated to make a family of folders helping survivors of sexual assault and, in the future, plan to make folders for students at risk of committing suicide.
Hall-Jones and McSteen both agreed if dealing or teaching on sexual assault is not a part of students’ normal curriculums, as it would for a women and gender studies class, you may not know what you are supposed to do in a situation regarding student disclosure of a situation.
“Every single person wants to do the right thing, but … if it’s not a normal part of your world, sometimes they don’t know what to do,” Hall-Jones said. “So what we want to do is make sure every single person at least has a resource so if somebody were to divulge to them that they have sexually assaulted that they know where to go and they know where to connect this person to resources.”
McSteen said collaborators on the project included Counseling and Psychological Services, The Office of Community Standards and Student Responsibilities, the Office of Institutional Equity, Ohio University Police Department, the Women’s Center, the Survivor Advocacy Program, Dean of Students office, the LGBT Center, Faculty Senate with Beth Quitslund and different resources on campus and in Athens.
Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center, said it was great to be a collaborator on this project, considering the LGBT perspective on this topic is often left out. Being asked by McSteen to be listed as a resource rather than asking was a nice change of pace, Bautista said.
Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women’s Center, said it’s been “delightful” collaborating on the project.
“I think we’ve needed a document such as this for a long time because people are unsure about what their responsibilities are in terms of assisting survivors, in terms of complying with Title IX, in terms of making sure that the campus is also fulfilling its responsibilities toward those who have been victimized and toward creating a campus on which everyone has equal access to education,” Dietzel said.
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