A&M toughens sex assault policy
Consistency sought in Title IX cases after students demanded changes
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University announced policy changes Monday designed to improve the way the university addresses sexual assault investigations.
The new policies and procedures will toughen sanctions on students, faculty and staff who are found responsible for serious Title IX violations. They should also make it easier to report sexual assault and misconduct.
Two committees on campus and an external review firm have made about 40 recommendations for ways the university can bring clarity and consistency to a process that students have called confusing, traumatic and inconsistent, officials said. Students pushed for changes in June after a student’s post on social media lambasted the university’s response to her campus sexual assault.
On Monday, university officials said Texas A&M will streamline the process of reporting sexual misconduct so that a complainant knows what will happen next and when. Complainants will work with a single case manager so they won’t have to repeat their story of trauma again and again to multiple staff members.
Additionally, counselors will be available at multiple points across campus, making them easier for students to find. And four more people will be hired to support the Title IX office: investigators, a deputy coordinator and a case manager. Title IX is the federal law that prohibits discrimination in higher education on the basis of sex, including sexual misconduct.
To make Title IX cases more consistent, a pre-determined range of sanctions will now clearly show what will happen in each viola-
tion, whether it’s a reprimand, probation, suspension or expulsion, the university said. And those sanctions will be tougher than they’ve sometimes been in the past. A student found responsible for sex-based violence and/or non-consensual penetration, for instance, will be suspended for at least one full year.
The university will centralize decision-making about how to handle those who have been accused of sexual misconduct. The dean of students, not a coach or an adviser, will decide which interim restrictions will be placed on those students — including whether that student will be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities.
Centralizing that decision makes it “more objective,” said Texas A&M President Michael Young. “The dean of students, his retention doesn’t necessarily turn on our football win/loss record.”
Furthermore, the decision about whether a student will be allowed to take part in extracurricular activities will be made when the investigation ends, not when the student returns from a suspension.
Finally, when a student is suspended, dismissed or expelled, a notation will be made on his or her transcript.
The university assembled an internal review committee of experts, officials said, including students who are sexual assault survivors, to analyze A&M’s policies and Title IX processes — how the university handles assault accusations and how it communicates with victims.
A third-party review firm, Husch Blackwell, also scrutinized the university’s policies and procedures.
The system has worked well in the vast majority of Title IX investigations, Young said, but the reviews this summer have shown that “it didn’t work all the time and wasn’t as supportive as it could be in ways.”
Tweet for action
In June, Texas A&M students put pressure on the university to impose stronger and more uniform sanctions after a student went public with her dissatisfaction on Twitter.
In a tweet that spread far and wide, a student complained that the varsity swimmer who assaulted her was back on the swim team after he’d been found responsible by the university’s Title IX process. His punishment for assault was merely a one-semester suspension, she said — and he’d been granted an extra year of eligibility on the swim team.
Her tweet drew attention from fellow Aggies and prompted the university to review its system of dealing with assault.
But that case was not exceptional. In the past several years, sanctions have been unpredictable. Texas A&M has frequently decided to suspend, not expel, students found responsible for serious sexual allegations.
Earlier this year, the Houston Chronicle reviewed A&M student conduct hearings from 2003 through early 2017. The review found that of 51 students held responsible for sexual misconduct in that time, 20 were allowed to keep attending classes, although they faced sanctions such as official warnings or required workshops on alcohol use or ethics. Ten of those students were expelled, and 21 were suspended.
“Our primary concern is the safety and ability for all members of our community to thrive on campus,” said Carol Fierke, provost and executive vice president. “That’s really our goal moving forward.”
Kirsten Covington, a junior at Texas A&M, said she’s “relieved” to see the stricter and more uniform sanctions.
Covington is a member of 12th Woman, a campus advocacy group, and served on an internal review committee. She said she hopes the changes will make the process easier and less confusing for students who report sexual misconduct, as she did last year.
“The biggest change I want to be made is for (complainants) to be treated with respect and dignity, which I definitely wasn’t,” Covington said.
More training needed
A&M’s new policy will require further training for university employees, who are all mandated to report violations. That training that will help make the reporting process less confusing and traumatic for victims, said Robin Means Coleman, the university’s vice president and associate provost for diversity.
Coleman, who led an internal review committee, tested the old process firsthand this summer when she posed as a graduate student filing a complaint. She said Monday that it helped her see how confusing it could be to a student filing a complaint —not being certain what would happen next, when to expect action or how many other people would need to get involved.
“These are really complex situations that we’re dealing with,” she said, and it became apparent that students need more clarity about what to expect when they come forward.
“I think whether or not this is helpful remains to be seen,” Covington said. “I think it’s going to take another generation of people coming forward with their complaints and going through the system to actually tell us if these reforms have been helpful.”