National Organization for Women: Reforming the University's Sexual Harassment Policy

(May 2005)

The University of Chicago has recently made a priority of demonstrating that this is a sex-positive campus. While sex-positive is a term with many different definitions, here it is intended to mean that the university views consensual sexual activity between adults as a positive thing. Unfortunately, it is difficult to promote sex-positivity when non-consensual sexual activities, that is, sexual harassment, abuse, and assault, are very real problems on this campus. If the university really hopes to promote sex positivity, it should have in place a policy in place that adequately deals with sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and sexual assault, treats each of those three as distinct crimes and, most importantly, makes clear what avenues and resources are available to survivors.

At present, the policy in place at the university fails to do so. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual abuse constitute three distinct crimes in the state of Illinois . Sexual harassment constitutes unwanted sexual attention of any form (usually verbal) up to sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is an act of sexual conduct by use or threat of force, including groping or other unwanted touching, up to penetration. Sexual assault is any sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth digitally, with an object, or an organ by use of any threat or force. The university policy, however, lacks explicit independent definitions of these three crimes, making it unclear for survivors to understand what their options are within the university. Further, failure to clearly differentiate sexual abuse and sexual assault from sexual harassment trivializes the first two crimes. Another complaint that we have is that since sexual offenses happen to both men and women at the hands of both men and women, the university policy should explicitly state that sexual harassment, abuse, and assault are not gender-specific crimes.

Finally, the university policy needs to be more explicit about the pathways a survivor may take and the rights of the survivor and the accused. In particular, we feel it is important that academic and housing staff receive adequate sensitivity training regarding sexual harassment, abuse and assault. Furthermore, Resident Heads and Assistant Resident Heads should receive first-response training. It is essential that RAs and RHs are themselves aware of the resources available to survivors of sexual offenses and make sure students are aware of the resources that exist. Currently, faculty and TAs do not receive any training and the RA training is analogous to that given to first-year students in Orientation week.

We are currently meeting with administrators to discuss the policy and are optimistic about the possibility for change. We have prepared a statement to be published as a public letter with endorsements from as many different student organizations and campus groups as possible. If you are interested in endorsing our statement, please email rengaraj@uchicago.edu.