The Board of Visitors’ Student Affairs and Athletics Committee met Friday to discuss the University’s strategies for the prevention of sexual violence at the University.
University President Teresa Sullivan opened the meeting with a discussion of a “Dear Colleague Letter” sent to the University in 2011 from the Department of Education.
“In a criminal [case] the standard [for conviction] is beyond reasonable doubt,” Sullivan said. “The standard we had been using was clear and convincing evidence, and the Department of Education asked us to change.”
Susan Davis, the associate vice president for student affairs, said a major part of fighting sexual misconduct at the University is identifying what types of sexual misconduct occur on and around Grounds.
“Sexual misconduct really contains a broad range of behavior,” Davis said. “It involves verbal assault, certainly it includes sexual assault. It includes stalking, and it includes relationship violence.”
To gauge the presence of sexual misconduct, the University plans to distribute climate surveys to students this spring. Dean of Students Allen Groves went into more detail about these surveys, which will study the prevalence of sexual misconduct at the University and the efficacy of certain measures against it. Several U.S. senators have called for further use of these climate surveys in schools, including in a bill co-sponsored by Virginia Sen. Mark Warner.
“We certainly will want to test also how effective bystander intervention training has been for us,” Groves said. “The proposed Senate bill … talks about a requirement that schools get a representative response for their students.”
Starting this November, all students will be required to annually complete an online sexual misconduct-training course, similar to the online alcohol education course already required by the University.
The meeting ended with a panel of student representatives who discussed the importance of investigating sexual misconduct. Fourth-year College student Meg Gould, student representative on the Board, praised recent student initiatives against sexual misconduct, including the new “Hoos Got Your Back” campaign, citing an already overwhelming response by the University community.
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