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Mary Pumphrey

Students stage silent protest

By Mary Pumphrey | November 18, 2004

What began as an e-mail to 15 students calling for a response to the University's sexual assault policy turned into a silent crowd of hundreds of students, faculty and staff gathered on Grounds yesterday to call for changes in a system that organizers termed inadequate at responding to and preventing sexual assault. An estimated 400 students, faculty, staff and community members lined the sidewalk bordering the Amphitheater in a line stretching from the Lawn to the Bryan Hall bridge.

U.Va. to rethink confidentiality policy

By Mary Pumphrey | November 1, 2004

A recent challenge to Georgetown University's sexual assault adjudication confidentiality policies may lead the University to change its own Sexual Assault Board procedures, Senior Associate Dean of Students Shamin Sisson said. According to a federal review released in July, Georgetown University was violating the rights of campus rape victims by requiring them to sign documents agreeing not to speak about the outcomes of their campus court hearings before they were given the results of the hearings.

Sexual assault penalties disputed

By Mary Pumphrey | October 18, 2004

At a University that values the integrity of its community so highly, some students are asking why an offense against trust -- sexual assault (including forcible rape) -- is not enforced by the single sanction when lying (even if it's to a professor about being sick when you were actually hung over), stealing (even if that means participating in the famed fake Brown swipe at Newcomb Dining Hall) or cheating (on even the most minor of assignments) are all subject to the honor code's strict sanctions. Currently, students found guilty of sexual assault are subject to a variety of sanctions including disciplinary probation, suspension and expulsion. The difference between the standards used in honor cases and those used in sexual assault cases is the same as the difference between honor and all other University disciplinary proceedings, said Shamim Sisson, senior associate dean of students. Not applying the single sanction to sexual assault cases and the differences in proceedings between honor and all other University disciplinary proceedings "in some way are historical vestiges." Until the early 1950s, the University had no formal standards of conduct for students beyond those against lying, cheating and stealing and no formal way of dealing with non-honor offenses, Sisson said. Adopting a single-sanction system for sexual assault cases might lead to a situation similar to the one many critics of the honor system say exists -- the "seriousness clause problem." The problem occurs when authorities (student juries in honor cases and the Sexual Assault Board in sexual assault cases) believe students are guilty of less serious offenses and should not be expelled but they are unable to impose lesser punishments.

Study suggests gender "hard-wired"

By Mary Pumphrey | September 27, 2004

Questioning 30 years of research that attributes the differentiation between male and female brains to the influence of sex hormones, a study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles claims to have identified 54 genes that may trigger the differences between male and female brain development long before birth. The authors of the study claim that their findings may offer physicians a tool for gender assignment for babies born with ambiguous genitalia and may lend support to theories of biological determination of gay and lesbian identity. The findings are included in the October issues of "Molecular Brain Research," a scholarly journal. Researchers hope to use their research to answer broad questions about gender identity, said research leader Dr. Eric Vilain, assistant professor of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, in a press release.

Students with disabilities often undiagnosed

By Mary Pumphrey | July 19, 2004

Editor's Note: "April" is a recent University graduate. Her name has been changed for this article. When April, a recently graduated English major, began to have trouble getting her work done in the fall semester of her fourth year, she thought she might be depressed. During a screening interview at Student Health, April revealed that she had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder in high school but she had not felt it necessary to treat the disorder in college. April worked with Student Health's Learning Needs Evaluation Center during her fourth year, and eventually was prescribed a combination of drugs and therapy.

A University in search of diversity

By Mary Pumphrey | November 5, 2003

For the majority of its history, the University has neither possessed nor sought a diverse faculty. Built by slaves, Thomas Jefferson's experiment for the "respectable enlightenment...of the whole people," did not begin admitting black students until 1950. The University did not hire its first black faculty member until Curry School Prof.

UTS bus hits health system employee

By Mary Pumphrey | October 28, 2003

In what officials are calling the most serious accident in University Transit System history, a UTS bus traveling on the Green route struck a pedestrian in the early morning hours Friday. The bus, driven by Clarence Feggans Jr., a full-time non-student driver, struck Margaret Potts, an animal caretaker at the University Health System's Center for Comparative Medicine, as she attempted to cross Jefferson Park Avenue, according to Rebecca White, director of University parking and transportation. Potts' condition was listed as critical as of yesterday afternoon, University Health Center spokesperson Margurite Beck said.

Serpentine society celebrates fifth year

By Mary Pumphrey | October 27, 2003

The Serpentine Society, a network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender alumni, celebrated its fifth anniversary with a three-day event coinciding with the University's Homecomings weekend. The weekend's events included a tailgate party, a board meeting and a fifth anniversary celebration dinner and awards gala at Alumni Hall. Saturday's banquet featured the presentation of the Bernard D.

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