As the first year of the new structure for sexual assault services at Syracuse University comes to a close, administrators say students are seeking more counseling and filing more reports involving sexual and relationship violence this year.

The new sexual assault resources structure resulted from the sudden closure of the Advocacy Center in May 2014 when its services were divided amongst the Counseling Center, the Office of Health Promotions and the Office of Student Assistance to create a more centralized and privileged and confidential resource structure.

Following the closure, students have launched an online petition to bring back the Advocacy Center that, as of Tuesday, had 8,319 supporters. In the fall, students protested in the Rally for Consent and marched into Chancellor Kent Syverud’s office to hand him the signatures and comments from the online petition. In addition, 14 members of the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Sexual Violence Prevention, Education and Advocacy released a 77-page report in December identifying gaps in the new sexual assault structure.

As of March 23, 117 students have sought counseling with the Sexual and Relationship Violence Response Team since the beginning of the fall semester in 2014, said Cory Wallack, director of the Counseling Center and a staff member of the SRVRT. In comparison, 128 students total sought help from the Advocacy Center and the Counseling Center last year. Of those students seeking counseling last year 80 visited the Counseling Center and 48 visited the Advocacy Center.

“The numbers quite frankly are higher than we anticipated and that’s a good thing from our perspective,” Wallack said.

And although the number of students seeking counseling was higher last year, Wallack said there was an overlap of students who visited both centers.

Considering the overlap between the two centers last year, Wallack said he thinks there has been an increase in students seeking counseling for sexual and relationship violence on campus since the new sexual assault structure was implemented last fall. He added that this increase in counseling is possibly due to the heightened awareness that sparked from increasing campus conversations about sexual assault after the Advocacy Center closed in May, as well as a growing national conversation.

The total number of requests for both informal and formal resolutions in sexual and relationship violence cases has also increased significantly this year, said Cynthia Maxwell Curtin, SU’s Title IX coordinator. Curtin added that she thinks the increase in reporting is due to a combination of the five members of the SRVRT as well as the option of the informal resolution.

Within the new structure, the university informed victims of sexual assault who considered filing a complaint that they could seek an informal resolution as well. This informal resolution permits students to request alternative solutions outside of Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities or through criminal processes. Some outcomes of an informal resolution can be requests to change classes, educate the accused, or check for patterns of sexual assault by the accused.

Before the new sexual assault resources structure, students had to request an informal resolution. But now that students are informed beforehand about the informal resolution option, there have been more requested processes to seek an informal resolution than a formal one, Curtin said.

One reason students have preferred the informal resolution option, Curtin said, is because it is a shorter process and some students feel it is a more fair punishment for the accused. She added that the informal resolution process is only permitted if it is clear that the victim is not pursuing it out of fear or peer pressure.

“Often they want the accused to know what they did wrong and the impact, but they don’t want the student expelled or suspended,” she said.

Moving forward, much of the focus will be on the workgroup’s recommendations. In its report released in December, the workgroup provided 24 short- and long-term recommendations, though the timeline for addressing some of the recommendations is still unknown. Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, dean of the of student affairs, said she looks at the recommendations by the chancellor’s workgroup every day.

One recommendation was to create a chancellor’s task force for relationship and sexual violence, which would review services, policies and programs every semester. Kantrowitz said she and her staff are currently looking at how other institutions have created a similar task force and they are starting to think about potential members to serve on the task force.

She said she hopes to have members of the new task force selected by the end of the semester.

But Derek Ford, a member of the Campaign for an Advocacy Center and a graduate student in the cultural foundations of education program, said he and members of the Campaign for an Advocacy Center are skeptical the recommendations of the chancellor’s workgroup will be fulfilled.

“As a whole we were satisfied with the report that the workgroup released, but we are still quite hesitant about how much of that will be followed through on by the new administration,” he said.

Another long-term recommendation by the chancellor’s workgroup was the creation of a central hub unifying all three offices involved in the new sexual assault services structure. Kantrowitz said that centralizing health and wellness services remains a high priority to her.

Brittany Moore, a member of the chancellor’s workgroup and a senior with a dual major in television, radio and film and information management, said she would like to see a timeframe for the creation of a central hub through the Campus Master Plan.

In mid-April, Kantrowitz said Sasaki Associates, which has been collecting information from students and faculty for the Campus Master Plan, will be presenting their findings. Kantrowitz added that she expects to see Sasaki Associates discuss the priority and possible solutions to create a central hub, because so many students and faculty have asked for it.

Moore also said the university still hasn’t sent out a campus climate survey for students to express their thoughts and concerns about sexual and relationship violence on campus, which she said should be coming out this spring. Moore added that she worries that the university’s recent involvement in addressing the NCAA sanctions has possibly detracted its attention away from addressing the workgroup’s recommendations, such as the climate survey.

“I think that it’s important that we all put pressure on him [Syverud],”she said. “I definitely think there needs to be a campus climate survey.”

Kantrowitz said she hopes to see a pilot of the campus climate survey by the end of the spring semester as well, which she said is currently being drafted by Maxwell-Curtin, the Title IX coordinator.

Published on March 31, 2015 at 11:55 pm

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu