Today’s Washington University students enjoy memory foam mattresses in some dorms on the South 40 and eat fresh sushi for lunch at the Danforth University Center.

College life has changed markedly in the past few decades, according to Associate Dean of Students Jill Stratton, who has been at the University for 17 years.

Stratton said that for a long time, the University and other colleges focused many of their resources on graduate-level programs. This changed in the early 1990s, when the University and other schools began concentrating more on the undergraduate experience.

“A few places like Stanford and Washington University realized the heart and soul of our university are the undergraduates,” Stratton said.

Stratton, who teaches The Psychology of Young Adulthood at the University, said she believes that the quality of life enjoyed by students is essential to their success at the University. In her course, she discusses research that she said demonstrates a strong correlation between the happiness and fulfillment of students and their levels of academic success.

Sophomore Laura Zaim, who gives tours as part of the Student Activities Committee (SAC), said students today have a much different experience from their parents.

“[Today’s experience] has absolutely nothing to do with the college experience that our parents went through,” Zaim said. “I know when I give tours…parents are always remarking on…how there’s so much here that they didn’t have [and] can’t really imagine that they can [have here].”

Zaim said a large part of why the University offers some of its amenities to undergraduate students is today’s consumer culture.

“I think it’s become kind of like a consumer culture in that all these services are provided to us because we’re willing to pay for them. And [it helps] colleges to remain competitive,” Zaim said.

Stratton also emphasized the competitive edge offered by the University’s high quality of life.

“A lot of college campuses are paying more attention to the quality of life and students’ lives outside the classroom,” Stratton said. “But I think it’s one of our draws. I think we compare very well across the board.”

Residential facilities

Stratton said she has noticed a number of changes to the residential facilities on campus over the years, including 14 new buildings.

“The whole landscape has completely changed,” Stratton said.

Associate Director of Residential Life Joshua Walehwa has worked at the University since July 2003. In this time, he said he has seen the quality of residential facilities increase.

“We’ve added additional faculty families. We’ve strengthened our student engagement approach…We’ve improved safety and security and comfort levels,” he said. “Overall, we’ve just continued to try to be out there in front of other schools in the country in terms of trying to have a great residential life program.”

Additionally, the purpose behind residential facilities has altered, according to Stratton.

“Back in the day, [residential facilities were] just the concrete cinderblocks,” Stratton said. “Now, it’s where we live and learn. It’s about the quality of our whole lives.”

Dining facilities

Although Nadeem Siddiqui, resident district manager for Bon Appétit, is relatively new to the University, he said he has already seen dramatic changes in campus dining, including the construction of the new South 40 dining facility.

“Two years in a row, I will have the advantage of helping to redefine and adjust the dining program to help students have a better quality experience,” Siddiqui said.

The University hasn’t always had the high quality dining services that it currently has.

“We have all this healthy organic stuff that helps us live better lives, and back then it was like, ‘Here’s some cold pizza,’” sophomore Jessica Frank said.

Siddiqui said he believes changes in dining services are more recent.

“I think it has taken some years to refine [the campus dining situation]. I think the last several years it has been rated among the top living parts of the University,” Siddiqui said.

Siddiqui said he believes the University’s dining options are superior to those of comparable institutions, due in large part to the longer hours of service and the unique types of food provided. Siddiqui, who previously worked at Cornell and Stanford universities, claimed that when the South 40 facility is complete, the University’s dining system will be “one of the top programs in the nation.”

“We want a place that is comfortable and warm where students can come together with faculty and staff to learn,” he said. “Food is a magnet that brings people together.”

This lack of understanding, however, is something the Washington University administration and students are working together to change.

Members of the Advisory Committee on Sexual Violence and Prevention (ACSVP) are moving forward with plans to hire an assistant director of sexual assault prevention and education.

Over the summer, the committee chose three preliminary candidates to interview for the position. The three candidates, whose names cannot be released publicly due to a human resources policy for new hires, will be visiting campus on separate days beginning next week.

Each candidate will be interviewed in a daylong process by the steering committee within the ACSVP as well as its advisory committee, which is chaired by Assistant Professor of Education Mary Ann Dzuback and includes several University faculty members and undergraduate and graduate students.

A separate interview with University student leaders will also take place, involving members of Men Organized for Rape Education, Committee Organized for Rape Education, Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline and other groups.

“We feel that the candidates who are coming are all excellent candidates with the credentials we’re looking for,” said Jill Stratton, associate dean of students.

There will also be three open forums for all students, faculty and staff of the University to meet the candidates. The forums will consist of a 30-minute presentation by the candidates, followed by a question-and-answer session. The forums are on Aug. 31, Sept. 10 and Sept. 15.

“Their topic [during the forum] is essentially addressing sexual assault and violence on college campuses,” Stratton said. “How they present that is up to them. We want to see their style and how they interact with the students, since that is an important part of the position”

Following the forums, the committee hopes it will be able to reach a decision, though Dzuback and Stratton both say they do not yet know when exactly the position will be filled.

“That depends on how the search goes,” she said. “But searches can be complicated and much depends on locating the best candidate, and then dealing with the candidate’s requirements and commitments, which has to be done before bringing her/him to campus.”

Still, Dzuback says she hopes a candidate will assume the position by spring 2010.

Alan Glass, director of Student Health Services, emphasized the importance of hiring “a person with the proper credentials, experience and personality.”

“The position will remain open until we find the right individual,” he said.

Coordinator will work with multiple groups on campus

In his or her work on preventing sexual assault and educating the University community about the issue, the candidate selected to the position will receive a great amount of support from Stratton and Jami Ake, lecturer in humanities and assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“We realized that even though we have a support system of students, there was a gap in the coordination of the prevention of this issue,” Stratton said.

The director will work out of the Habif Health and Wellness Center on the South 40, according to Dzuback.

“The assistant director will be coordinating efforts with the police, student groups, the Habif Health Services office and the director and other assistant directors, the [judicial board], all groups dealing with the issues and problems that involve sexual assault and relationship violence,” Dzuback said.

Selection of candidates comes after years of planning

Though efforts to create the position have been underway for almost a decade, the administration has not pursued the task as aggressively until now.

The biggest push in the University’s efforts to address sexual assault came in February 2007, when a man who was not a University student entered a suite in Myers Hall and raped a female student.

Arrested by the Clayton Police Department in March 2007, the perpetrator, William Harris, pled guilty and received a 25-year sentence this past April.

Though the incident reinvigorated the issue and emphasized the University’s need for the assistant director position, Stratton said a significant amount of time still passed between the former Committee on Sexual Assault’s initial recommendation and the actual coordination of search efforts.

This was partially due to the 2008 retirement of former assistant vice chancellor Karen Levin Coburn, who had been a key player in the process.

“The University really cares about this issue and there are a lot of people from faculty and staff to students who are very committed and passionate about this issue,” Stratton said.

With additional reporting by Kat Zhao

Susan Marine, former director of Harvard’s Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and current director of its Women’s Center, addresses Washington University students, faculty and staff on Thursday afternoon in Ursa’s Fireside. (Sam Guzik | Student Life)

Around 30 Washington University students and faculty attended a question-and-answer session Thursday evening with Susan Marine, the former sexual assault prevention and education coordinator at Harvard University.

Marine, the former and founding director of Harvard’s Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and the current and founding director of the Harvard College Women’s Center, spent Thursday consulting with the University’s Advisory Committee on Sexual Violence and Prevention (ACSVP). The ACSVP has been preparing to hire a director for a similar position and is currently deciding the goals, procedures and resources of the University’s own sexual assault prevention and response program.

The committee hopes to select a director by July 1, according to Jami Ake, co-chair of ACSVP and assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Many at the University see the position as essential in coordinating among student groups, faculty and legal resources to ensure that victims of sexual assault receive the support and counsel they require, as well as in promoting a healthier and more understanding atmosphere on campus.

Some view Harvard’s office as a model program. In its first year, reported incidents of sexual assault skyrocketed from 4 to more than 200.

In its commitment to involve students in every step of the selection process of the University’s director, the ACSVP wanted to ensure that the session was open to the public. Ake and fellow ACSVP Co-chair Jill Stratton, assistant dean of students, stressed the need for transparency and student involvement.

“I get the sense lately that students have felt excluded from some of the decision-making that’s been happening,” Ake said. “I want the opposite to be true for this, and I don’t know a better way to do this than to say, ‘Here’s the best information that we’ve got going; ask [Marine] what we can’t think to ask her.’”

Marine addressed what the University as an institution can do to promote knowledge of and combat sexual violence, and emphasized the long-term benefit of studying how to help victims.

“Most people will know a person who is a survivor of violence. They may not know a person at Wash. U., but eventually they will. I think the institution can send messages of, ‘This is life knowledge that will be useful for you at a later time, even if you don’t think it is now,’” she said.

Marine said that while Washington University and Harvard are comparable—both are highly selective liberal arts universities with similar student bodies, similar institutional climes—the University, in her view, has a slightly more conducive environment for the kind of institutional change she would like to see happen.

“I actually see more people interested here in making sure that this gets up and runs successfully,” she said. “I certainly had a core group of supporters at Harvard, but I’ve never seen that many people at a talk [like there are today]. If that many people show up to hear the consultant talk I think, ‘Oh my gosh, how many people will show up to see the person you might hire?’”

Marine noted the enthusiasm she had seen among students at the meetings and then at the question-and-answer session.

“They could have said, ‘No, busy. It’s the day before the last day of class.’ These are just people who care. I think that’s a huge plus,” Marine said.

Marine said that one of the biggest problems in establishing a healthier environment is apathy or hostility among segments of the population—what she calls “virulent disinterest.”

“There’s always going to be a large subset of people who think this doesn’t apply to them, or they know a little bit about it and they’ve already made up their mind about it,” Marine said. “One of the biggest things this person can do is be willing to be an educator and work with that resistance, and that’s a very hard thing to do.”

As for how the hired director can combat such disinterest, Marine had specific advice.

“I think by being methodical about how she or he builds relationships here, in other words, figuring out where the strongest packets of resistance are, and developing relationships with people who can help you get into that realm, [the director can combat resistance],” she said. “It’s up to the person to be diligent and committed to building relationships.”

Marine recommended a pragmatic and innovative approach to combating sexual violence.

“The person should be creative. We don’t actually know everything we need to know to solve this problem yet. This person needs to remain open to learning new information and taking in new evidence that comes forward about how to address it,” Marine said. “The person has to be really interested in building relationships with people who are not invested yet. The third thing that’s essential is that the person is interested in taking some risks, maybe willing to go out on a limb and take some creative approaches and work with faculty.”

According to Marine, one thing that University students can do is think about the ways in which their own social environments do or do not condone sexual violence.

“Last time I checked, administrators and faculty are not the ones who set up parties. I think helping students to think about, ‘What are the ways in which my party may or may not be a safe environment for other people?’” she said. “Students can make a huge difference by paying attention to their environments and making changes that would make sexual violence less likely.”

The Advisory Committee on Sexual Violence and Prevention—which replaces the Committee on Sexual Assault (COSA)—comprises of students, faculty and administrators involved in efforts to support victims and promote education to reduce the incidence of rape on campus.

Appointed by Chancellor Mark Wrighton, the new committee chairs are Lecturer in Humanities Jami Ake and Associate Dean of Students Jill Stratton.

“Ake had chaired COSA in the past, and Stratton has significant expertise in the area and they both have a passion for the issue,” said Alan Glass, director of Student Health Services (SHS). “They’re also both the kinds of people who are very task-focused and tend to accomplish things in an efficient and well-thought-out manner.”

In the past, members of COSA were appointed annually by former Assistant Vice Chancellor Karen Coburn. When Coburn retired last year, that responsibility fell to Glass. This choice was made in an attempt to restructure the committee instead of reappointing members within the same framework.

Through meetings with 20 members of the sexual violence prevention movement on campus, Glass took several months to evaluate COSA’s efforts and to secure funding for the new group’s operations.

“I got the sense that COSA had done some great work but that this might be an opportunity to take that committee to the next level,” Glass said.
Among other things, the reorganized committee hopes to draw upon its budget for programming and administrative support and to engage its own members as well as the rest of the University community.

“I really want to increase awareness about the problem of sexual assault because I feel like it is a huge problem on this campus that students just don’t know about,” said junior Jimmy Cox, one of the students on the committee. “Students and faculty alike just don’t know about the huge numbers that afflict the University.”

In addition to Stratton and Ake, the committee contains 15 other members, including Glass, SHS psychologist Craig Woodsmall, Director of Judicial Programs Tamara King, Chief of Police Don Strom, three undergraduate student leaders, one graduate student, one law school student, three faculty members and others.

At some point, COSA became a group of close to 30 members, according to Stratton, which decentralized the work and process of the committee.

“I can’t remember a time when COSA was all in the room,” Stratton said. “We have a smaller group, and we hope to make a more focused and larger impact.”
The new committee assembled for the first time last Tuesday to begin formulating its specific agenda.

“This wasn’t inventing anything new. It was just to make sure that everyone who does this kind of work in the University is at the same table,” Ake said.

In the past, COSA served primarily to guide the efforts of other groups involved with the sexual assault prevention and education movement. One of its most significant achievements was the completion of a comprehensive survey about sexual violence at the University demonstrating that rates of sexual assault incidence at the University match those measured nationally and that more than 90 percent of cases go unreported.

COSA was also responsible for submitting an annual report on campus sexual violence to higher-level administration.

Going forward, a central focus of the new committee will be to continue working toward the creation of a unified office for sexual assault prevention and education efforts. The committee will also advise Glass and others involved in the hiring process of the prevention director. Once the position is filled, the committee will serve as that person’s advising board.

The effort to implement the position goes back many years through Coburn’s work, but gained prominence after the Myers incident in 2007. In the spring of 2007, the Student Union Senate passed a resolution supporting the creation of the post and, because the resolution had not been sent to administrators, it was passed again in the fall of 2007.

Most recently, a job description for the new director-level position has been written and is pending approval before hiring can take place.

According to Glass, the University is looking to take a community health perspective toward sexual assault prevention and, consequently, two of the biggest requirements for candidates are a master’s in public health and experience in the areas of sexual assault and relationship violence.

“This person needs to have enough expertise and experience that they’re going to be able to address some of the issues that faculty might bring up, but the person has to have the ability to work with students,” Glass said. “A piece of the responsibility is going to be working with student groups who will hopefully continue to be engaged with working with the issues.”

No timeline has been set for filling the position, but Wrighton and Vice Chancellor for Students James McLeod have spoken publicly about the position’s importance and have suggested the hiring process will go forward in spite of the tight economy.

“We have only one chance to do this, so I’m very concerned that we do it the right way,” Glass said.

Wrighton said that although the University is trying to hire a coordinator, the responsibility of preventing sexual assault lies with the members of the student body.

“Part of the responsibility, as I see it, still rests with the members of the community themselves. I’m referring to students,” Wrighton said. “I think a lot of the challenges we face in the community stem from what seems to me to be a high and unfortunate level of incidents of alcohol abuse.”

The proposal seeks to make gender-neutral housing, currently offered by the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) under a limited pilot program, an available option for all upperclass housing on the North Side and for all off-campus, University-owned apartments starting in the fall of 2009.

The resolution was sent to ResLife and the University administration last Friday, according to SU senator Chase Sackett, a junior, who supported the resolution.

Associate Dean of Students Jill Stratton said she is not aware of ResLife making any firm decisions about gender-neutral housing for the fall of 2009 at this time.

“My understanding is that the University is assessing the success of the gender-neutral pilot program that has been implemented this year,” Stratton wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “Since we are not quite halfway through with the year, we do not have a full picture or all the information on how this year is progressing.”

Sackett believes that implementing gender-neutral housing would serve as a great direction for the University.

“The Senate passed it unanimously (22-0), which I think was a great example of the student body strongly supporting gender-neutral housing expansion,” Sackett said. “[This] would be a really great step for the University to take.”

The pilot program, operating in Greenway Apartments and the Village with 30 students, was launched this fall following a SU resolution last year for a pilot program, and resulted from a survey conducted by ResLife in Dec. 2006 that indicated 74 percent of students would consider gender-neutral housing if it were an option.

In a more recent survey from this past October, residents in the current pilot program responded positively to their experiences so far and suggested the program be expanded to a full housing option.

Sackett, the SU representative in the Housing Selection Task Force, introduced the resolution to SU earlier this semester after learning about the results from the recent survey.

“We were talking about the reasoning behind [gender-neutral housing] and the results from [the pilot program],” he said. “I thought, why not expand it? It made the most sense.”

Sackett noted that gender-neutral housing might provide a greater comfort zone and more options for transgender students and others in the LGBT community.

“It’s supportive to transgender students, who may not be comfortable coming forward to self-identify,” he said. “I’ve spoken with Pride Alliance, which is solidly behind the resolution.”

Pride Alliance Public Relations Chair Malcolm Ray, who was present at the Senate’s vote, said that Pride Alliance is satisfied with the resolution’s mission and progress toward gender-neutral housing so far.

“Non-gender neutral housing assumes that gender is differentiated in a binary way. There are students at the University who are transgender or intersex—not the majority, but [Pride Alliance] and the University still have a duty to stand up for those who are not represented,” Ray said.

Ray, a junior, believes that gender-neutral housing would promote greater equality in housing and, unlike non-gender-neutral housing, would not force students to conform to a gender with which they do not identify.

“Especially in a residential situation, when you really create a sense of home, you should feel comfortable with being who you are,” he said. “But just on a basic level: non-gender-neutral housing is a little outdated.”

Although gender-neutral housing serves the purpose of providing a more comfortable environment for LGBT students, SU’s resolution does not specify that the option will be offered discriminately.

Gender-neutral housing has been made available in approximately two dozen other institutions nationwide, including New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Michigan and six of the eight Ivy League schools.

“We have done extensive research on what other peer institutions have done in this area. Specifically, we have spoken with staff at NYU and Case Western as well as conducted research into other programs that provide gender-neutral housing,” Stratton wrote.

Vice Chancellor for Students James McLeod said that he might not necessarily look to the University’s peer institutions to help him make the decision.

“For many decisions, I don’t use our peers as a guide,” McLeod said. “We have a certain tradition [in] housing. From time to time, we change that tradition. This is a community decision; all of us have a stake in housing.”