Staff Editorial, January 28, 1994
The issue of sexual harassment has consistenctly garnered attention in numerous areas of government and culture in recent years: The Clarence Thomas hearings, the Navy’s Tailhook scandal and the latest redefinition of sexual harassment by the Supreme Court are prime examples. Even the nation’s current best-selling book, Michael Crichton’s Disclosure, explores the problem of harassment on the job. Moreover, colleges such as Antioch and Swarthmore were recently charged in the media with handling the sensitive issue poorly, or at least strangely.
But one need look no further than Hilltop Campus to see the problem. In a 1991 survey distributed by the Sexual Abuse Task Force, almost half of the respondents, both male and female, claimed they had experienced some form of harassment at the university. Examples of harassment included obscene comments and gestures, verbal threats, unwanted attention, being followed, etc.
Fortunately, the university has many programs, run by both students and administrators, to deal with sexual harassment problems. Uncle Joes, the Women’s Resource Center and Resident Advisors are all available and qualified to give support on a student-to-student level. In addition, CORE and the Committee on Sexual Abuse provide education and evaluation of sexual crimes and crime prevention on campus.
Administrators such as Associate Dean of Students Karen Coburn, Director of Residential Life Tony Nowak and Coordinator of Judicial Affairs John Lowery are also availible for counseling and resolving disputes. Finally, a student-run phone service known as the Sexual Assault and Rape Action Hotline (S.A.R.A.H.) is being formed and will provide additional services.
Those affected by sexual harassment often experience some of the same psychological effects as rape survivors: distrust, self-blame, fear, even post-traumatic stress syndrome. Unfortunately, resolutions on harassment cases are dismissed before they reach the university’s judicial board.
For example, a possible course of action to resolve a harassment case includes talking to an RA, who would refer one to an administrator, then on to the coordinatior for judicial affairs, who might recommend bringing the case to the judicial board, which might find that a harassment actually occured. The likelihood of success in this process is not encouraging, assuming the victim can endure the bureaucracy in the first place: of the ten cases of harassment officially reported in the past year, seven were dismissed by the judicial administrator. The system is so slow that even the Handbook on Aquaintance Rape and Sexual Assault, published by the Division of Student Affairs, admits that filing a report with local police is “only the first step in the lengthy criminal justice process.”