President’s Council Combating Sexual Violence and Harassment
The President’s Council Combating Sexual Violence and Harassment serves as the body to provide on-going counsel to the President for on-going and future initiatives to respond to and prevent sexual and other forms of gender-based violence, harassment, and discrimination.
Context
This Council is being established during a time where there are pending changes to the Title IX regulations, on-going efforts to dismantle protections to bodily autonomy, and recent actions that impede on our approach to build a diverse, welcoming student body. Convening a Presidential level group will serve to build a cohesive, multi-tiered, and sustained infrastructure that facilitates our sharing of trends, best practices, and areas for enhancement across our work to support students, staff, and faculty. The sub-committees, which are aligned with the priority areas of the NASEM Action Collaborative, will pursue organizational change in the service of our commitment to ensuring that all members of our community are free from harassment, intimidation, and discrimination.
Read More
In response to student activism in the spring of 2022, President Maric convened the President’s Task Force on Combating Sexual Violence and Supporting Our Students, which was charged with evaluating how the University of Connecticut educates, prevents, and responds to sexual violence.
In the summer of 2022, the Task Force released their report with a set of recommendations to enhance students’ connection to resources; to expand training and education for students, staff, and faculty; and to prioritize assessment and accountability. There has been initial progress particularly in the area of increasing access points to information about existing resources.
As the Task Force noted, “Sexual violence is not a phenomenon unique to the University of Connecticut.” The wave of student activism is part of a long legacy of student efforts to raise awareness of and seek remedies in response to sexual and other forms of gender-based violence, harassment, and discrimination. As a societal issue, the University will likely not be able to “solve” this issue, but we can recommit to caring and compassionate responses and primary prevention efforts. This will require a commitment of shared purpose from all members of our community – students, staff, faculty, and administrators.
Both the Task Force and student activists' demands identified the need for ongoing communication and interactions between students and administrative decision-makers to monitor and evaluate progress. Implementing these recommendations must be accompanied by feedback on the impact on our students' lived experiences.
In the spring of 2023, the Women’s Center convened a group of key administrators and stakeholders to apply for membership to the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, and in May our application was accepted. The Action Collaborative works to encourage and support system-wide changes across higher education to prevent and address sexual harassment experienced by all people in higher education and to deal with the issue in the context of other damaging behaviors including other forms of harassment (such as racial harassment), discrimination, bullying, and incivility.
The Charge
- To monitor and communicate on progress implementing the recommendations from the President’s Task Force on Combating Sexual Violence and Supporting Our Students report;
- To collect information from Lead and Supporting Offices on their assessment activities to determine the impact of implemented recommendations on the lived experiences of students;
- To provide feedback on UConn policies, procedures, educational programming, and other communications related to sexual and gender-based misconduct;
- To help identify trends or emerging issues;
- To identify course corrections as needed;
- And to assist with identifying, compiling, and reporting on information about our work to prevent, respond, remediate, evaluate, and pursue organizational change related to sexual harassment which will be shared with the NASEM Action Collaborative.
Steering Committee
Amy Gorin, Co-Chair, Office of the Provost
Michelle Williams, Co-Chair, Office of the President
Lakeesha Brown, Community Accountability/Organizational Transformation sub-committee co-chair, Human Resources
Mariam Vargas, Community Accountability/Organizational Transformation sub-committee co-chair, Undergraduate Student Government
Alyssa Bredefeld, Response sub-committee co-chair, Protect Our Pack Peer Educator and Dean of Students Office
Laura Burton, Response sub-committee co-chair, Senate Executive Committee
Mary Bernstein, Prevention sub-committee co-chair, Graduate School
Melanie Luna, Prevention sub-committee co-chair, VAWPP Peer Educator/Women’s Center
Nikole Babcock, Evaluation sub-committee co-chair, Center for Research on Sexual Violence and Empowerment
Lisa Eaton, Evaluation sub-committee co-chair, Center for Research on Sexual Violence and Empowerment
Fany DeJesús Hannon, Remediation sub-committee co-chair, Dean of Students Office
Lyn Alexander, Alumni Representative
Chrysoula Argyrou, Post-doc Representative
Rachel Schwartz, Regional Campus Representative
Kathleen Holgerson, Council Facilitation, Office for Diversity & Inclusion
Sub-Committees
Community Accountability/Organizational Transformation
This sub-committee strategically pursues organizational change that is research-informed and identifies effective ways to structure these efforts.
Sub-committee co-chairs
Lakeesha Brown, Human Resources
Mariam Vargas, Undergraduate Student Government
Sub-committee members
Jibreel Akbar, Undergraduate Student Government
Katherine Blay-Tandoh, Undergraduate student
Rachel Schwartz, Regional Campus Representative
Vicki Magley, Professor of Psychological Sciences
Response
This sub-committee focuses on approaches for responding to sexual harassment so that it contributes to creating an organizational climate in which sexual harassment is not tolerated.
Sub-committee co-chairs
Alyssa Bredefeld, Protect Our Pack Peer Educator and Dean of Students Office
Laura Burton, Senate Executive Committee
Sub-committee members
Grian Wizner, Undergraduate student
Sophia Montañez,
Ava Venuk, Undergraduate student
Chrysoula Argyrou, Post-doc Representative
Kai Febus, Undergraduate student
Kim Beardsley-Carr, Office of Community Standards
Prevention
This sub-committee focuses on creating environments and organizational climates that prevent sexual harassment from occurring.
Sub-committee co-chairs
Mary Bernstein, Graduate School
Melanie Luna, VAWPP Peer Educator/Women’s Center
Sub-committee members
Cassy Setzler, Student Health & Wellness
Cecilia Rebeiro, Undergraduate student
Julia Stout, Undergraduate student
Lyn Alexander, Alumni Representative
Md Safaet Hossain Sujan, Graduate student
Pam Win, Undergraduate student
Rindaanne Riccio, Department of Student Activities
Sugita Mahendarkar, Undergraduate student
Evaluation
This sub-committee focuses on measuring climate and gauging progress on campuses.
Sub-committee co-chairs
Nikole Babcock, Center for Research on Sexual Violence and Empowerment
Lisa Eaton, Center for Research on Sexual Violence and Empowerment
Sub-committee members
David Gregorio, Public Health Sciences
Francesca Bazil, Undergraduate student
Maryam Izzat, Undergraduate student
Samantha Valle, Graduate student
Remediation
This sub-committee focuses on systemic changes that can limit the damage caused by experiencing sexual harassment and support those who experience it.
Sub-committee co-chairs
Shannon Coulter
Fany DeJesús Hannon, Dean of Students Office
Sub-committee members
Alec Benjamin Dacuma, Undergraduate student
Bonnie DiAngelis
Ellen Smith, School of Social Work
Joanna Smiley, School of Social Work
Lara Chiaverini, School of Engineering
Serena Lee, Undergraduate Student Government
Tristan Vroom, Undergraduate student
