Sexual Assault

Sexual Harassment Guidelines

The AAUP applauded recent efforts by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to address systemic gender inequalities in the US educational system by instructing institutions to develop clear procedures to address sexual harassment and violence.

In two letters sent to the Office for Civil Rights over the summer, the AAUP’s staff and president and the chair of the AAUP’s Committee on Women in the Academic Profession also expressed concern about two aspects of the advice the office issued to institutions in April.

Report on UNI and Statement on Sexual Abuse Forthcoming

In late January, the AAUP will publish the final text of an investigative report by Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure that examines actions taken by the administration of the University of Northern Iowa to discontinue nearly one-fifth of the university’s academic programs and close the university’s laboratory school. Also forthcoming is the final version of Campus Sexual Assault: Suggested Policies and Procedures, a statement by the AAUP’s Committee on Women in the Academic Profession.

AAUP Releases Statement on Campus Sexual Assault

The AAUP’s Committee on Women in the Academic Profession recently released a statement on the serious and continuing problem of sexual assault on campus. Campus Sexual Assault: Suggested Policies and Procedures reviews the scope of the problem, cites the frequently disappointing evidence on current campus practices and preparedness, analyzes the legal issues at stake, and gives special attention to faculty responsibilities.

Title IX, Sexual Harassment, and Academic Freedom: What No One Seems to Understand

Institutions all over the United States are currently revising and implementing policies concerning sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. But both “sexual harassment” and “sexual misconduct” are used in very different ways in different contexts, often by the same entity. The result is a mess. 

Trouble with Title IX

I used to dread grading student work in my online classes in the week we studied sexual assault. Every time, at least one student confided in her written assignment that she had been raped. Typically, students would write something like this: “Until reading this chapter, I didn’t realize that what happened to me last semester was rape.” Face-to-face classes were even worse. I used to show the 2012 film Rape Myths on Trial: Naming the Unnamed Conspirator, which features veteran sex-crime prosecutor Anne Munch exposing the fallacies of various rape myths.

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