UVA to launch new sexual misconduct policy in coming weeks

Months after a Rolling Stone article detailed an alleged rape of a University of Virginia (UVA) student, the university’s president Teresa Sullivan has announced a new sexual misconduct policy that will be taking effect.

Sullivan, who was elected to the position back in 2010, spoke with Potomac Local about the new policy.

“It differs quite a lot from the one in 2011…one [way] is that it covers both employees and students. We used to have one for faculty and staff and one for students,” said Sullivan.

According to Sullivan, the new policy was being worked on prior to the Rolling Stone article being released, but once the story was released, the university had to reassess the policy.

“We started [this new policy] last year, working on a new policy because of new guidance that came out…we had posted this just about the time the Rolling Stone story came – we posted it for 30 days of public comment. Well, the 30 days got extended and it turned out we got 600 comments, so we spent 6 weeks reading and analyzing the public comment and thinking about it – and we really went back to the drawing board,” Sullivan commented.

Sullivan stated that because UVA is a public university, a lot of their policies are influenced by the guidance of the federal government, as well as the state legislature. This guidance was part of what prompted a change in the university’s sexual misconduct policy.

“Since 2011 there’s been a lot of change – both in the legislation, and in the guidance we have received from the Department of Education, and the Office of Civil Rights…in the commonwealth of Virginia we also had some new legislation passed,” said Sullivan.

One of the main goals for the new policy is to provide individuals with options, and make it more understandable for students and faculty.

“We’ve also done a lot more I think in terms of providing due process for the person the complaint is lodged against. We’ve put in a lot more in the way of resources, so that if what you want is counseling – you know we have offices you can go to for counseling – if you want to report, we have a lot of detail about how you can do that report. We’ve tried to make this…pretty accessible so that it’s written in plain English, and not legal jargon,” commented Sullivan.

Sullivan stated that while the new policy may not heal the wounds and controversy surrounding UVA in relation to the Rolling Stone article, she hopes that the policy will bring about conversation and persuade victims of sexual misconduct to come forward.

“I hope that this will be a helpful step…even if we simply get people to talk about this with one another, I think that it’s a useful step. The most important thing we’d like to do is to encourage people that think they’ve had something happen to them, which could be forbidden under the policy, to come forward. We can give them confidentiality…if you choose to come forward, you don’t have to go through a disciplinary process…we give you the options,” Sullivan stated.