President Helm convened the Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force Implementation Committee in October 2003 and charged it with implementing the recommendations of the Spring 2003 Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force. The Implementation Committee members are:

An important part of the Implementation Committee’s work this year was the further elaboration of a mission statement articulating the values and principles that should guide the implementation of the Task Force’s recommendations and the College’s ( attached ).

In connection with the work of the Implementation Committee, the College has submitted a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Justice for funds from its Office of Violence Against Women to support a more comprehensive program of prevention and response to sexual assault. This proposal requests funding for equipment, renovations of space to be used in response to reports of sexual assaults, education and training, and research and assessment. We expect a response from the Department of Justice by October 2004.

The final report of the Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force made twenty four recommendations grouped under five headings: Education/Prevention, Privacy/Confidentiality, Student Social Life, Community Building/Values, and Implementation. The Implementation Committee reviewed these each recommendation s and determined which could be implemented immediately, which could be implemented in the short-term, and which would require long-term implementation. The Implementation Committee then reviewed current campus services and projects already contributing to sexual assault prevention efforts.

Items for Immediate Implementation

The Implementation Committee identified the following recommendations of the Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force for immediate implementation:

Recommendation 1: The Health Center should make contraception and information about sexuality easily and readily available.

Action: We reviewed availability of contraception and information about contraception on campus and determined that current availability of contraception and related information in the Health Center and the Counseling Center is appropriate. Availability of information about contraception and safe sex will be improved upon the completion of the Health Center and Counseling Center web site, currently under development. Options are being explored for providing contraception and relating information from other facilities when the Health and Counseling Centers are closed.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Dean of Students and Director of Residential Services are investigating whether the College should install condom dispensers in the dorms.

Recommendation 2: The College should support student-initiated programs such as MASC (Men Against Sexual Crimes) SASS (Sexual Assault Support System), and SAM (Student Athlete Mentors).

Action: Several Implementation Committee members met with representatives of MASC and SASS, as well as representatives of SAGE (Students Advocating Gender Equality), RHA (Residence Hall Association), and GSA (Gay Students Alliance). SAM is a project of the Athletic Department and is not organized as a student club, so it does not have student officers. We discussed how these groups could better focus their missions, communicate more effectively, and better support each other’s work. We also discussed how the College could better support their efforts. The representatives of these groups have agreed to prepare and share short written mission statements, to create an informal coordinating group, and to support each other’s programs and events.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Director of Counseling will determine how the College should support student groups such as such as SASS, MASC, SAGE, RHA and SAM and what mechanisms for funding, support, and oversight are best for such groups.

Recommendation 3: Faculty, staff, resident advisors, and student advisors should be trained to respond to reports of sexual assault. All College faculty and staff, along with students serving in official roles (i.e. on a h hearing b board or as a r resident ad a dvisor) should receive information about their responsibilities to keep information about sexual assault confidential.

Responsibility and Further Action: Resident advisors and judicial committee members currently receive training; theProvost, VP for Human Resources, and Dean of Students will establish appropriate additional training programs for 2004 Fall Semester.

Recommendation 4: All College faculty and staff should receive information about how to assist victims. Training should include information about responsibilities for reporting and follow-up if a student reports a sexual assault or rape.

Action: Implementation Committee co-chairs Dr. Patrice DiQuinzio and Dean Rudy Ehrenberg met with VP of Human Resources Anne Hochella and Provost Margie Hass to assess, discuss, and plan training for faculty and staff. Ms. Hochella and Dr. Hass will include training on sexual assault and assistance for victims in new employee orientation. The Implementation Committee reviewed the College’s other training efforts, especially the training of s social j judicial b board m members.

The College should also select a core group (perhaps four to six people) of faculty and staff for special training on taking reports and ensuring services for sexual assault victims, so that they can be publicly identified as resource persons to whom students (and others) can go to report an incident and/or to discuss issues related to sexual assault. These individuals would serve two to three years.

Responsibility and Further Activities: Provost, VP for Human Resources, and Dean of Students will identify individuals and establish training programs for 2004 Fall Semester.

Recommendation 5: Hearing Board members should be trained at the beginning of their term and again directly before hearing a case. Victims, alleged perpetrators, their friends, and their parents should be advised that it is in their interest to maintain privacy.

Action: The Implementation Committee met with Jane Schubert, Judicial Officer , and reviewed the College’s policies and procedures for social judicial board hearings and the training of social judicial board members. The Implementation Committee strongly supports ongoing efforts to improve training of all social judicial board members and to improve procedures and policies for social judicial board hearings.

Responsibility and Further Action: VP of Human Resources will develop a plan for assessment of training for faculty and staff. The Dean of Students will develop an assessment plan for students, especially social judicial board members.

Recommendation 6: Outcomes of judicial hearings should be publicized so that the community knows that standards are being enforced. Publicity should preserve the privacy of those involved.

Action: A plan has been formulated on how the results of judicial hearings could be publicized without violating confidentiality or invading the privacy of anyone involved. The Dean of Students has developed a written format that will allow his office, at the beginning of each academic year, to report the number of incidents reported to Campus Safety, the number of incidents handled by the social judicial board, and the outcome of those hearings in the previous year. (Note that incidents reported to Counseling Services are confidential. ) This information will be reported yearly in a narrative form including explanation of key terms of data and judicial outcomes.

It is suggested that the appropriate members of the Dean of Students staff conduct a mock j social judicial hearing b board hearing so that students can see exactly how the social judicial board deals with cases of sexual assault. Such a mock hearing should be presented to available to all students with emphasis on attendance of student leaders (i.e. Student Council, officers of student clubs, and/or residence hall advisors) and should also be offered to all students.

Educating students and members of the College community about the social judicial process will make it clear that the College’s values and standards with respect to sexual assaults are being enforced. It will also dispel rumors about the social judicial process that otherwise might deter victims from reporting a sexual assault and/or deter a witness from coming forward.

Responsibility and Further Action: Judicial Officer will publish the yearly summary as described above. A specific plan has been developed for presenting mock social judicial board hearings.

Recommendation 7: A consistent message emphasizing Muhlenberg’s community standards and values must be conveyed to incoming students and their parents. This message must also be ‘marketed’ internally to current students and staff. This should be a constitutive part of our self-identity.

Action: Co-chairs DiQuinzio and Ehrenberg met with Mike Bruckner, VP for Public Relations and

Chris Hooker-Haring, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid to discuss consistent representation of the College’s values and position on sexual assault prevention in College publications and recruiting.

Responsibility and Further Action: The results of the implementation effort of the Sexual Assault Task Force will be communicated to students, staff, and faculty early in the 2004 Fall Semester. Furthermore, there must be a continuing effort to emphasize the College’s community standards and values in all appropriate College publications and programs. The VP for Public Relations and the Dean of Admission and Financial Aid have a major role in College publications and will ensure consistency in this area. In addition, it is important that key student leaders (i.e. tour guides, resident advisors, student council, and student advisors) also be informed of the results of the Task Force and the culture issues involved. Regular and consistent training and presentation of a mock hearing will ensure that students are aware of College values.

Recommendation 8: A committee should be appointed immediately and charged with overseeing implementation of the Task Force’s recommendations. This committee should develop a short-term and a long-range plan for implementation and should delegate specific tasks to appropriate offices.

Action: The Implementation Committee was formed and this report fulfills its charge.

Responsibility and Further Action: Implementation action and follow-on as specified in this report.

Items for Short-Term Implementation

The Implementation Committee identified the following recommendations of the Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force for short-term implementation:

Recommendation 1: Male faculty, staff, and student leaders should be involved in education targeted at both men and women that promotes respect for women and healthy attitudes towards sexuality and relationships.

Action: The Education Team, a sub-committee of the Implementation Committee, developed a plan for expanded educational and prevention programs that will use well-trained peer educators, including male educators. The composition of the Implementation Committee itself, with four male administrators and faculty and two male students, contributed to implementing this recommendation. The Implementation Committee has made especially strong efforts to work with MASC, in order to get more male students involved in education and prevention efforts.

Responsibility and Further Action: Implementation and programming will begin in the 2004 Fall Semester. Reports of the Education Team and Student Team, which include male groups targeted for education and male staff members responsible for these programs.

Recommendation 2: College sponsored events, including orientation, MAC events, and senior week should send a consistent message that emphasizes sophistication and responsibility. Illegal behavior cannot be tolerated. But However, the legal standard should be our minimal behavioral standard ; . T this should be clearly communicated to prospective students during the admissions process.

Action: The noted events have been carefully reviewed to ensure they send the appropriate message and are totally consistent with the law while providing a good venue for an enjoyable social life for the students.

Responsibility and Further Action: The College should continue to search for events that demonstrate responsible consumption of alcohol and can be consistent within an enjoyable time by the students. Some additional events may be necessary. The Programming Committee will develop a process for distribution of funds while working to achieve these ends.

Recommendation 3: The College should promote simultaneous, smaller events as alternatives to large parties. Opportunities for “of-age ” students to model responsible drinking and social behavior should also be promoted. Successful alternative groups and events should be highlighted and supported by the College.

Action: The Implementation Committee has review c onducted a preliminary review of ed the College’s policies and protocols governing parties sponsored by campus groups and organizations. The Committee was briefed on the work of an ad-hoc group, the Programming Committee, which is currently looking at spaces on campus that could be used, or better used, for smaller events. The Committee has discussed the need to help campus groups other than fraternities and sororities with funding for their social events.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Dean of Students Office , ’s work ing with and the Programming Committee , has initiated a comprehensive review of policies governing parties, with particular emphasis on those in which alcohol is provided. (This will also be addressed by the Alcohol Task Force.) Included in the review are rules for BYOB events, the necessity for having TIPS trained servers, the importance of having appropriate security, the value of providing substantial food, and the need to provide student and staff oversight and support for successful events.

Recommendation 4: Greek organizations and athletic teams should be encouraged to take on genuine leadership in promoting responsibility and preventing sexual assaults. Double standards that encourage “group-think” should be brought honestly to light and eradicated.

Action: The Education Team’s plan for expanded educational and prevention programs include programs specifically designed for Greek organizations and athletic teams.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Director of Athletics and Director of Greek Affairs are working together to design comprehensive programs that are a mandatory part of educating/orienting new and continuing members of athletic teams and Greek organizations.

Recommendation 5: The College should explore the possibility of providing security at sanctioned alcohol Col lege events out of College funds.

Action: The College has agreed to provide up to 50% of $125 for security costs at a College sanctioned event at a fraternity house or an off-campus venue. It is expected that the sponsoring organization will provide the additional funds necessary to meet the specified security requirements. This policy was initiated in Fall 2003.

Responsibility and Further Action: None.

Recommendation 6: At least one additional Security Officer will be added in Summer 2005 to be a specialist in support of response to allegations of sexual abuse or sexual assault. That individual will also be a resource available to train organizations as part of the College community. In addition, all Campus Safety Officers will go through a regular training program each summer The College should appoint additional campus safety officers specializing in sexual abuse response and prevention. Both women and men should be seen to uphold and enforce standards.

Action: On-going training will continue and will be supplemented by additional programs that address sexual assault prevention and response. In addition, one current officer has been selected to Officer will receive a comprehensive one-week training program to provide an alternative to Lieutenant Brenda Lakis.

Responsibility and Further Action: Director of Campus Safety will plan and implement new training.

Items for Long-Term Implementation

The Implementation Committee identified the following recommendations of the Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force for long-term implementation:

Recommendation 1: The College should establish a comprehensive peer-to-peer sexuality education program that includes information about preventing and reporting a sexual assault. Sexuality education should promote healthy relationship development, responsible decision-making, and an understanding of male and female sexuality (including gay and lesbian perspectives). Students should be involved in preparing as well as carrying out preventative programs. Prevention programs for male and female students should emphasize “being a good friend” and present information about how to keep friends from behavior that might lead to the perpetrating of sexual abuse or to victimization. Students should be taught how to intervene in risky situations.

Action: The Education Team’s plan for expanded educational and prevention program includes these objectives.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Dean of Students is coordinating development of a plan for these programs.

Recommendation 2: Education programs should be developed for parents that encourage honest discussion of risky behaviors with their child. Parent peer-to-peer education should be explored. June Advising might be a particularly good time to educate parents.

Action: The Committee has developed a plan for including educational materials on sexual assault prevention for parents and a plan for including this topic in presentations to parents during June Advising. This will be implemented as a pilot program in June 2004. Also included will be written materials that parents can use as a basis for discussion with incoming students over the summer before they matriculate.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Dean of Students Office is drafting these parent education programs with materials parents can use to continue discussions with students over fall break and Thanksgiving break. The College’s Parents’ Council is also considering further ways for Muhlenberg parents to be involved in education efforts to prevent sexual assault.

Recommendation 3: The College should establish a student Resource Center that is open late at night. This center should be located near campus, but not in a residence hall. It should offer confidential information, a safe space for victims to make reports, and a reporting hotline. The exact location and function of this center should be determined by a committee that includes students.

Action: The Implementation Committee has developed a plan for a campus hotline for information about sexual assault, including information on how to report a sexual assault along with a direct link to Campus Safety and Security.

The Implementation Committee has discussed possible locations for a Resource Center and further articulated and prioritized the purposes this center should serve. The most important goal here is to provide a safe, confidential location where a victim can make a report of a sexual assault to a Campus Safety Officer, where Counseling and Health Center staff can coordinate services for the victim, and where the victim can spend some time, (including the night), if she or he does not want to return to his or her residence hall or off-campus residence immediately after making a report. The need for a place for a victim to spend the night after making a report means that this center need not be in a residence hall, but that we should not exclude the location of this center in a smaller student residence, such as a MILE house.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Dean of Students is investigating different locations to provide this facility. As noted above, there is not a single solution that meets all the needs or provides all the solutions that must be available for the Security Officer or Counselor who is dealing with the situation. They must have the flexibility and autonomy to prescribe an appropriate location.

Recommendation 4: Victims should not have to fear alcohol charges will be brought against them.

Action: The Implementation Committee determined that College policy should make clear that victims of a sexual assault, as well as witnesses to a sexual assault, would not face alcohol charges solely as a result of reporting a sexual assault and/or appearing before a hearing board in connection with a sexual assault. College policy, however, should include offering services related to alcohol abuse to a victim and/or witness to a sexual assault who appears to have engaged in irresponsible alcohol consumption.

Responsibility and Further Action: Clarifying the College’s position on alcohol charges in relationship to a sexual assault incident should be an important part of all educational programming. Plans for further training of social judicial board members and for presenting mock social judicial board hearings to students must include specific and clear indications of the College’s policy on alcohol charges in connection with report of a sexual assault and/or testimony in a social judicial board hearing on a sexual assault.

Recommendation 5: If possible, and should a student request it, Rape Kit testing should be funded by the College. This will help maintain privacy.

Action: Mr. Ken Lupole, Director of Campus Safety and Security, reported to the Implementation Committee that the State of Pennsylvania has a procedure and funds whereby hospitals can be reimbursed for the cost of a rape kit used for victims who do not have health insurance or, in the case of students covered by parental health insurance, do not want the cost of a rape kit reported to their health insurance carrier. While this policy requires that the victim file a police report, it does not require that the victim press charges. The College protocols for assisting a victim should include a specific explanation of State policy to victims, and follow up with the hospital to ensure that the hospital has sought reimbursement from the State and does not bill students and/or their family health insurance for a rape kit.

Recommendation 6: The College should establish a space in which any campus group can give formal or informal parties. The location and function of this space should be determined by a committee that includes students.

Action: As part of the on-going Strategic Planning process one of the Social Life Initiatives includes providing a moderate-sized social space that would support small informal gathering of the type discussed here.

Responsibility and Further Action: Ongoing PPG and Dean of Students Action.

Recommendation 7: Social and residential opportunities that are alternatives to Greek life should be explored, supported, and promoted.

Action: The Dean of Students Office, Director of Student Activities, the Programming Committee and other student focus groups must continue to seek alternative social life activities and venues to meet the continuing and evolving needs of our students.

Responsibility and Further Action: Continued review by above-mentioned groups.

Recommendation 8: Efforts should be made to build better relations with the College’s neighbors so that small, well-managed parties at MILE houses and off-campus residences can take place without neighbors needing to call the police.

Action: The Committee reviewed the current efforts of the Department of Campus Safety and Security. For the past eight years the Department of Campus Safety has hired two Allentown Police Officers for strictly neighborhood patrol; the two Officers work every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night from 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. They patrol either by foot or in an Allentown Police vehicle. They ensure that city ordinances (noise, alcohol, etc.) are enforced and they check on the two neighborhood bars -- Stooges and Ye Olde Tavern -- especially at 2 a.m. closing time. This is done at the College’s expense. The program, started in response to complaints of neighbors and the start of the College MILE House program properties, and has been very successful.

Responsibility and Further Action: As part of the annual review of College policies, the Dean of Students Office will evaluate whether parties should be allowed in MILE properties houses in a way that is consistent with College policy and does not create problems for the neighbors.

Recommendation 9: Frank investigation of the current student culture, including attitudes and behaviors within and about the Greek system, should be undertaken using valid research methods.

Action: The grant proposal that the College submitted to the Department of Justice Violence Against Women Office includes plans and a request for funds for research on current student culture. This part of the grant proposal was developed in consultation with Professor Chris Borick, Director of the Muhlenberg College Polling Institute, who indicated the interest and ability of the Polling Institute to conduct this research. The Committee has discussed the possibility of going forward with such research if the College is not awarded the Department of Justice grant. We also recommend that such research be coordinated with similar efforts anticipated by the Task Force on Alcohol Abuse and the Greek Life Task Force.

Responsibility and Further Action: Development of specific plans for research on student culture, working with the Task Force on Alcohol Abuse and the Greek Life Task Force.

This research will measure changes in attitudes and perceptions relating to issues of sexuality and sexual crimes, and will guide the implementation effort by:

Recommendation 10: Efforts by the Board of Trustees to identify and promote core Muhlenberg values should be supported. All stakeholders should participate in the development of a College covenant or honor system. Community values must be clearly seen to take precedence over values instituted by clubs or other sub-groups.

Action: None.

Responsibility and Further Action: The Strategic Planning process has developed a statement of institutional values.

Recommendation 11: The College should adopt the mission statement proposed by the Task Force on Sexual Assault Prevention.

Action: The Implementation Committee was guided in its efforts by the mission statement proposed by the Task Force; this is evident in the overall goal stated in the executive summary.

Responsibility and Further Action: None

Recommendation 12: The Task Force should reconvene in a year to review progress that has been made in implementing its recommendations.

Action: The Committee has determined that rather than reconvene the entire Task Force at this time, it will be sufficient to send this final report to all members and invite their questions and comments. If Task Force members reply with a lot of questions and comments that require further discussion, we can reconvene the Task Force in Fall 2004.

Responsibility and Further Action: None

Recommendation 13: The Campus Climate Committee of the Board of Trustees should be informed of the Task Force’s recommendations.

Action: Co-chairs Patrice DiQuinzio and Rudy Ehrenberg reported on the Task Force and the work of the Implementation Committee to the Board of Trustees Campus Life Committee at their April 22, 2004 meeting.

Responsibility and Further Action: Final Report will be presented to the Board of Trustee, Campus Life Committee at the October 2004 meeting.