Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["S. Daniel Carter" <>]

Brett,

As someone who not only helped push, but helped develop both the Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights AND the Accuracy in Campus Crime Reporting Act (ACCRA) I take exception to your characterization of ACCRA as an “ill-conceived Bill” because a single portion of it had flaws.

The provision opening campus disciplinary proceedings was only 10 words out of a nearly 2,000 word bill. It was designed principally to make the point that there was a need for accountability in the proceedings.

Nearly every other part of the bill  became law as a part of the Clery Act in either 1998 or 2008 demonstrating that overall the bill had significant merits. The public crime log now makes sure important safety information is available to students on a daily rather than only yearly basis – making it possibly the single most useful part of the Clery Act on an ongoing basis. The Education Department now collects the crime statistics making national data possible, and for it to be easy to search for particular campuses.

Overall though I think it’d be far more productive to discuss the here and now rather than dredging up something from 14 years ago. Twenty years after the original Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights was introduced, Congress is considering the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (S. 834/H.R. 2016). This measure would provide for an accounting of outcomes in disciplinary cases, but also contains extensive privacy protections for survivors across the board. This is something worth discussing.

********************************

S. Daniel Carter

Director of Public Policy

Security On Campus, Inc.

http://www.securityoncampus.org/

e-mail:

Security On Campus, Inc. (SOC), a national non-profit organization, was founded in 1987 by Jeanne Clery’s parents, Connie & Howard, after she was raped and murdered in her on-campus residence hall at college, by a fellow student whom she did not know. SOC worked to secure passage of the Jeanne Clery Act, originally known as the Campus Security Act, in 1990 and continues to be the nation's leading voice for the improvement of campus community safety. SOC was recently named the “most influential security focused not-for-profit” by Security Magazine. SOC is based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

From: Brett Sokolow <>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 22:16:43 -0500
To: "" <>
Subject: RE: Standing By Survivors

John,

 

Despite my conviction that no one is listening to you, my distaste for the way you spray testosterone at this list like a weapon (even calling me a gun), and your repeated acts to vilify anyone (me, Alan Berkowitz, Elizabeth Griego) you disagree with (actually, I’m in pretty good company and count your enmity as a source of pride), I will make this one statement and then return to my longstanding belief that what other people think about me is none of my business.  When those in our field act the way you have, I am reminded of the folly of circling the wagons and shooting inward (forgive the perpetuation of your gun metaphor).

 

First, use my name.  Calling me out every time I post without doing so is cowardly.  I am the hired “gun” to whom you refer, except I wasn’t hired.  UVa is not paying me for policy assistance or for any PR that my firm releases about this topic.  Second, most of the UVa administration has turned over since your time there, and while they have not always been perfect, I applaud and appreciate what I know to be sincere efforts there now.  To refuse to see the potential for change because of an insistence on revisiting the past is remarkably unforgiving.  Couching yourself as a victim’s advocate is just as much grandstanding as it is for me to promote our policy revision work, but I am authentic about it.  I’m a trained victim’s advocate and have been since 1992.  It predates my law degree. 

 

We believe that change is most effective when pushed for externally and internally.  Contrary to your assertions, we have an active victim’s practice, and have had for some time.  It’s not something we trumpet, but it is something we believe in.  We act to advise our campus clients in the suspension and/or expulsion of sexually violent men EVERY WEEK.  We also defend colleges and universities, and serve as expert witnesses for victims and colleges.  It’s principled, not partisan.  We turn down cases frequently.  Where a victim is wronged, we say so.  Where a college does right, we stand up for it.  That way, best practices will out.  You assert our version of best practices is to avoid liability for colleges, but our philosophy is actually to promote victim’s rights, doing right by the victim, and showing respect and equal dignity for all students as the best road to risk management.  Liability should be managed, but by uplifting victims, not at their expense. 

 

Having lobbied strongly for the 1992 Campus Sexual Assault Victim’s Bill of Rights, and even harder against the 1997 Accuracy in Campus Crime Reporting Act (an ill-conceived Bill that would have destroyed victim’s privacy by opening campus hearings to the public), I am grateful for the opportunity for case-by-case and national victim advocacy in our practice.  I am grateful that over the last fourteen years, we have been instrumental in carrying the equity message of Title IX to our clients.  I am proud that we have publicly challenged FIRE over its recent efforts to contest the legality of the Dear Colleague Letter.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that this email is about NCHERM, not you.  I have mostly ignored your recent jibes, or responded to them with good humor, and not with the politics of personal destruction.  I won’t take on or take down your work, who you are, or what you do.  I’m too busy doing what I do.  I’ll indulge myself this one response on the list, but won’t respond again.  If you feel a need to persist, please consider taking it off list. 

 

Regards,
Brett A. Sokolow
Brett A. Sokolow, J.D.
Attorney-At-Law


"Best Practices for Campus Health and Safety"

Managing Partner
The National Center for Higher
Education Risk Management, Ltd.
(a not-for-profit corporation)

20 Callery Way
Malvern, PA 19355-2969
Tel. (610) 993-0229
Fax (610) 993-0228
Brett Blogs! at www.ncherm.org

Executive Director, The National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (www.nabita.org)

NCHERM serves as counsel/advisor to 20 campuses, including:

Special Counsel to Franklin & Marshall College

Special Counsel to Dominican University (IL)
Special Counsel to Warren Wilson College
Special Advisor to the University of Texas, San Antonio
Special Counsel  to Concordia University (TX)
Special Counsel to Northern Virginia Community College
Special Counsel to Southwestern Michigan College
Special Counsel to the Community College of Allegheny County
Special Advisor to Vassar College
Special Advisor to Henry Ford Community College
Special Counsel to Bridgepoint Education
Special Counsel to Milwaukee Area Technical College

Special Advisor to Whittier College

 

From: Foubert, John []
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 10:08 PM
To:
Subject: Standing By Survivors

 

Victim Advocate Colleagues,

 

Indeed our field has much to be thankful for, from those like Wendy Murphy who have worked tirelessly on behalf of survivors – including those at UVa – who have been victimized and revictimized by policies that openly work against their best interests.  Thus the need for the now famous OCR Dear Colleague letter.  Had UVa made better decisions before being sent a Dear Colleague letter, subsequent to several cases being filed with OCR with the help of people who work on behalf of survivors, they wouldn’t be in the position to scramble in making policy revisions and putting out press releases through hired guns who say that they don’t take plaintiffs cases.

 

UVa is one of many examples of an institution with a long standing problem of revictimizing women through its sexual assault policy.  I witnessed this repeatedly when I worked in the administration there, and it is a primary reason why I resigned.  It seems that very little has changed, at least until the OCR acted, compelling UVa to respond.

 

We must all filter mightily the perspective of those whose primary motive is to protect the legal liability of colleges and universities.  Such a goal can often be in conflict with finding justice and healing for survivors.  If these principles are in conflict, we must make difficult choices about which resources to use, whose advice to follow, and which options we should pursue. 

 

John Foubert

**************************************

John D. Foubert, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Program Coordinator

Anderson, Farris, and Halligan Professor of College Student Development

Oklahoma State University

314 Willard Hall

Stillwater, OK 74078

(405) 744-1480

(405) 744-7758 fax

http://okstate.academia.edu/JohnFoubert

http://education.okstate.edu/index.php/csd-philosophical-framework

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003NCDDYM

 

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