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

[Howard Kallem <>]

At Duke, we provide supports to both parties.  We have professional counselors in our Office for Gender Violence Prevention & Intervention who provide counseling to victims/survivors, help them understand their reporting options, and arrange interim measures and supports.  They will also provide emotional support during an investigation and hearing.  We don’t call them advocates, although they are doing much of what that term includes.  We provide comparable support to respondents through our Counseling and Psychological Services office.  In both cases, the counselors don’t provide substantive support – by that I mean they don’t help the complainant prepare their case.  Because they are professional counselors, they are confidential resources.

 

We also offer the parties what we call disciplinary advisors – volunteers who are trained to help them understand what to expect during the investigation and hearing.  They aren’t supposed to provide substantive support; if the complainant wants that type of help, they are entitled to an advisor of their choice…they can pick someone else to advise them instead of the disciplinary advisor offered by the school.  [A school I used to work at also offered disciplinary advisors who, again, weren’t supposed to offer substantive advice…but we found that they sometimes did.  That proved to be a problem where the other party had an attorney – the university-provided disciplinary advisor was out-matched.] 

 

At Duke, all our employees (except those designated as confidential resources) are expected to report sexual misconduct.  This would include employees who volunteer as disciplinary advisors.  Because the university-provided disciplinary advisors are not supposed to provide substantive advice or assistance, they aren’t likely to receive information from either party about the matter at hand that would implicate confidentiality considerations.  But, even if they did, I’m not sure they would have any sort of duty to disclose that information.  We’re having an investigation and a hearing, so we clearly already know about the alleged incident already.  On the other hand, if either party told their disciplinary advisor about another incident of possible sexual misconduct, then the disciplinary advisor would be expected to report that.  That could be  the complainant confiding that they had previously been sexually assaulted by someone else.  It could also be the respondent confiding that they had sexually assaulted someone else…which could be relevant to the matter under investigation.

 

Howie Kallem

Director, Title IX Compliance

 

From: LaDue, Lee E. [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2017 12:10 PM
To: Rhonda Jackson;
Subject: RE: support during Title IX investiagtions

 

Hi Ronda:

 

I am the only advocate on our campus so we don’t use volunteers in our TITle IX process.  I work closely with our Title IX officer.   If she gets a report, she immediately send out information about resources and strongly encourages the student (complainant) to get a hold of me.   If I’m the first point of contact, I explain the option of reporting to campus and how that works if they also want to report to police or only to police.  Sometimes I suggest a meeting with the Title IX Coord where she can answer the student’s questions without taking a name or specifics.  That has been very successful in helping students feel more comfortable by getting to know her a bit.  I accompany them to meetings/investigations – sometimes follow-up on their case if they haven’t heard anything for a while.   Our offices work closely together and I would say we have a good respect for each other’s roles.

 

I am a confidential resource both by campus policy and our state law.  If a student has made a report to campus, it is common for them to sign a release for me to talk with the coordinator as I feel I can sometimes better advocate for them this way but it certainly is their choice. 

 

Our policy has a good Samaritan clause – a victim of a serious crime such as sexual assault will not be investigated for a policy violation ie drinking alcohol on campus or some other such thing that comes out.  Our police have the same protocol.

 

Lee Etta LaDue

Gender Violence Prevention Coordinator

Women's Center

720 4th Ave. S.

St. Cloud, MN 56301

320-308-3995

 

As a patriotic and concerned American, I pledge to respect, support, and protect Muslims, immigrants, women, people of color, survivors of sexual violence, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, and all other vulnerable groups of people. I hope to live in a country in which my political leaders and my fellow citizens value and promote compassion, respect, kindness, logic, and critical thinking.

 

 

From: Rhonda Jackson []
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2017 9:51 AM
To:
Subject: support during Title IX investiagtions

 

Hello Everyone,

On our campus we have faculty and staff members that volunteer to serve as advocates for our victims of IPV.  We do not have our own Advocacy Center. If there is a Title IX or conduct process our advocates currently are available to  attend meetings with victims (complainants), support them through the review of the investigation materials, prepare them for hearing and can be present with them during the hearing.

 

We are trying to create a team of trained advisors that are  available to provide support and resources to our respondents. We are discovering that this is not as straight forward as it may seem.

 

I would really appreciate getting some feedback about the role your victim advocates play in your Title IX or conduct process and also what form does your support for respondents take?  Are respondent advisors confidential? What if the respondent discloses information that indicates they were involved in a policy violation?

 

Thank you in advance for you help.

 

 

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Rhonda Jacskon, LICSW

Counseling Services

Shepherd University

304-876-5681