OUSAP's uncertain future impacts students and local law enforcement agencies.
Editor’s Note: Conner Dalton came to The Post earlier in the semester after the police report describing her assault, in which her name was redacted, was published. At that time, she was seeking assistance from OUSAP and was interested in writing a column describing her experience in The Post. After she was quoted in a Post article about a sit-in protesting the lack of a program coordinator for OUSAP at Cutler Hall, The Post contacted her for this article.
Conner Dalton was supposed to be buying books and looking for her classes when she came to Ohio University this year.
Instead, she was looking for the Ohio University Police Department and the Ohio University Survivor Advocacy program — both resources available to her following her sexual assault during the first week of classes.
“Every single person I talked to, it felt like I was screaming into the air," Dalton, an undecided freshman, said. "No one was listening, but SAP did."
Things changed when OUSAP’s program coordinator, Delaney Anderson, left for another job at the beginning of October. Dalton said Anderson called her two weeks before she left her position to let her know.
The program is still there — Alicia Chavira-Prado, special assistant to the vice provost for diversity and inclusion, is in charge of OUSAP’s administrative leadership and survivors are being referred to Counseling and Psychological Services for help — but services have fundamentally shifted, at least for the time being.
“I was really affected when (Anderson) left, now I’m just kind of on my own now,” Dalton said.
Counselors at CPS and employees at Campus Care are not mandated reporters, meaning they are not required by the university to disclose a survivor’s case to the administration or law enforcement. In a case where a survivor does not want to pursue a criminal or university investigation, a non-mandated reporter is who they’d likely turn to for emotional help.
Navigating the system
In Dalton’s case, she sought help from her resident assistant following the assault, she said. The RA was obliged by the university to report criminal activity such as sexual assault, otherwise known as a “mandatory reporter.” Dalton said she was thrust into a university investigation while she was “just trying to settle” herself into school.
That’s when Anderson came in.
“Delaney and I had established a really good relationship," Dalton said. "She was the first one I went to after I was assaulted. I really liked her."
When Anderson left OUSAP, Dalton said she sought services at the university's CPS, but was told the sexual assault and rape support group at CPS was full, and they "could try" to get her in next semester.
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Dalton said she sat in the CPS lobby for two hours waiting for an appointment but eventually had to leave for class. When she went up to the desk to tell a receptionist she wanted to cancel the appointment, she said she received an uninterested answer of “OK.”
Patty Stokes, assistant professor of women's and gender studies, said sending those who would normally go to OUSAP to CPS isn't the solution, adding that CPS employees are already overworked.
"(The ability) to talk to confidential, trained people their own age ... they’re advocates there to listen," Stokes said.
Students are looking for centralized services, someone to help them navigate the system, which “nobody else does,” Stokes said.
Now, Dalton is left alone in her ongoing university investigation. Previously, Anderson went to all of Dalton’s university meetings. Having someone there that she knew made it easier, she said.
She went to the police by herself, saying that it was one of the most "traumatic" things to happen to her since the assault.
Dalton said during a meeting at OUPD, officers had her text her attacker for two and a half hours to see how her attacker recounted the assault.
Advocates in law enforcement
Even if a police department was the last place a survivor of sexual assault wanted to be, it could be one of the few places where a survivor could find a non-mandated reporter.
For the Athens Police Department, that non-mandated reporter is Molly Burchfield. She helps survivors navigate the criminal process and sees about 30 to 40 cases of sexual assault each year.
“They can just talk to me and I would not be bound,” Burchfield said. “Anybody can come in and see me and not have it go into the (police) database.”
Despite their detachment from the university, APD and Burchfield worked with OUSAP — contacting the group when cases involved OU students or for education opportunities for OUSAP employees, such as presentations by Burchfield on the criminal procedures for sexual assault cases.
“We have partnered with (OUSAP) on training,” APD Chief Tom Pyle said. “They’ve had peer advocates on cases that we’ve handled criminally.”
Pyle said APD and OUSAP were developing a working relationship, pointing to an increase in meetings his department has had with OUSAP than in years past.
Advocacy as it stands
University officials have said OUSAP is not going away, and that typical services are set to resume.
Although the job has not been posted for replacing Anderson’s position, Shari Clarke, vice provost for diversity and inclusion, said in a statement that OUSAP was “granted an emergency waiver by Ohio University Human Resources” to expedite the hiring process, ultimately bypassing OU’s typical position posting requirements so OUSAP could “begin focusing on potential candidate leads.”
Still, Clarke said they have not been able to identify a candidate “who both holds the required licensure and is willing to accept an interim position.” She said the university is now in the process of posting the position.
“The feedback we have received during this time is incredibly valuable in identifying areas in which we need to focus on reinforcing the program and its structure,” Clarke said
For Dalton, her sexual assault and relationship with OUSAP has been more than an “individual experience.” This semester alone, 14 incidents of sex-related crimes have been reported to OUPD.
"It’s an institutional flaw and an institutional oppression of how there’s a huge issue of violence against women on this campus," Dalton said.
@Fair3Julia
Jf311013@ohio.edu
