Ohio University will be represented at the Changing Campus Culture summit at Columbus State Community College to address campus culture surrounding sexual assaults.
Sex-related crimes are apparent on almost every college campus, including Ohio University's campus where 21 have happened this academic year.
On Feb. 25, three representatives from Ohio University will attend the Changing Campus Culture summit at Columbus State Community College. The Ohio Department of Higher Education decided to launch the initiative to prevent and better respond to incidents of campus sexual violence, according to a news release from the department.
Jenny Hall-Jones, the interim vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students, will be one of the representatives from OU at the summit. Nick Oleksy, OU’s Title IX coordinator, and Char Kopchick, the assistant dean of students, will also attend the summit.
“The summit will be a valuable opportunity to learn more about best practices in preventing sexual violence and providing support for survivors,” Hall-Jones said in an email. “We look forward to collaborating with our peers and to having a voice in guiding the conversation around this important work.”
The summit stemmed from the Changing Campus Culture report released in October by the Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor John Carey.
“It's a means of bringing campuses together to hear from subject matter experts both nationally and locally about different topics and about prevention and response,” Kerry Soller, the project manager of Campus Safety and Sexual Violence Prevention at the department, said.
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The summit will focus on five recommendations surrounding campus response and education about sexual violence.
Using data to “guide action” is one of the recommendations, Soller said. The Ohio Department of Higher Education is asking campuses to employ a campus climate survey surrounding sexual violence.
“(They) can use that data to guide their direction to battle sexual violence on their campus,” Soller said.
Using "evidence-based training," or training based on a campus climate survey, is another topic that will be discussed at the summit. The recommendation states that campuses should start a program that focuses on bystander intervention, according to the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s website.
Soller said it's important that campuses communicate that a culture of shared respect and responsibility should be apparent.
She said policies about how to respond to a sexual assault on campuses should be comprehensive.
“We want them to be fair and equitable and address both the rights of the accused and the person filing the complaint of some form of sexual violence,” Soller said.
Within the protocol, Soller said campuses should adopt a survivor-centered response that should include access to confidential counselors.
“They can provide guidance and assistance for survivors of sexual violence,” Soller said.
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The OU Survivor Advocacy Program is closed while the university looks to hire an interim advocate for the program.
Soller added that the summit hopes to push campuses a little further to see what more they can do to increase awareness and understand what sexual violence is.
“The ultimate goal is to begin laying the seeds for collaboration and best practices so that we end the cycle of sexual violence on our campuses,” Soller said.
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Jf311013@ohio.edu
