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A student voice of Saint Louis University since 1919
Vol. XCV No. 7
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Sexual misconduct: Recent case sheds light on Title IX, university procedures and resources By EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM Associate News Editor
As stated in an incidentreport summary from the Department of Public Safety, a sexual assault took place near Xavier Hall on Oct. 10 around 2:30 a.m. The incident serves as a reminder of the reality of sexual assault on college campuses and the need for students to be informed about consent and reporting procedures. While the accused party is a student at Saint Louis University, the alleged victim of the assault is a female not affiliated with the University. This incident adds to the four reported assaults that took place on SLU’s campus in 2014, which was cited in SLU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. The report also noted that a combined seven sexual assaults were reported in 2012 and 2013. Under Title IX, which the Department of Justice states is the “comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity,” universities must investigate reports of sexual assault and will then make decisions about what steps should be taken. Due to restrictions under Title IX, the Title IX Coordinator at SLU, Anna Kratky, is unable
Illustration by Sophie Lappe
TITLE IX: The importance of the federal law has surfaced as a result of a recent nighttime case. Inquiries into it demonstrate the sensitive nature of sexual misconduct cases. to speak about specific incidents of sexual misconduct. However, Kratky explained in general terms the procedures that the University
Relay For Life: Two thousand lives, two thousand stories hung it up in the BSC, where it will stay for the entire year in reflection of the lasting afCancer is unifying befect cancer has on all those cause cancer does not disthat it touches. criminate. Cancer does not Dean Sindel, a SLU stucare what race you are, what dent who serves on the Rereligion you practice, or how lay Executive Board and has much money you have. been fighting cancer from a Relay For Life at Saint young age, commented on Louis University is the 13th the support that the SLU largest collegiate Relay in the community gives cancer renation. It prides itself on besearch: ing an outlet for students to “As a survivor, seeing all share their stories about how the student involvement on cancer has impacted their campus is pretty incredible. own lives. All of us are It also procollege stuvides a way dents that for students have classes to fight back and busy against cansocial lives, cer, whether but to see through the people takdonation ing time out of money of their day or walkto support ing around people like the track on Lexie Vasos, myself who the day of have been Sports Editor the event in affected support of a by cancer, loved one. whether to raise money or Although the event itself awareness, is truly incredible is on April 16, Relay began to see at this level in peoples’ their fall events on Oct. 7 lives”. with “Color Away Cancer.” Relay also had their Fall A white sheet was placed Kickoff event on Oct. 7 in the in the quad, and students Wool Ballroom. The event had the opportunity to paint gave interested students the their hand and leave a handopportunity to travel to mulprint on the sheet in support tiple tables, talk to members of someone who has fought of the Relay Executive Board, cancer. get more information about The Relay Executive Relay For Life, or share their Board provided a sheet that own personal story. listed all of the cancers and It was at this event that their corresponding colors, so students could choose the one they felt has had the greatest influence on their lives or their loved ones. Once the sheet was full of See “Relay” on Page 3 handprints, the Relay team By LEXIE VASOS Sports Editor
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Cancer is unifying because cancer does not discriminate.
takes after a case of sexual misconduct is reported. Once an incident has been reported at SLU, Kratky and the various Deputy
Title IX Coordinators will provide the reporting party with information about resources, remedial and protective measures, and re-
porting options - some of which include assisting the individual to a hospital upon request. The coordinators can also provide alternative housing for someone if they feel unsafe in their current residence hall. The coordinators may also provide academic assistance and file a “no contact” order, not allowing communication of any kind, from the university to the accused party. From there, the Title IX Investigator will gather information by speaking with both parties about their accounts of the incident, obtain surveillance footage and then speak with other witnesses or persons that they deem knowledgeable of the incident. Once the investigator believes that enough information has been compiled, an investigative report will be written and will claim ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to whether the accused party is at fault for the incident. That report will go to a hearing officer, who will then take all of the information provided, make a decision and, if necessary, determine appropriate sanctions. Once the decision is made, either party may file an appeal with an appeal board, which is made up of individuals who are highly trained in the intricacies of sexual misconduct. These board members sit in panels
of three and have the ability to modify decisions or sanctions placed on the accused party, or uphold the decision of the hearing officer completely. However, whatever the panel decides, it is the final arbiter in the case. There are various scenarios in which the sexual misconduct policy outlines the procedures in which the Coordinator and Deputy Coordinators will act: cases in which both the reporting and accused parties are students, or in which the reporting party is a student and the accused is not affiliated with the university. Incidents also arise like the one that transpired on Oct. 10, in which the reporting party is not affiliated with the University and the accused party is a student. In cases where the reporting party is not affiliated with the university, Kratky says that SLU will “still go through the process if that person is willing to go forward. Then we will still investigate that as we would anything else.” Consent The latest version of the university’s Sexual Misconduct Policy, which has been in effect since Aug. 26, 2015, See “Assault” on Page 3
‘Into real solidarity’: Clock Tower Mass marks a year since a turbulent October By TIM WILHELM News Editor
On the evening of Monday, Oct. 12, one year to the day since hundreds of students had marched from Chaifetz Arena to the campus clock tower, nearly one hundred gathered in the same place to celebrate a “Mass for peace and justice.” At 8:30 p.m., senior Abbie Amico, an intern with SLU’s Campus Ministry and the organizer of the Mass, addressed the congregation to express her hope for the ceremony to “invite a spirit of justice.” The songs she had chosen, she said, were meant to call attention to “the boundaries and borders we put on ourselves and others.”
Father Chris Collins, S.J., who only two weeks previously professed his final vows, incorporating him completely into the Society of Jesus, served as celebrant. In his opening remarks, he evoked the “radical inclusivity” preached by Christ and beseeched those present to invite “the questions and small answers God brings.” Fr. Collins began his homily “recalling the turmoil and the unsettledness, and also the great gifts that came out of the experiences here in this very place a year ago.” The evening’s second reading, from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, which recounts Paul’s transformative journey to Damas-
cus, occupied the first portion of his discussion. “[Paul] had a sense of certainty about who he was, about what his faith was and what his faith called him to do. And it’s the certainty that was shattered on the way to Damascus, when … the risen Jesus asks him, ‘Why are you persecuting me?’ That was the most unthinkable thing that Paul could have been confronted with.” The future apostle, Collins explained, made it his mission to reveal to Rome, to the Jews and Gentiles alike, that “God has come much closer than we think. What we thought we knew God is and what God is like is not the case after all. It is,
but there’s more to it.” Collins shifted to what he saw as the obedience of faith, which involves “a kind of listening that requires conversion in us.” “As Christians,” he said, “we are called to be unsettled, to allow ourselves to be unsettled, shaken up again and again by that word of God in our own lives, and also how that word of God is communicated to us through the condition of other people around us, and especially those who are suffering, those who are in great need, those who are isolated, those who are marginalized
See “Mass” on Page 3
Javier Muro de Nadal / The University News
ONE YEAR: Fr. Chris Collins, S.J., led a congregation in Mass, followed by Eucharistic adoration and benediction.
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