campus.40 For this reason, we believe that members of each freshman class need multiple opportunities throughout their first year for thoughtful reflection and education about sexual behavior, relationships, and responsibility, with their peers, upperclassmen/women, masters, deans, faculty, coaches, chaplains, and others, and recommend that these opportunities be increased and formalized. As students enter their sophomore year and move away from a structure of freshman counselor oversight, they need additional opportunities for similar conversations. We believe this, too, should be a formal program, not as extensive as the attention to campus climate at freshman orientation, but just as intentional. Sophomore engagement should be mandatory, should involve leaders from the junior and senior classes, and should continue throughout the sophomore year. One model recommended to us was engaging sophomores in discussions in small groups led by moderators who, as one student said, “are not patronizing.” Students in their junior and senior years also need, and should be provided with, opportunities to engage in similar conversations. There is an important role for student leaders to play in educating their peers and speaking out against sexual misconduct. We recommend that each year the leaders of all undergraduate groups and organizations, both on- and o≠-campus, receive training relevant to issues of sexual misconduct, sexual respect, and building a culture of gender respect. We commend the new program of the Yale College Dean’s O∞ce to introduce training about sexual assault prevention and campus climate more generally for the leaders of the more than 375 registered undergraduate organizations, helping student leaders identify the dynamics of sexual misconduct and hazing, o≠ering guidance in planning safe and appropriate events, and teaching specific strategies for creating a climate of sexual respect that does not tolerate or condone sexual misconduct of any kind. We also commend the creation of new positions and the expansion of existing positions to focus on education and other services: the recent increase from part-time to full-time status, and with direct access to the Dean of Yale College, of the Special Adviser to the Dean on Gender Issues; the hiring of two new Student A≠airs Fellows 41 to focus on high-risk drinking and sexual misconduct and to o≠er special support to
public forums, administrative pronouncements, or blue ribbon panels, will not be e≠ective. We believe that more can be done and can be e≠ective. 40 In our conversations with students and administrators alike, a common theme emerged that freshman orientation was “information overload” on topics “all over the map.” 41 The Student A≠airs Fellows live on Old Campus. Their role is to develop and implement primary prevention, bystander intervention, and risk-reduction strategies for sexual violence, sexual
Report of the Advisory Committee on Campus Climate • September 15, 2011 • pag e 2 1