SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT: THE GRADUATE CENTER STUDENT UNION

The following support letter to the left of this page is from The Graduate Center Student Union (GCSU). The text of the letter is displayed below. The letter details how GCSU believes in the philosophy of Students for a Greater CUNY in creating an inclusive policy. The GCSU was formed as a result of the CUNY Social Forum that happened in the Fall of 2008. For further information on what GCSU is doing, how you can help and how to join, contact Stephen McFarland at stephenmcfarland@gmail.com.







March 13, 2009

Mr. Frederick P. Schaffer
Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and General Counsel
The City University of New York
535 East 80th Street
New York, NY 10075

Dear Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer and members of the Sexual Assault Policy Taskforce,

As a member of the CUNY Graduate Center Student Union, I was gladdened to hear of the progress that the Task Force has made as of this week towards establishing as CUNY-wide, prevention-focused sexual assault policy. I am writing on behalf of our group in support of your continued efforts towards securing input and broad support for a sexual assault policy that will better ensure the rights and safety of students on all CUNY campuses.

The CUNY Student Union emerged from the organizing of the CUNY Social Forum, which brought more than 600 students, faculty, and community members together at City College in October 2008 for over 60 workshops and panel discussions on the history and future of student organizing at CUNY. Since the Forum, Student Union groups have formed at City College, Hunter, Queens College, and the Graduate Center, among other campuses, to resist budget cuts, tuition hikes and fee increases, to promote greater minority and working class accessibility to CUNY, to advocate for more democratic governance, and to organize student activity on other issues vital to CUNY students.

We see the efforts of Students for a Greater CUNY to enact a university-wide sexual assault policy as a vital part of an emerging student movement to make CUNY safer, more accessible, more affordable, and more responsive to student needs. The careful research that Students for a Greater CUNY has done shows that the university’s current patchwork system of sexual assault policies is not serving us well. SGC’s figures show that approximately 27% of female students on commuter campuses report being sexually assaulted in a given year. Yet in 2005, only 4 sex offenses were reported among the entire CUNY student body. Clearly, we need a transparent, prevention-based policy that is broadly publicized and addresses the needs and concerns of the diverse groups of people that make up the CUNY student body.

Our group will continue to follow the progress of the Task Force’s efforts through Students for a Greater CUNY’s tracker blog, cunypolicy.blogspot.com, and will urge our fellow Graduate Center students to join us in participating in the upcoming town hall meetings. We encourage you to continue your efforts with the utmost speed and diligence to ensure that all CUNY campuses have a sexual assault policy that will serve students well in the years to come.

Sincerely,
Stephen McFarland
on behalf of the Graduate Center Student Union


Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* A skilled technician with software to make jpg files to post letters of support on the tracker
* A graphic arts designer to help our website designer
* Skilled media savvy persons to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on campus blogs, radio and television.
* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to sign a letter of support)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member

Bringing in the Bystander

First of all, thank you to all of the new student organizations that have become part of the CUNY-Wide Sexual Assault Policy Movement. In addition Students for a Greater Cuny thanks Kristen Bowes, Associate General Counsel for The City University of New York, for coming out to Bringing in the Bystander Training at Hunter College.

Therefore, for this particular blog, I would like to focus on the Bystander Training. A Bystander Training is a revolutionary model. Unlike most training programs, which either focus on training women to physically train themselves for self-defense or telling men not to become rapists, this model engages the community or those who are bystanders. The training really drove the point home that SEXUAL ASSAULT DOES NOT EXIST IN A VACCUM. Sexual assault is a crime that impacts the whole community in numerous ways. We have to remember that rapists and sex offenders look for an environment, an opportunity and a culture where they can get away with their criminal act. Therefore if a community takes away the environment, the opportunity and a culture, then rapists and sex offenders have less of a chance to commit the crime or get away with the crime.

The bystander can become an active participant and take steps to prevent a sexual assault. The intervention can occur in numerous ways-a call to the police, speaking up when hate-language is used, bringing attention to the scene, helping the victim after the assault, listening to them or numerous things that bystanders can do to in either preventing the sexual assault or helping in preventing the revictimization of the victim. Imagine if your community didn't believe that something terrible had happened to you? How about if they blamed you and never your perpetrator?

Here I would like to speak just as a concerned student on certain concerns I had on the training. I think engaging the bystander is an exceptional piece. However, there are little bits and pieces that may need readjustment to fit NYC commuter campuses for they serve hundreds of thousands of students who identify with different communities; this weighs heavily on a victim's willingness to report and for an effective intervention from the community to occur. The dialogue on sexual assault is silenced more in certain communities. The training as it is presents the regular male=perpetrator and female=victim model; while in reporting statistics this may be the case, it should not be taken as that males are not assaulted. If we are to engage the bystander, why not educate them to look out for sexual assault on males? WE SHOULD NOT PRESENT SEXUAL ASSAULT AS A CRIME THAT AFFECTS WOMEN PRIMARILY. THE COMMUNITY MUST BE ENGAGED BECUASE NO ONE IS FREE FROM BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED!
Additionally specific things in the training may need to be changed to engage certain religious student groups and cultural groups. In order for such trainings to be successful, we need to be respectful of not imposing a Western based model on a community and being thoughful on engagin individuals on such a heavy but important topic. However I love the focus on the bystander!!!

A CUNY STUDENT




Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:
* A skilled technician with software to make jpeg files to post letters of support on the tracker
* A graphic arts designer to help our website designer
* Skilled media savvy persons to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on campus blogs, radio and television.
* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to sign a letter of support)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member

Student support continues...

Greetings!

I am pleased to announce that Students for a Greater CUNY has been receiving increased support from CUNY groups! Unfortunately, we are not able to place the letters online until the end of this month due to technical challenges.

So, for now, we want to celebrate the following student organizations that have helped the momentum of the movement:

The Hunter Women's Rights Coalition
The Graduate Center Student Union
The Student Optical Society at City Tech
The Student Government Association at City Tech

The letters of support are soon to be posted in the same style as the other oganizations, but we will be adding information about the organization and how you can get in contact with them.

We currently have a message awareness campaign in the works, and will soon be in an interview on the Queens College radio show NEWS WIT NAT!

If you would like us to work with your campus/club in spreading awareness about the issue, please feel free to contact us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com

To building a Greater CUNY,

Elischia Fludd
Co-Founder
Students for a Greater CUNY


Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* A skilled technician with software to make jpeg files to post letters of support on the tracker
* A graphic arts designer to help our website designer
* Skilled media savvy persons to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on campus blogs, radio and television.
* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to sign a letter of support)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member

BREAKING NEWS: GREAT outcome of yesterday's meeting!

We have a very exciting update about yesterday's meeting!

First, Students for a Greater CUNY must publicly acknowledge the investment of the taskforce members in this huge undertaking of creating a CUNY-wide prevention focused sexual assault policy for students! Every person on the taskforce has contributed significant time, brain power and passion to this project.

Particular mention goes to Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer, who has been instrumental in really guiding this process along. Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer has been open to learning more about the issue and we have been told that he's spent countless hours editing the policy to what we have now. Moreover, Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer has continued to respect all inputs and showed great and sincere humility by apologizing for the delay in meeting to the entire taskforce. Although we did not meet within 2 months, it was reported to us that Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer's office staff, particularly his Executive Assistant Sharon Atkins, was constantly trying to gather people's availabiliy to meet.

Another special mention goes to Ms. Kristen Bowes, the author of the policy. Like Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer, Ms. Bowes has been open to learning more about the issue and has done a wonderful job with drafting the initial document and incorporating the MANY comments on the first draft.

KUDOS TO ALL!

Now down to business:

Overall, the meeting was fantastic! We were able to map out a clear course that is adjusted based on time lost.

We now have a goal to have the policy ready for the Board of Trustees November meeting. This means that the document must be circulated to the individual committees of the Board around the middle to the end of October. Here's what we plan to do:

• Have 3 town hall meetings for students, one in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.
  
• The first town hall meeting will happen at Hunter in April, which is also Sexual Assault Awareness month. The town hall meeting will be coordinated by Jerin and Dean Ayravainen.
  
• Awareness campaigns will be coordinated by members of the taskforce, largely the students.
• Nick will coordinate student government involvement throughout CUNY through USS and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Development, Garrie Moore.
• After the town hall meeting at Hunter, the taskforce will de-brief, most likely via email, to see how to improve other town hall meetings.
• Before the summer, the taskforce will come up with dates for the other two town hall meetings.
• The second draft of the policy will be circulated to the Council of Presidents, to the Faculty Senate bodies throughout CUNY and Public Safety officials throughout CUNY.
  
• A town hall meeting will be scheduled for September.
• A town hall meeting will be scheduled for early October.
• A finished policy that incorporates all perspectives will be set before the Board of Trustees to go through their internal process before voting on it in the November meeting.
  

To building a Greater CUNY!

Elischia Fludd
Co-Founder
Students for a Grearer CUNY

Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to help with awareness campaigns)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member
* A tech-savvy person that is good with website building
* Skilled writers to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on blogs and through campus media
* Student leaders or organizations that will facilitate setting up 3 town hall meetings alongside taskfore members within Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn, so public opinions can be heard on the draft of the policy.

SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT: FEMINIST MAJORITY FOUNDATION

The 2 page letter to the left and right of the page is from
the ever passionate Feminist Majority Foundation. The letter was sent to the taskforce recently to hold all of us accountable for not meeting in two months and for not following the strategy of the good-faith negotiations we had made in the beginning of the taskforce's journey. Below is the text of the letter.



















March 9, 2009


Mr. Frederick P. Schaffer
Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and General Counsel
The City University of New York
535 East 80th Street
New York, NY 10075

Dear Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer and members of the Sexual Assault Policy Taskforce:

As a national campus organizer at the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), I was pleased to learn earlier this year of your commitment to establish a CUNY-wide, prevention-focused sexual assault policy by the end of the 2008-2009 academic year. Such a policy would demonstrate CUNY’s focus on its students’ rights and safety. I have been disheartened, however, to learn that the Sexual Assault Task Force has met only once since the beginning of the school year, and that it has ignored students’ calls for transparency and expediency.

FMF is a non-partisan, non-profit national organization dedicated to women's equality and empowerment. Our research and activism focus on advancing the legal, social and political equality of all people, regardless of gender, and training young feminists to be leaders of the feminist movement in the United States. We work closely with CUNY students through our campus program, and strongly support their call for a consistent sexual assault policy across the CUNY system.

We want to emphasize the importance of creating a policy as soon as possible, and of soliciting and incorporating input from the entire CUNY community. According to the proposal agreed upon in October, a policy was supposed to be drafted and available for public review by March 1. That deadline was seemingly ignored by the CUNY administration. Student input is crucial for this policy, as college students are at particular risk for experiencing a sexual assault. It is also vital that all students’ needs are being represented in the drafting process. Student members of the Sexual Assault Task Force have asked that a student from the LGBTQ community join them on the task force. That request has also been ignored.

A CUNY-wide sexual assault policy that focuses on prevention, education, and victim services would create a clear environment of zero tolerance toward sexual violence while simultaneously providing the education necessary to mitigate sexual offenses on and off-campus. A strong policy would focus on the well-being of the survivor, create an environment that streamlines the process for reporting and trying an assault, and enforce strict sanctions for offenders through campus judicial systems. Please give your students the sexual assault policy they deserve.




If you have any questions about our support for a CUNY-wide sexual assault policy or our organization, please contact me at (703) 522-2214. I look forward to the opportunity to read the draft of the policy when it is presented to each CUNY campus to solicit feedback from students, faculty and administrators. Thank you for your time and consideration, and please let me know if I can be of assistance in the implementation of a progressive policy that benefits all members of the CUNY community.

For equality,


Emily Kadar
National Campus Organizer
Feminist Majority Foundation


Cc: Ms. Jerin Alam
Ms. Vanessa Anderson
Ms. Sharon Atkins
Ms. Eija Ayravainen
Mr. William Barry
Ms. Kristen Bowes
Ms. Gilen Chan
Ms. Zora Flores-Kitongo
Ms. Elischia Fludd
Ms. Katie Gentile
Ms. Jessica Greenfield
Mr. Nicholas Kanellopoulos
Ms. Lisa Montgomery
Mr. Garrie W. Moore
Ms. Zina Richardson






Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to help with awareness campaigns)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member
* A tech-savvy person that is good with website building
* Skilled writers to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on blogs and through campus media
* Student leaders or organizations that will facilitate setting up 3 town hall meetings alongside taskforce members within Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn, so public opinions can be heard on the draft of the policy.

Talking Points

First of all, thanks for the amazing work everyone. The CUNY taskforce will be meeting tomorrow. Finally!!!!

Here are the talking points which Elischia and I have come up with to talk about the Policy. Please contact us if you would like for us to come and speak in person. In addition, I will be blogging about each point individually. Here are the talking points.

• Federal Law requires colleges to have policies on sexual assault.
  
• There is no Uniform CUNY Policy for Sexual Assault.
  
• Different CUNY Sexual Assault Policies have different repercussions for perpetrators
  
• Underlying assumption of current CUNY Sexual Assault Policy is for Victim's to pursue sexual assault through the criminal justice system; however, we have to keep in mind that in the criminal justice system, 15 out of 16 rapists walk free and that 60% of rape/sexual assault are never reported(RAINN.ORG).
  
• Research conducted on urban commuter students shows that approximately 27% of female students reported being sexually assaulted in the past year.
  
• 2.78 million men in the United States are victims of sexual assault or rape (National Institute of Justice & Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey. 1998
  
• From 23 CUNY campuses serving 400,000 students, only 4 sex offenses were reported in 2005.
  
• 1 out of every 10 rape victims was male in 2003(U.S Department of Justice. 2003 National Crime Victimization Survey)
  
• CUNY Sexual Assault Policy will address the needs and concerns of different groups in CUNY. These different groups include students of different ethnic and religious groups, and the LGBTQ community.
  
• CUNY's Sexual Assault Policy must include an educational component and be prevention based
  
• Awareness and transparency of the Sexual Assault Policy is important

Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to sign a letter of support)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member
* A tech-savvy person that is good with website building
* Skilled writers to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on blogs and through campus media
* Student leaders or organizations that will facilitate setting up 3 town hall meetings within the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, so public opinions can be heard on the draft of the policy.

SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT: SAFER

The 2 page support letter to the right and left of the page is from our first supporters in the struggle to gain a CUNY-wide Sexual Assault Policy, SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape). The letter highlights necessary elements of a good sexual assault policy and the need for community input both within and outside of CUNY. Below is the text of the letter.

October 30, 2008

Dear Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer and members of the Sexual Assault Policy Task Force:

Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming college sexual assault policies---the only nonprofit that focuses exclusively on this issue. Since our inception in 2000, SAFER has focused on helping students achieve positive changes to their school sexual assault policies and prevention programs. We specialize in helping students and staff work together to create effective, student-centered policies. Some of the schools we have worked with in the region include Pace University, New York University, Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, Wesleyan University, Connecticut College, and Ithaca College.

SAFER is pleased that CUNY has started a process for developing a CUNY-wide sexual assault policy. We are especially pleased that this process involves students as members of the task force. As you proceed with the development of your new policy, we urge you to consider the following:

- Research suggests the most effective prevention programming focuses on challenging social norms and encouraging positive bystander intervention.

- A policy is only effective if students know about it; it must be well-publicized and consistently enforced.

- Prevention programs must be institutionalized by being included in the policy. Creating excellent prevention programs without making a commitment to continuing them (by mandating them in the policy) places those programs at the mercy of budget or personnel changes.

- Having students involved in the creation and implementation of a policy encourages students to accept the policy and abide by it.

CUNY is taking an important step in joining its peer institutions in creating a comprehensive sexual assault policy and related programs. We recognize that there are many issues to consider when creating a policy—Title IX, the Clery Act, budget and capacity concerns—but the benefits for your community of addressing the pervasive problem of sexual violence are worth the effort.

We understand that the taskforce is open to seeking expert legal advice from organizations that deal with the standards of the Clery Act and Title IX. We recommend Brett Sokolow, J.D. of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management.

Please find enclosed further information on creating an effective sexual assault policy. If you have questions about our work or how we can help you develop your new policy, please contact us at 347-689-3769 or organizers@safercampus.org.

Sincerely,

Margaret Mikkelsen Executive Director

Jennifer Howard Chair, Board of Directors

CC Elischia Fludd Jerin Alam

Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to sign a letter of support)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member
* A tech-savvy person that is good with website building
* Skilled writers to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on blogs and through campus media
* Student leaders or organizations that will facilitate setting up 3 town hall meetings within the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, so public opinions can be heard on the draft of the policy.

SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT: NOW-NYC

The letter to the left is the support letter that the National Organization of Women-NYC Chapter wrote to the taskforce recently in support of a CUNY-wide policy that is created through student input and prevention focused. Below is the text of the letter:

March 2, 2009

Dear Senior Vice Chancellor Schaffer,

I am writing to you on behalf of the National Organization for Women in New York City (NOWNYC). As an organization that has a long history of being an advocate for sexual assault victims, we applaud your commitment to establish a CUNY-wide sexual assault policy.

As you may know, the National College Women Sexual Victimization study estimates that 20 to 25% of college women are victims of actual or attempted sexual assault during their college years. A sexual assault policy that is created in partnership with students, focused on prevention and transparency, is essential if the number of sexual assaults in colleges is going to be reduced.

Let me reiterate that it is crucial that you include students as you embark on this process. As the end users, students are bound to highlight any inefficiencies in the drafting process and will help create a meaningful policy. An integrative approach can thus only result in the most effective policy.

Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance throughout this process.

Best Regards,

Sonia Ossorio,

President, NOW-NYC

CC: Vice Chancellor Moore

Sexual Assault Task Force

Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to sign a letter of support)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member
* A tech-savvy person that is good with website building
* Skilled writers to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on blogs and through campus media
* Student leaders or organizations that will facilitate setting up 3 town hall meetings within the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, so public opinions can be heard on the draft of the policy.

BREAKING NEWS: CUNY TASKFORCE TO MEET MARCH 10TH!!

We have just received confirmation that the Taskforce will meet on Tuesday, March 10th at 4pm.

We look forward to updating you about the progress of the meeting. Our goal for the next meeting is to:

A. Gain re-newed commitment to moving forward with the process, including the review of faculty, staff, administration AND students THROUGHOUT CUNY and specific times to meet for the remainder of the semester.

B. Have a discussion about being more clear about prevention focused education within the policy and how it would be enforced.


Is there something you think we should advocate for? Share with us in the comments section!

To building a Greater CUNY!



Become involved! Email us at cunypolicy08@gmail.com. We currently have an immediate need for:

* Organizations and individuals to endorse our cause (willing to sign a letter of support)
* Organizations and individuals to join Students for a Greater CUNY as a member
* A tech-savvy person that is good with website building
* Skilled writers to chronicle CUNY's progress for the students on blogs and through campus media
* Student leaders or organizations that will facilitate setting up 3 town hall meetings within the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, so public opinions can be heard on the draft of the policy.