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March 15, 2005
Letter to the Editor: Resources available for victims of sexual assault
Since the events of the spring of 2004, various Student Affairs divisions have come together to revise the
Sexual Violence Policy. We are publishing this in an effort to solicit your feedback on its clarity, usefulness and depth. This is, due to the confines of space, an extremely abbreviated version.
If you have further interest, contact Associate Dean of Student Affairs Alan Sickbert at asickbert01@hamline.edu or myself, Shona Ramchandani, HUSC president, at
sramchandani01@hamline.edu with questions and for an extended version. What follows are many of the changes in the policy, which can be found online at www.hamline.edu/resource/docs/CDpolicies.htm
A stranger or someone you know may commit an act of sexual violence against you. In either case we encourage you to take immediate action.
1. If you need immediate help, call 911 and the St. Paul Police immediately. Be prepared to talk to a police investigator. If you want to, report this incident to Hamline University right away. This will cause a Hamline University investigation of the incident to begin.
2. If you would like to discuss the incident confidentially, before you decide what to do next about pressing charges, you may contact any of the following offices:
On campus: The Counseling and Health Services Center, Religious and Spiritual Life Office. These offices can be contacted for counseling, support and spiritual guidance.
Off campus: Sexual Offense Services (651-298-5898).
There are several people on campus who can assist you as you decide how you would like to proceed.
They are: Patti Klein, Director of Residential Life/Assistant Dean of Students (651-523-2061), Alzada Tipton, Associate Dean of the College (651-523-2309), Vince Thomas, Assistant Dean of the Law School (651-523-2966), Shirleen Hoffman and/or Michele Bateson, Safety and Security (651-523-2100), University Ombudspeople: Molly McAvoy (651-523-2484) and others yet to be appointed.
They can explain the process of reporting the incident to Hamline University and what your options are if you want to press charges, both through Hamline University and with the St. Paul Police. Once you talk to one of these people, as opposed to the employees of the Counseling and Health Services Center or the Religious and Spiritual Life Office, Hamline University has been officially notified of the incident and has an obligation to act on this notification.
You have three options in terms of pressing charges against the alleged perpetrator of the sexual assault within Hamline University:
1. You can report the sexual assault to any of the above and state that you do not wish to press charges at this time and do not wish to have the incident investigated. The report will not be acted upon unless you change your mind about pressing charges, or unless Hamline University decides that it must act upon the incident in order to protect the safety of the community, at which time an investigation will occur through Safety and Security.
2. You can report the sexual assault to any of the above and request mediation. A mediator will be assigned to the report and meet with involved students to assess the willingness to mediate the situation and to ensure that each student agrees to this process.
3. You can report the sexual assault to any of the above for judicial action, which will include an investigation and report produced through Safety and Security. If the investigation finds that there was probable cause for your complaint, you can begin a process through the Hamline University Judicial System that would allow you to file a complaint and take the matter to a hearing.
To get more information about the Judicial System and sanctioning, please see the section of student handbook marked “University Policies” beginning on page 142 of your Daily Planner or available at the Esource website. You can talk to the people mentioned above or to Alan Sickbert, the Associate Dean of Students, at 651-523-2134.
Shona Ramchandani
HUSC President
Posted by msveum at March 15, 2005 01:45 PM
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