Kendra Yoshinaga
WASHINGTON (WMAL)– A petition calling for American University to revise its sexual assault response policies has gained more than 73,000 signatures.
The petition comes after a student filed a Title IX complaint accusing the university of mishandling her sexual assault case. The student, who voluntarily identified herself as Faith Ferber, was sexually assaulted by another AU student in February, 2015. Ferber says that the university required her to sign a confidentiality agreement in order to proceed with a student conduct hearing through the university.
AU alumna Bianca Palmisano created the petition after hearing about Ferber’s case.
“I’m so intensely frustrated with my alma mater specifically […], but also with the state of sexual assault on college campuses writ large,” Palmisano said. “I felt like I had to make something happen, at least where I had actual influence.”
The petition calls for AU to implement eight revisions to its sexual assault policy. Those revisions include resolving cases in a timely manner, standardizing the sanctioning guidelines for students who are held responsible for committing sexual assaults, and training hearing board members on sexual assault response techniques. Palmisano says that she hopes the policy revisions will lead to larger changes in the culture of the administration.
“It’s much easier to look and do a checklist of those concrete elements– to say ‘Yes, they have published this listing,’ or ‘Yes, they have taken those trainings,’ but the larger goal is to shift the culture to a place where we are believing survivors as our first instinct.”
AU spokesperson Camille Lepre referred WMAL to a campus-wide memo addressing concerns about the university’s sexual assault policy.
“American University has not been notified of a new Title IX complaint from the Department of Education – Office for Civil Rights (OCR),” the statement said. “If we do receive a complaint, we will cooperate and work with OCR to address any questions it may have. We welcome the opportunity to learn if there is more that we can do to augment the significant initiatives we have undertaken to create a climate that is safe, responsive and compliant with the law.”
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