News
Administration addresses students’ HSMB policy concerns
By Emily Eisler ’17
October 20, 2016
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The conversation around the Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Board’s annual report for this past year was met with an administrative response when Senior Associate Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator Lisa Magnarelli addressed attendees of the Student Assembly meeting that took place on Oct. 10. The new Chair of the Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Board, Tina Hall, also attended to discuss the community’s concerns.
Since the report was released on Oct. 4, Magnarelli and Hall have received a flood of feedback from students in addition to the prominent signage and social media responses criticizing the report and the College’s sexual misconduct policies. The two women sat with the Student Assembly and large crowd of students attending the meeting in the public spectation section in hopes of having a clear conversation between students and administration. Addressing the Student Assembly, which sends transcripts to the entire school in the form of its minutes, also allowed Magnarelli and Hall to address indirectly the campus community.
Magnarelli began her talk by summarizing, as she did in the email she sent out last week responding to initial student protests, the wide range of behaviors and infractions that are brought to and examined by the HSMB, describingthem as“a varietyofviolationsfrom from verbal interactions to unwanted physical touching to non-consensual penetration” that necessitated sanctions of various degrees. She then addressed claims that Hamilton is too lenient on perpetrators of sexual misconduct, stating, “I can say with confidence, the board did not assign points for people found responsible for ‘rape’ or what we would consider in our policy as non-consensual penetration. Students found responsible for such are expelled. That has been the precedent that Hamilton follows. We say it in our policy. I have no interest in protecting rapists. The college is not interested in protecting students who are found responsible for that act.” Magnarelli explained that though she of course wants to be as transparent as possible in this ongoing discussion, there are federal and state constraints on what can and cannot be discussed in detail about the cases the College has dealt with. Though she is open to discussing possible changes to the policies, she reminded the Assembly that there are limits on that as well.
Magnarelli’s comments were followed by a speech from Charlotte Bennett ’17 who discussed her own experience pursuing a formal investigation with the HSMB, the results of which were detailed in the report from which this controversy originally stems. Although some action was taken by the administration against her abuser, Bennett stated she did not believe it was enough and that the email sent to students on Oct. 4 was a “sloppy misrepresentation of survivors on this campus.” Her concerns led her to address the Assembly that night, using her experiences as a student at Hamilton as well as her professional background advocating for sexual assault survivors as context for the 11 specific policy changes she laid out for those gathered. She finished her speech by insisting that the administration should see students as a resource for creating and implementing positive changes within the HSMB and sexual misconduct policies. The importance of students and administration working together equally to come up with mutually satisfactory policies continuedtobe a theme throughout the meeting.
The meeting then opened up to questions from students for Magnarelli and Hall. They ranged in topic from Magnarelli’s personal experience and qualifications that made her eligible for her position as Title IX Coordinator, to the question of potentially involving students in the formal debate process. Magnarelli detailed the professional experience she had with Title IX before taking her current position, as well as her plans to improve Hamilton’s practices around sexual misconduct issues, some of which are already in progress. She specifically mentioned implementing increased training for Student Organization Leaders. Students also shared their concern about the message the administration might be sending to the college community with reports like these, specifically the insinuation that sexual misconduct is not as serious an offense as it could be because perpetrators may only get points or a one semester suspension as punishment. Students also communicated their worries that Hamilton policies are more focused on discipline than prevention. Magnarelli responded that the entire campus community needs to work together as a whole to prevent sexual assault. It is not realistic to think the College can initiate that sort of enormous social shift by itself. Throughout the meeting Magnarelli continuously made a point of the fact that Hamilton’s sexual misconduct policies meet both the federal standards and the norms set by similar academic institutions, but many students brought up the national debate over whether or not federal regulatory guidelines have been found effective. At the end of the discussion the Student Assembly officers thanked Magnarelli and Hall for attending and assured those gathered that the campus conversation about sexual harassment and assault will continue.
The Spectator contacted Magnarelli with further questions this week. When asked about challenges she’s faced with since the HSMB report’s release and how the administration plans to handle students’ concerns in the future, Magnarelli stated, “The challenge with writing that report is how difficult it is to provide context. Unfortunately, due to the confidential nature of the HSMB process, the summary report cannot provide a lot of information. Moving forward, we can explore ways to provide general information about the range of issues and sanctions reported, but to protect the integrity of the process we will always be faced with limits on how much information we can provide.” She also stressed the importance of the discussion had at the Student Assembly meeting and said she is beginning to meet with students who expressed concern during that conversation. She will also be working with a new student group focused on this topic called SMART as well as continue to partner with SAVES and other student organizations to provide the best training and education on these issues possible. It is currently too early for the administration to predict what changes will occur specifically as a result of these conversations, but suggestions from the Hamilton community will be thoroughly evaluated by the HSMB. Magnarelli stressed, “As I’ve said, this is a fundamentally important issue about which the College cares deeply, and we want to do everything possible to address it as effectively as we can.”