News
SMART presents to SA as harassment continues on campus
By Emily Eisler ’17
October 27, 2016
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On the night of Monday Oct. 24, members of the newly formed Sexual Misconduct and Assault Reform Task-Force (SMART) addressed the Student Assembly meeting in regards to the mission and goals of their organization. The students outlined their plans for the group as well as how to best improve Hamilton’s sexual misconduct policies just two days after an incident in which a student was sexually and racially harassed on campus in an incident currently under investigation by Campus Safety.
Founding members Aleta Brown ’17, Charlotte Bennett ’17, Hannah Fink ’19, Sophie Gaulkin ’17, Ashley Huntington ’20 and Anna Brooks ’20 broke their presentation into three sections based on the three committees which make up the organization: programming, policy and advocacy. The goals they outlined included revision of our current sexual misconduct policies, increased and improved advocacy training for students, cross-community programming and transparency between members of the College community on all matters of sexual harassment and assault.
The mission statement put before Student Assembly is as follows: “SMART is a group of Hamilton community members dedicated to ending the culture supporting sexual assault on our campus through policy, programming and activism. We aim to maintain an inclusive conversation which fosters open dialogue by reaching out to individual clubs, organizations and departments, which shape Hamilton. By implementing change using an individualized and inclusive approach, we hope that each member of Hamilton will feel a responsibility to end the epidemic of sexual violence.” One of their first steps is examining the existing policies Hamilton has surrounding these issues and analyzing what is and is not effective in order to recommend the best practices to improve upon said policies. Gaulkin specifically mentioned the issue of involvement with local law enforcement and the necessity of making sure there can be a safe alternate option for reporting if survivors do not see the school’s response to their complaint as viable.
SMART’s key to success will be to get as many students involved in this discussion as possible. Members stated their desire to work with as many organizations as possible, suggesting that they expect student and local media to help keep the community informed and thinking about these issues. They have already begun to work with the administration, having met with President David Wippman, Dean of Students Nancy Thompson and Associate Senior Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator Lisa Magnarelli. They are also seeking alumni involvement. Brown ended the presentation by saying that anybody with questions or a desire to get involved should email her or any of the other five board members listed at the beginning of this article. SMART wants to hear student opinions so that they can work on as many issues of student concern as possible. General meetings will take place on Mondays at 10:15 p.m. in the Days-Massolo Center and are open to the public.
Tuesday, Oct. 25, the morning after the SMART announcement, Chair of the Bias Incident Response Team Allen Harrison alerted the campus community in an all-campus email to an incident that had been reported to the Bias Incident Response Team. On the night of Saturday, Oct. 22 at 11:30 p.m., a Hamilton student found herself the victim of verbal harassment by a group of men stationed outside the Howard Diner. The language allegedly used was reported by the student to have been racially and sexually harassing. After the student reported the harassment to the Bias Incident Response Team, Campus Safety has begun their investigation into the event. They ask that anybody with any information about the incident or the perpetrators involved call Campus Safety Investigator Anthony Scalise at (315) 859-4141.