Students largely see changes to revised sexual misconduct policy as progress
Reporting about the SGA, not a record of it: The Johns Hopkins News-Letter published this and the SGA did not write it, file it, or approve it. The archive holds it because the article itself uses the phrases “sga” and “student government”.
Summary
- The Johns Hopkins News-Letter article reports on student responses to the University’s revised Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures, released on Aug. 14.
- The paper reported that the revisions combine the policy and procedures into one document, centralize the process across nine Hopkins campuses and the Applied Physics Laboratory, and add amnesty for students who report incidents.
- The article adds that Sarah Zappone and Nadine Abdullat supported the amnesty provision because fear of administrative consequences can discourage reporting.
- The reporter writes that the policy adds information and resources for victims, while Christine Fei said many students may not know about the policy and that SARU will help explain it.
- According to the article, Jack Bartholet raised concerns about the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard and said sexual misconduct cases can have life-changing consequences.
- The News-Letter reported that Bartholet also expressed concern about affirmative consent and said the process should protect both complainants and accused students; Abdullat called the revisions a step in the right direction but said they have faults.