UA staff to get trauma-focused training in handling of sex-assault cases

FAYETTEVILLE -- Efforts by federal lawmakers to improve campus safety include new annual training requirements, providing what one expert described as a "trauma-informed lens" to help those who run institutional disciplinary hearings in sexual-assault cases.

The new regulations, effective July 1, extend to all universities taking part in federal student financial aid programs and describe "best practices that colleges should have been doing for a long time," said Laura Bennett, president of the Association for Student Conduct Administration.

Experts said the annual training should include appeals officers. But training for the University of Arkansas' two-person appeals team on serious cases -- the chancellor and vice provost for student affairs -- has been largely separate from training for UA staff members and lower-level administrators, spokesman Laura Jacobs said.

At the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, such officers have heard appeals over the past two years in 15 out of 34 Title IX cases, which include sexual misconduct. At UA, the appeal process involves a review of written records rather than interviews with students.

This month, UA sent nine people to Little Rock for two days of advanced training presented by the Association of Title IX Administrators. No UA appeals officers attended.

"University officials who participate in the appellate process receive Title IX training through presentations and through individualized meetings," Jacobs wrote in an email.

Bennett said investigators and decision-makers should be trained on how trauma affects memory.

"An appellate officer still needs a basic understanding of this in order to understand why a complainant's report of an incident may not be reported in full detail, or may not be recalled in the same sequence -- this could be relevant even in a paper appeal process," Bennett wrote in an email.

Annette Burrhus-Clay, vice president of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said campus officials and staff members should have a "victim-centered approach" that goes beyond knowing rules and regulations.

"Their actions can impact not just that individual survivor, but others who may come forward -- or not come forward -- based on how they handle these cases," Burrhus-Clay said.

The UA appeals body has been active in Title IX-related cases, overturning three decisions, and modifying either the sanction or parts of a decision in four other cases. Two cases are still pending.

Such cases may involve sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, stalking or dating violence. For those four conduct violations, a student making an accusation may appeal if the student accused of wrongdoing is found "not responsible" of a violation.

In the past, UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart received separate training "primarily because of his schedule," Jacobs wrote in an email, "but also because of his constant and ready access to advisers, experts and legal counsel, in addition to the differing scope of the appellate body's responsibility."

Gearhart is to step down Friday, and Dan Ferritor will become interim chancellor.

"I can say with complete certainty that I will get all the training that's available and required by law and what our compliance people think we need to get that goes beyond the legal requirement," Ferritor said, adding that a meeting about such training will take place next week.

This week, Charles Robinson began a new role as interim vice provost for student affairs, taking over for Danny Pugh, who left UA for a similar job at Texas A&M University.

Appeals will now go to Robinson and Ferritor after decisions are made by a hearing panel.

Staff training in these kinds of cases came under sharp criticism in June from two U.S. senators at a screening event for the HBO news program Vice. The program featured hidden-camera footage obtained by a student collaborating with the program, and U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., criticized questions that panelists asked the student, who had reported being sexually assaulted.

The Vice program and other media reports also featured criticism of the appeals process in one case at UA.

In a since-retracted letter dated Jan. 29 -- signed by Gearhart and Pugh as UA appeals officers -- the university modified a decision to expel a student found responsible for sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. The letter that UA later said was issued by mistake would have allowed the student to receive his degree if he met certain conditions, and his expulsion would have been made effective the day after his graduation date.

UA said a media inquiry into the Jan. 29 letter led to discovery of the mistake.

Prosecutors declined to file charges after a criminal inquiry in the same case, in which a UA student reported she had been raped by Raymond Higgs, a former Razorback track athlete. Higgs told authorities that it was a consensual sexual encounter.

"Regarding the Jan. 29 letter: This is the edited letter drafted by Dr. Danny Pugh and signed using the Chancellor's autopen," an email from Jacobs stated the day before the Vice program aired, as part of a longer explanation of how UA attorney Tamla Lewis wrote a letter defending the Jan. 29 decision.

Back in February, UA had said Gearhart never saw the letter and, upon learning that it had been sent, "immediately issued a letter reflecting the decision that he and the vice provost for student affairs had previously approved." Only Gearhart's signature appeared on the final decision letter.

Pugh declined multiple requests from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for an interview on the matter, and his last day at UA was last week.

Jacobs said the Vice program did not lead to any changes in training at UA.

"We know there's always room for improvement, but we feel we've done a good job," Jacobs said.

Information in a "question and answer" document last year from the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights states: "Any individual or body handling appeals should be trained in the dynamics of and trauma associated with sexual violence."

The Department of Education asked universities to make a good faith effort to comply with the new regulations before July 1.

But training does not need to be the same for all on campus, Bennett wrote in an email.

"I would agree that the front lines responders are the people who need to be the best and most trained. It can certainly make sense to provide 1 on 1 training to a high-level/busy administrator, but the keys are to ensure that the Title IX Coordinator approves the training curriculum and that it covers all of the key topics," Bennett wrote.

UA has an interim Title IX coordinator, Monica Holland, who previously served as deputy Title IX coordinator. The previous Title IX coordinator, Shannon Haupt, left UA in October.

No written curriculum for Gearhart was available, Jacobs said.

Pugh did not keep a training log, but Jacobs emphasized his years of accumulated training as a student affairs administrator.

In the past 12 months, his training included an in-house session on sexual harassment and prevention, as well as a Title IX session at an Association of Public Land-grant Universities event in November, Jacobs wrote in an email.

Jeff Lieberson, spokesman for the Association of Public Land-grant Universities, wrote in an email that the session cited was likely a panel discussion titled "Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence" at the organization's annual meeting.

"I don't know that I'd describe it as training, but it probably/hopefully did inform universities on practices they can implement," Lieberson wrote in an email.

Metro on 07/30/2015

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