Tag: sexual harassment

A glimpse at how sexual harassment allegations are handled at Quinnipiac


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By: Sierra Goodwill

Students at Quinnipiac University may have noticed a tweet issued by the school’s verified account on Thursday morning in light of sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the accuser, testified on Sept. 27, which propelled Quinnipiac to be proactive and send a message to the university community.

“Although we want students to be engaged and informed citizens, we understand the topics discussed can be triggering for survivors of sexual assault,” part of the tweet read.

The university went on to provide contact information for counseling services on campus

With the immense amount of reports and coverage of sexual harassment as of late, Megan Buda, Quinnipiac’s Director of Student Conduct, believes it’s important to outline the school’s process of dealing with sexual harassment allegations brought forward by students.

“Any employee at the university, minus the clergy, the counseling center or the health center staff, has the responsibility to report up if anyone reports any violation of the Title IX policy on campus,” Buda said.

Once an incident has been reported, the process outlined below ensues.


The outline of the formal process Quinnipiac University follows for a Title IX violation.

The outline of the formal process Quinnipiac University follows for a Title IX violation.

The entire process is supposed to take up to 60 days. However, Buda admits that sometimes it can be longer due to lack of information or other factors.

She notes that the length of the process is one reason why students are more hesitant to come forward.


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“What I have seen, especially in the spring semester last year, is complainants coming forward and saying ‘I don’t want a formal process, I just don’t want the same thing to happen to someone else,’” Buda said. “The most common request I received last semester was, ‘Can you just keep a name of someone who’s doing things we don’t like?’ No, we can’t just keep a running list, but there are certain matters we can handle informally with an informal resolution.”

That informal resolution can include, but isn’t limited to, no contact orders and/or relocation of housing assignments.

Resident assistants are also mandated reporters, meaning they are required to report any Title IX violation they are aware of. Senior Vanessa Harris, who has been an RA for two years, has had to utilize this system more than once.

“As an RA for freshman, unfortunately I had a lot of sexual assault related issues with my residents,” Harris said. “There were two of them who actually came to me and said ‘this happened to me.’ But in other instances, because they know that I’m a mandated reporter and that I will tell, they’ll say “hypothetically, if this happened…” And it’s obvious that it did happen. But with that, there’s nothing you can do.”

Once the RA passes along the information to his or her direct boss, they are no longer given any information about the investigation in order to keep the situation as private as possible.

“It can be challenging for us because unless our resident tells us, it’s like you tell the RhD then you go back to your room and that’s it,” Harris said.


there's a lot happening on campus that we aren't notified about because we are a private university. It really changed my outlook on everything..jpg

This has an enormous effect on Harris, since she decided to become an RA in hopes of assisting the Quinnipiac community and helping her residents cope with any issues they may have. She didn’t realize just how many issues she’d come across.

“Before I was an RA, I looked at Quinnipiac and didn’t really think that anything was happening on campus,” she said. “Then as an RA, it’s like wow, there’s a lot that’s happening on campus that we aren’t notified about because we are a private university. It changed my outlook on everything, really.

However, Harris greatly values the fact that her residents trust her enough to tell her about something as serious as sexual assault or harassment allegations.

“I realize how challenging it is for them to come forward and why a lot of them don’t want to,” she said. “They’re ridiculed in the media, like Dr. Ford is right now, and that’s just not something you want to sit around a table and chat about all night. Overall, it’s been rewarding because I know I was able to do my job and I’m thankful I can help them.”

When coming forward with a Title IX related concern, Quinnipiac also gives students the opportunity to report the incident to the Hamden Police Department, but it is not required. Buda notes that the way the university conducts the investigation can be quite different than the way the police do.

“The police have a different threshold than we do,” she said. “It may take them longer to do an investigation than it may take us to do an investigation. But, we’re able to provide different accommodations that the police may not be able to. Likewise, we have a lower threshold to hold someone responsible because we don’t call them guilty since it’s not a court of law.”

Buda said she doesn’t think the number of sexual harassment cases at Quinnipiac are any higher than the national average. There were two formally reported rapes on campus in 2016, four in 2015 and five in 2014.

These numbers do not include informal reports and/or other Title IX and sexual harassment cases other than the act of rape.


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Harris knows that statistics aren’t always an accurate representation of how many students have actually experienced sexual harassment because it is not an easy thing to tell someone about.

“It can be really challenging because a lot of the times, as a victim of sexual assault you don’t want to relive that situation,” Harris said. “You don’t really want to rehash who and where and why and how.”

However, Harris says she hopes that the recent #MeToo and #WhyIDidntReport movements inspire women to feel more comfortable and empowered to report any incident they may have endured.

Quinnipiac encourages any member of the university community who is struggling to cope with the after effects of sexual assault, harassment, abuse or any other crisis, to utilize any of the resources listed below.


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Graphics by Taylor Giangregorio

Allegations of sexual assault and harassment have sparked a much-needed discussion

By Erin Reilly

Ever since dozens of women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault six weeks ago, there has been a steady flow of new allegations against the men of Hollywood and beyond. Now, at least 25 high-profile men have been accused.

While the highly publicized allegations have been centered on the entertainment industry, sexual assault and harassment are highly pervasive in our entire society.

“It could be, like, endemic to the culture of Hollywood, and in some ways it is, except that it’s endemic to all cultures,” Jennifer Sacco, the director of Quinnipiac’s Women’s and Gender Studies program, said.

Victims of sexual harassment are not limited to actresses. According to a survey from 2015, 1 in 3 women has been sexually harassed at work.

“Virtually, every adult woman I know has been sexually harassed at work,” Sacco said.

That includes Sacco. She said she was sexually harassed while working at a department store when she was in her 20s.

These actions and comments can have many negative effects on the victims.

“They can cause serious anxiety which prevents us from doing our jobs, from feeling safe, from doing what we need to or want to, and generally from flourishing. And they are normalized,” Melissa Kaplan, a Quinnipiac professor who teaches English and women’s and gender studies, said. “A cat-caller is only scary at all because we don’t know when one might follow us home. And a guy who aggressively pushes for sex wouldn’t make us so queasy if we felt 100 percent sure he’d listen if we said no.”

To raise awareness about these issues, an online movement was started where thousands of women have used “#MeToo” to share their own stories about sexual assault and harassment. On Sunday, Nov. 12, the movement took to the streets of Hollywood for the #MeToo Survivors March. Hundreds of people joined in to show their support.  


Credit: Cosmopolitan

Credit: Cosmopolitan

The #MeToo campaign and subsequent widespread discussion about sexual assault and harassment have allowed men to learn more about the issue.

“There are things to like and dislike about this #MeToo campaign, but I appreciate that it seems to be getting at a few basic things that I think are important for men—since they stand to benefit from a rape culture—to understand,” Kaplan said.

The movement has also had an educational effect on women.


Credit: Cosmopolitan 

Credit: Cosmopolitan 

“Women are afraid to react because they don’t want to be told they’re overreacting,” Zara Khan, a Quinnipiac senior and president of Women Empowered, said. “I think the ‘Me Too’ movement is a great way to educate others on what is considered sexual harassment by being able to read these raw personal stories.”

The allegations themselves against men like Harvey Weinstein have also had a positive impact.

“I do like the fact that so many women came forward so quickly and included really prominent women” Sacco said. “I think that was helpful. I really do.”

However, the movement has not been all positive. In some ways, it has highlighted some deeper issues.

“I think it’s great that women are joining forces to support each other. However, it’s saddening how many women had to come forward in order for there to be consequences,” Khan said. “It shouldn’t be her word against his. We need to take these women seriously as soon as they come forward instead of sweeping this under the rug.”

Victims are often not believed and when they are, the focus is sometimes entirely on them.

“One of the more valid critiques of the #MeToo trend is that it is focused, as these conversations so often are, on the survivors, rather than the perpetrators and enablers; that it asks women to bear their pain instead of asking men for reflection and accountability,” Kaplan said.

Sacco also noted that this may be a flaw in the movement.

“Why do we ask more of the victims? You know, why do they have to bear themselves again in some way in public for people to take this seriously?” Sacco said.

The tendency to focus on the victims rather than the perpetrators is one of the many underlying issues of sexual assault and harassment.

“I think the biggest issue behind sexual assault (and) harassment is that the victim is often blamed,” Khan said. “That she shouldn’t have worn that skirt or shouldn’t have drank so much. That a woman should change the way she dresses and behaves because then she is ‘asking for it.’”

Kaplan says that gendered violence is a problem that stems from “systemic sexism.” This leads to women being silenced and bystanders not speaking up about the abuse they know is happening.


Credit: Cosmopolitan 

Credit: Cosmopolitan 

“Women are taught to obscure the signs of our abuse, and our communities are taught to pretend they don’t know what’s really going on. Lie about our bruises. Claim we missed work because we had a cold. That we did poorly on an exam because we didn’t study,” Kaplan said. “Whether by pressuring women not to speak up in the first place or dismissing them when they do, the system insists that reports of gendered violence remain private rumor rather than public record.”

In order to combat this system, the #MeToo movement may be a good first step.

“Everyone needs to make this as vocal as possible because, collectively, maybe we could enforce some sort of change here,” Sacco said. 

The key is that this movement is finally acknowledging the problem.

“Making radical change means acknowledging and confronting the injustices around us,” Kaplan said. “If we don’t acknowledge that something is a problem, we cannot transform it.”