President's Message on Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Awareness Education

10/26/2017

Dear Members of the SLU Community,

As a follow-up to my Sept. 26 message, I am writing to share my continued distress about the behavior behind the reports of sexual misconduct across the nation, in higher education, and right here at SLU.

We are better than this as a country and as a University.

For years we have talked about statistics:

• One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college (Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2007).
• The majority of these incidents (90%) on college campuses are never reported (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000).

While these statistics are disturbing, they allow us to observe from a distance. Behind each one of these numbers are people whose lives have been inexorably changed. We have to put a stop to this behavior. All of us have a responsibility to instill values and teach behaviors that aid in preventing sexual misconduct.

In recent weeks, we have seen more reports of sexual misconduct here at SLU. I think that’s due, in part, to our many programming and support efforts, the caring professionals, and thorough processes we have put in place that make members of our community feel confident that their accounts of sexual misconduct will be addressed promptly and that support for them will be immediate and ongoing.

But there is more work to be done. We need to do more to change the culture and climate on college and university campuses. We must do better to empower bystanders to intervene. We must do better to adopt the active use of effective consent. We need to look at the statistics as a challenge to do better. Normalcy should not be defined by prevalence. To do this, I need your help.

The University is committed to fostering a safe and supportive environment that ensures the development of a healthy mind, healthy body and healthy spirit for all. Our Catholic, Jesuit values require us to take courageous action.

Here are some of the new initiatives we are undertaking to expand our current sexual misconduct prevention efforts:

• This academic year, all students will receive a climate survey that will include numerous questions related to student attitudes, behaviors and experiences linked to sexual misconduct. We will share our findings with the entire SLU community and use that student experience data to inform future interventions and programs that seek to curb sexual misconduct.
• Beginning in the 2018-2019 academic year, all students (new and returning) must complete the Haven Online Sexual Misconduct Awareness Training before they will be permitted to register for classes. It is available on mySLU. Haven is a leading online program addressing the critical issues of sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking and sexual harassment – among students, faculty and staff.
• Provost Brickhouse will work with faculty to identify ways to integrate sexual assault prevention and awareness education into course curricula.
• We will engage leading national and culturally fluent experts to provide consultation and training on our campus and to help us strengthen on our prevention efforts.

In the next few weeks, other University leaders and I will meet with representatives of the student group, Assembly for the Prevention of Sexual Assault (ASAP), and collaborate with them to identify other ways to more effectively implement existing and new programs and actions. We will meet with any other student groups that desire to be a part of our collective effort to eradicate sexual misconduct. As always, I welcome any observations and suggestions from all of the SLU community.

I ask you to join me in this effort. Together, we will make it happen; we must make it happen.

Sincerely,

Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.

President