Campus Council unanimously passed a resolution Thursday night to increase student awareness about campus safety and sexual assault. Members acknowledged, however, that certain aspects of the legislation were controversial and may incur a significant amount of resistance from students and administrators.
The legislation suggested establishing more stringent punishments for students found guilty of sexual assault by the Undergraduate Judicial Board and called for administrators to enforce attendance at the safety presentation during freshman orientation by blocking spring semester class registration for freshmen who do not attend the program.
Campus Council championed the implementation of consequences for not attending the safety presentation because so many freshmen see no incentive in going to orientation events--even mandatory ones. Council members said freshmen needed motivation to attend the lecture, given the importance of educating students about campus safety and sexual assault.
"I think this [campus safety] issue is more paramount than any other orientation event," Campus Council President Anthony Vitarelli said. "We don't want to breed the sense that we're trying to punish people. We just want them to be educated."
The student legislators said they believe many of the crimes that occur regularly at Duke can be thwarted by educating the student body about safety.
"The message we hear from [the Duke University Police Department] is that most crimes here are crimes of opportunity," Vitarelli said, referring to students who leave their doors unlocked or allow strangers to follow them into dormitories. "These things can be preventable."
The resolution also supported complete expulsion of students who commit acts of sexual violence; current University policy allows a student who commits an act of sexual violence to rejoin the Duke community after a suspension.
"If you're caught with [committing] sexual assault, you shouldn't be able to come back to school," said Pasha Majdi, communications coordinator for Campus Council.
In addition, the resolution requested campus crime statistics to be distributed to all students during room picks, information regarding any sexual assault to be e-mailed to students and a more clear explanation to be issued by the University outlining the roles of DUPD, the Durham Police Department and Campus Security.
The request for stricter consequences for sexual violence comes at a time of heightened awareness in the community about campus safety. Two separate incidents of alleged sexual assault were reported two weekends ago.
More recently, authorities discovered threatening graffiti written on the wall of a men's bathroom in Perkins Library. The writer purports to be a rapist. "They tried to kick me out, but I didn't not let them," the graffiti reads. "They said I was the one with the rapes on campus. I was the one!"
IN OTHER BUSINESS:
Last Day of Classes Committee Co-Chair Mark Pike said that due to a change in priorities, Campus Council will not be offering free t-shirts at this year's celebration. He said t-shirts could be distributed by quadrangle councils at their discretion.
"Because we signed such an outstanding artist in Kanye West and that was so costly, we're not going to do t-shirts at all this year," Pike said. "We found it was taking too much time and too much effort just to give out t-shirts."
Pike said that each quad will vote this Tuesday to determine whether or not t-shirts will be offered to its residents.
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