Duke Student Government discussed the school's sexual assault policy at its Senate meeting Wednesday.
After concerns were raised about President Tara Bansal's advocacy of a verbal consent only policy, Bansal, a senior, explained that she has worked with student body presidents from other Atlantic Coast Conference schools and Duke administrators to research the proposed policy. Under a verbal consent only policy, sex is consensual only when both parties verbally agree.
Bansal said that this was a partnership with three different administrators—Howard Kallem, director for Title IX compliance, Sheila Broderick, gender violence intervention services coordinator, and Victoria Krebs, associate dean of students for Title IX outreach and response.
In addition, Bansal noted that the initiative was spearheaded by her and DSG cabinet members and that DSG, as a whole, was not advocating for any policy.
Senior Jessica Van Meir, senator for equity and outreach and president of We Are Here Duke, said that she would have liked more communication regarding the initiative.
"I think that we could do a much better job of improving the policy and working to address sexual assault on campus if all the student groups involved are in communication with each other,” she said.
Bansal noted that she has already done research on the policy, using random samples of students for the focus groups. First-year Charlie Moore, senator for social culture, raised concerns that the focus groups consisted of students inviting their friend groups to be involved, resulting in a non-random sample.
Bansal replied that, from what she has seen, the rosters tend to consist of people who do not know each other very well.
Others asked questions about the inclusion of student-run sexual assault prevention groups in these focus groups. Bansal explained that survivors have been included, but not necessarily survivor student groups.
Van Meir noted that she thinks DSG should consult the survivor groups.
"I think it is important to get the opinions of the general student body, of other people, but also consult existing groups that are already working on addressing sexual misconduct,” she said.
In other business:
The Senate passed a resolution to support delivery from Merchants-on-Points vendors during their normal business hours.
The Senate voted to charter three new groups—Coalition for Alleviating Poverty, eNable and TAMID.
It also passed budgetary statues for Duke University Quidditch and Lambda Theta Alpha.
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