September 9, 2014

Dear President Bollinger, Ms. Glancy, and other Columbia officials, Thank you for taking the time to meet with us today regarding the urgent issue of sexual violence on our campus. Below, you will find outlined our current priorities for structural reforms around the issue of sexual violence here at Columbia. We look forward to discussing these with you during our meeting on September 9, 2014, and would like to hear from you by the third week of September with substantive responses to the content of these proposals. Prevention These ideas will help better prevent sexual violence on campus. 1. Require ongoing consent education programming for all returning students, including sophomores, juniors and seniors in the undergraduate program. 2. Require bystander intervention training annually for all members of special interest residential communities, including Special Interest Housing and Greek life. 3. Work with graduate student and General Studies advocates to significantly improve the quality and relevance of school-specific prevention programming.

Adjudication

These ideas will help ensure a fair process for all students involved and better support survivors. 1. Transfer the responsibility of deciding appeals for cases heard in the Office of Gender-Based Misconduct away from the Deans (who have proven they are not capable of appropriately deciding these cases) to another party with specialized training in these issues (beyond a once-a-year briefing) and fewer conflicts of interest.

Ideas for alternatives: Create a new role within SVR dedicated to appeals, engage arbitrators to review appeals cases, etc.

2. Revise the current policy to include a clear and explicit guarantee of residential, academic, and other accommodations for survivors of sexual violence. Accountability and Transparency

These ideas will help improve the policies and practices of Columbia now and in the future. 1. Release the aggregate data on sanctioning that was promised to the community nearly a year ago. The data should include information on the frequency of serial perpetrators and multiple reports against the same person. Continue to release this aggregate data annually, alongside the release of Clery data. 2. The President must issue a written directive strengthening the oversight authority of PACSA. Currently, there is no administrative body with any meaningful authority to evaluate the existing practices and policies, work with students to identify issues, or make changes as necessary.

3. Create an online evaluation form for every complainant and respondent to fill out after the completion of their interaction with the Office of Gender-Based Misconduct. This form should include but not be limited to: questions about the training, sensitivity, professionalism, fairness, and overall quality of staff at the Office of Gender-Based Misconduct, questions about the process, and questions regarding students rights under Title IX, Clery, and other relevant legislation. The results of this form should be collected, compiled, and analyzed by PACSA regularly throughout the year, to allow them to assess the functioning of the system and propose improvements as necessary. 4. Beginning this year, implement a mandatory comprehensive review of the existing policy through PACSA, to be conducted at least once every two years and/or initiated by a vote of the Student Affairs Committee of the Senate. The results of this review should be published and open to the community. 5. Create a process through which students can provide formal feedback on their experience with the Office of Gender Based Misconduct, or make complaints if they feel their rights have been violated or their needs have not been met. This should not happen internally within OGBM, but should exist in a separate office. 6. Create clear and concrete avenues for students to express concerns with the policy, its implementation, and relevant offices and resources (including but not limited to the Center for Student Advising, Columbia Health, Columbia Psychological Services, Sexual Violence Response). Publicly identify who is responsible for responding to these concerns. 7. Make these and other meetings more inclusive of other stakeholders in this issue, by prioritizing the voices of survivors, students who have gone through the process, and advocates and activists who have been working on this issue, in addition to the Senators and student council members who are consistently present in these spaces. We appreciate your time, and are looking forward to working together in the future to address sexual violence in our community. We hope to hear from your office by the third week of September with substantive responses to these ideas. Signed, Meeting Attendees:

Caitlin Lowell, Columbia Queer Alliance President, member of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence Cameron Bills, Community Consent Educator Erik Campano, member of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence Malini Nambiar, Engineering Student Council VP of Policy Marc Heinrich, Columbia College University Senator Sejal Singh, Columbia College VP of Policy, member of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence

Zoe Ridolfi-Starr, Title IX complainant, member of No Red Tape and the Coalition Against Sexual Violence

Organizations:

Activities Board at Columbia Asian American Alliance Bacchanal Committee Barnard Columbia Divest Chicano Caucus Coalition Against Sexual Violence Columbia Alumni Allied Against Sexual Assault Columbia/Barnard Hillel Student Executive Board Columbia College Student Council Columbia Queer Alliance Columbia Spectator Editorial Board Columbia University Democrats Columbia University Family Support Network Engineering Student Council Everyone Allied Against Homophobia GendeRevolution GS Alliance Hispanic Scholarship Fund Student Chapter at Columbia University LUCHA Muslim Students Association No Red Tape Columbia

Potluck House Proud Colors Residence Hall Leadership Organization Executive Board, Student Members Sexual Violence Caucus at the School of Social Work Student Governing Board Student Wellness Project Student Worker Solidarity Students for Justice in Palestine Take Back the Night at Barnard College of Columbia University Title IX Team