Update from the Presidential Working Group

We write to you as co-chairs of the Presidential Working Group, which was formed to review the Sexual Misconduct prevention and response ecosystem as it pertains to students on our campus, to share an update on the working group’s progress and schedule moving forward.

Originally the Working Group’s plan was to circulate draft recommendations to the community and follow up with an open forum for dialogue and feedback in late March, with a final report delivered to the President in April 2020. The recent transition to a remote campus, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, has caused us to reconsider this timeline. We feel that it is imperative for us to have the input of the full community, and especially students, and that full participation of the community requires an in-person forum. To that end, we now plan to circulate our draft recommendations by the end of April and invite feedback to be submitted online during an extended comment period. When we return to the campus in Fall 2020, we will host an in-person Open Forum on the draft recommendations. 

After we have gathered feedback from the community through both the online comment period and the in-person forum, the Working Group will revise our recommendations based on both sets of feedback. The final report and recommendations will be submitted to the President within a month of the Open Forum.

This revised schedule allows us to continue forward momentum on these important issues and ensure the full engagement of our community – which is central to our purpose.

We are pleased and grateful that our student Working Group members who will graduate before the fall have agreed to continue working with the group as alumni.

We hope you are safe and healthy, and coping the best you can in these difficult times. We wish you the best and look forward to your feedback.

Best regards,

Amy Ansell, (co-chair), Dean, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies
Jan Roberts-Breslin (co-chair), Dean, Graduate and Professional Studies