Students rally against university's treatment of assault and mental illness cases

Approximately 150 students, masters, administrators and staff members gathered for a sit-in and rally against the university?s treatment of mental illness and sexual assault cases on campus. Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson spoke at the sit-in and addressed student questions.

The sit-in, held Dec. 3 in the Academic Quad in front of Lovett Hall, occurred from 3 p.m. to approximately 4:10 p.m. It was organized by Duncan College senior Philomena Bradford, Duncan juniors Elizabeth Casey and Colleen Fugate, Martel College junior Denis Leahy and Duncan senior Drew Moore.

Leahy said the rally?s purpose was to launch a public discussion and open collaboration with the administration on how sexual assault and mental illness are handled on campus.

?It?s not just a response to [Olivia Hansen?s] case,? Leahy said in a personal interview. ?We?re recognizing a pattern that?s been existent for many years.?

Fugate said in an interview that another goal of the rally was to urge the administration to seriously reassess its policies dealing with sexual assault and mental health. She cited a lack of resources on campus, little awareness of existing resources and, particularly, the lack of staff members hired to deal specifically with sexual assault cases.

The organizers began the rally by reading various anonymous accounts of experiences with sexual assault, mental illness, the Rice Counseling Center and the administration. Former member of Duncan class of 2014 Mikayla Sweet read an account of her own experience.

Hutchinson then spoke to attendees and said the university is anxious to enter into a dialogue with students about mental illness and sexual assault policies at Rice.

?It pains every one of us [my staff] ? I?m in pain right now, and so you have reached me ? to think about the difficulties that many of you go through in your times at Rice,? Hutchinson said. ?We are self-aware enough to know that we can always do better. We can always reassess.?

He said the university is committed to constant improvement of mental health and sexual assault programming and resources and cited steps that the university took recently, such as Wellbeing Week, held earlier this semester, and the expansion of the RCC, which included adding social workers to ease students? transition into and out of the hospital. Hutchinson said Rice also hired an external consultant in October to review its mental illness and sexual assault policies and protocol; the review is ongoing, and results are not yet ready for release, he said.

?I say that not to say we have solved all the problems, but to say we are completely in sympathy with all of you in the sense that we need even more resources, even more approaches, even more possibilities for our students to seek out the assistance that they need,? Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said he would like to create a task force formed jointly between students, administrators and staff members. The task force would identify how Rice can improve its resources and provide transparency regarding Rice?s processes for handling mental illness and sexual assault cases.

A student asked that Hutchinson apologize. Hutchinson said he shared the pain of those who felt they were mistreated by the university?s handling of sexual assault and mental illness, but he would not apologize for university protocol or how any specific cases have been handled.

Source: http://www.ricethresher.org/news/students-rally-against-university-s-treatment-of-assault-and-mental-illness-cases-1.2965987

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