Students push changes to sexual assault policies

By Peter Sachs

"If a classmate sexually assaults a student at one of Chicago's many universities, the process for seeking treatment, getting counseling or filing a complaint can sometimes be confusing and unintuitive. ..."

"'We really found out that no one had any idea what the policies were, no one knew where you could go for services,' says Michelle D'Onofrio, a Loyola senior who has been helping lead the effort to tweak the campus sexual assault policy. ..."

"By this fall, the campus handbook will list many of the resources for victims in one place, D'Onofrio says, as well as provide a victim's bill of rights. A new Web page will provide a similar list, and Campus Safety officers are already getting additional training. ..."

"'You have professors who don't necessarily have any training in what the issues are,' says student body president Matthew Kennedy. But that's changing, with the administration agreeing that professors need training before they hear sexual assault cases. ..."

Full article available at http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/Students_push_changes_to_se...