new info from Kat M

A WAC member met with Lenny Sancilio a couple weeks ago and this is the information she gathered:

"1. The campus counciling center will NOT tell the cops if a rape is reported to them. They will send the cops a notice that something happened, and will only contact the police if the victim expressly asks for it. Then the police will get a report of their own from the victim.

2. As far as what the campus' judicial action is concerned, Geneseo will only take certain steps for certain things on campus, mostly academic I think. The camous doesn't want to interfere with any police action that will be taken. Most of the action will probably take place after the police have dealt with the case.

3. The Dean of Students and I went over a quick senario of what would happen when the victim reported the incident. If it was first reported to an RA, their first priority is to make sure the student is safe, and then advice them, or ask them, if they would like to go to the counciling health center. The incident will immediately be reported to the RD, or if it is very late at night, whatever RD is on call. The University Police will be contacted, and statements and "evidence" will be collected. A rape kit should be administered at the hospital, although when I asked him about how the student would get to the hostipal, he said he wasn't totally sure (maybe by an ambulance or police). The police statements are later referred to the D.A. The campus meets with the victim and discusses their options. They can: do nothing, go through the police courts, go through the campus, or go through both. The campus' main goals are the protection of the victims privacy, and to give them back control. The victim has a number of people they can talk to, like the Counciling center, anyone at the health center, Dean Tamra, the police, the D.A. victims advocate, who works closely with the police. The police situation gets a little complicated, because there are four separate police forces in the near vicinity, so it depends where the incident took place. "

Relevant Websites

http://www.geneseo.edu/CMS/display.php?page=2432&dpt=police
-this website provides the "crime statistics" on campus - but not that according to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (or "Clery Act") - the statistics only reflect those reports which were "investigated and proven as an assault"

http://health.geneseo.edu/safe/brochure/reporting.html

The SAFE Center's website/brochure on reporting incidents of sexual assault and rape

http://www.geneseo.edu/CMS/display.php?page=5143&dpt=studenthandbook

The Geneseo Student Handbook which goes through each type/degree of rape and sexual assault and which class of crime or felony it is

http://www.feminist.com/news/vaw73.html


http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20060510/

two articles on recent changes in New York State rape laws

http://www.pprsr.org/rapecrisis/SAFE.cfm

Information on the SAFE Center in Rochester and rape crisis counseling as well as forensic exam procedures

http://www.nycagainstrape.org/survivors_legal.html#A

a website that defines each term of rape laws, ie what constitutes "lack of consent", etc

http://health.geneseo.edu/safe/drugs.html

information about "date rape" drugs

http://health.geneseo.edu/safe/referral.html

The information and referrals page provided by the Student Health Center

About

Sooo.
At WAC's meeting a couple weeks ago, to follow up Take Back the Night, we talked about the rape policies at Geneseo. A few of us did some research online about the policies here, and what a rape survivor is supposed to do depending on what kind of action they would like to take. Some of us were primarily interested in what happens to a student who rapes another student, in response to a recent incident. A victim of rape was frustrated because another student who raped her is still walking around campus. And we knew of other people who had had the same thing happen. It was very hard to find information about what happens to a perpetrator; all of the information seemed to be victim-focused. We are starting up this blog to keep track of the information as we find it out, and eventually we'd like to consolidate it into a pamphlet or website that is reader-friendly. What we did find out in our first searches was:

-Health Services (Lauderdale Health Center) will provide emergency contraception "and will arrange transport to hospital for other services as needed during business hours", as they cannot perform rape kits due to legal reasons - there needs to be a trained and certified nurse, as well as a police officer present, and a place to store the completed rape kits for a certain number of years, all of which Geneseo doesn't have. Lindsey asked a friend who works for GFR (Geneseo First Response) if GFR is allowed to drive students to the hospital after-hours, when the Health Center is closed, but this friend told her no, because they are supposed to stay local. So one of our first questions is if a police officer or an ambulance can drive a person to the hospital. A couple years ago we tried to figure out if we could set up a system where there are students who can drive to the hospital on-call at all hours, in case anybody needs it, but there was too much liability involved with that, plus we think people may not be comfortable going with another student they do not know. We still need to find out more about this but it seems like the options are going with a friend or going in an ambulance.

-Here is what the campus health center lists as judicial and legal options:

"Students who experience an assault or rape on campus have the following judicial and legal options: 1) bring judicial charges through the campus judicial system, 2) bring legal charges through the campus or local police, 3) pursue both of these options, or 4) take no judicial or legal action.

On Campus:
University Police (both legal and judicial charges) 245-5222
Dr. Leonard Sancilio, Dean of Students (judicial charges only) 245-5706

Off Campus (legal charges):
Livingston County Sheriff, Village of Geneseo 911
(for non-emergencies, call 243-7100)"

So if you want to take legal action, you sort of have to bring it through Lenny Sancilio. We were wondering if reporting it through campus means that it will be anonymously reported to the local police, since it happened in Geneseo.

We also found out that the crime statistics given on the UP website (all these websites will be posted in a separate post of links), do not reflect the number of reported rapes, but the number that were investigated and proven to be assaults. Many reported rapes are not investigated and proven so this number isn't accurately reflecting the occurence of rape on our campus.

Another website provided information about what qualifies which degree of rape, what type of rape, and what kind of felony these are classed as. Of course, none of them clearly stated what each type of felony is punishable by. We are going to find out what is the maximum/minimum penalties for the felonies.

One more important thing to end this initial post is that Katie K found out that if one wants to take action on campus. The information she found on one of Geneseo's websites says that it is grounds for "institutional action" but did not define what this is. As far as the website says, this could be a "warning" (is this warning on or off the record?), or could go as far as "disciplinary probation" (we're not sure what this entails either)

So this is a very messy and scattered first blog post but we will work on updating it every time we find out new information or get more questions answered. Hopefully there will be a new post later this week. If you would like something to be posted on the blog please email: wacsg@geneseo.edu so we can screen it and then post it! Thanks

-WAC

This is the first blog. How is it???