UNM’s Sexual Assault and Awareness Task Force is working with the Provost’s office and Dean of Students office on “coordinating and streamlining the University’s efforts to combat sexual violence on campus,” according to a press release.
“There are too many options, too many places to go, too many people,” said UNM President Bob Frank. “You get good help at all those places, but they don’t always lead to the same channels, and it can lead to problems for both victims and people who get accused of being involved in these kinds of events. We’re working on it, and we hope to have significant progress here in the near future.”
Adding to UNM’s comprehensive response to sexual assault, called LoboRESPECT, Dean of Students Tomas Aguirre is leading efforts to implement a new model called CARE — Compliance, Advocacy, Response and Education.
“This group represents almost 50 different units from around campus and even off campus, with abo`ut 80 people total taking part,” Aguirre said in the release. “It’s a big undertaking and a tough issue to tackle.”
Each part of the CARE model will be led by different departments and members of the Sexual Misconduct and Assault Response Team, or SMART.
Heather Cowan, manager for the Office of Equal Opportunity, will head up the compliance aspects, which include University rules and regulations relating to sexual assault, as well as Title IX and some Cleary Act compliance standards, according to the release.
The advocacy side, which deals with the support and advocacy for victims, as well as training and outreach, will be lead by Summer Little, director of the Women’s Resource Center. The SMART team will also fall under the umbrella of Advocacy.
UNMPD will lead the charge on the response aspect, with Police Chief Kevin McCabe overseeing the reporting, police response and investigations of sexual assault cases, according to the release.
The education group will have two leaders: Employee and Organizational Development manager Deb Howard and Debbie Morris, director of Student Activities.
Aguirre said this new model is an outgrowth of several existing committees and groups, like the CommUNITY Council, The Presidential Task Force on Sexual Violence and the Hazing Work Group. These groups will continue to work on the issues, he said.
“None of these previous efforts has disappeared,” Aguirre said. “They have simply evolved into this current, more comprehensive model.”
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In addition to the CARE model, Aguirre has also helped to create the LoboRESPECT Student Team, which will be solely comprised of students and will help with education through the creation of pamphlets and social media campaigns. Both the undergraduate and graduate student governments are already involved with LoboRESPECT, so this group will be solely for students not involved with ASUNM or GPSA, the release stated.
“The student group will help reach students by creating resources such as campaigns and brochures that they directly relate to,” said Leonel Diaz, contact person for the group. “We’ll be putting together a peer education network, as well.”
Dianne Anderson, director of communications for UNM, said student involvement in creating educational material is important, because it will lead to more authentic and approachable communication.
“What they’re wanting to do is to try to make sure that the materials and the approach we use is actually one that is going to reach students. So who better knows how to talk to students than students?” Anderson said. “We old folks don’t always have the right language to reach you guys.”
Although no timetable has been announced for when the University will address all the concerns brought up in the internal audit, Frank said it is important that everyone be proactive and address as many problems as possible, as the U.S. Department of Justice conducts its comprehensive investigation of the issue.
“Are we where we want to be? No, we have a ways to go,” Frank said. “But I think we’re doing things that are making people be able to lead more independent lives, to not have to be so fearful. So I think that’s a very important step.”
Jonathan Baca is the news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter
@JonGabrielB.
