Student petition aims to change Title IX process to help survivors
Photo by Emily Paris, Photo Editor
“We were hearing (that) a lot of survivors are discouraging other people from going to Title IX, so we we’re discussing why that is,” said Sophie Camillari, a senior psychology major who helped create a petition to improve Title IX at Chapman.
The petition was created and posted by a group of students who were talking about the Title IX process and realized that many survivors who had gone through it had not only found it cold and overwhelming, but at points even retraumatizing. The petition asks for the presence of an advocate to be mandated during the Title IX process to help survivors go through the process of reporting.
“It was a group effort. I took the lead on making the draft and writing it up and then I sent it to other students who were interested in the petition, and we kind of worked on a final draft together,” said Camillari. “This is fully student-run. It was basically inspired by some of the conversations that we were having in C.A.R.E.S. meetings about making resources on campus more accessible and helping people, helping to educate people on the resources on campus.”
If someone experiences sexual violence at a school, they have the option of reaching out to the Title IX office to file a complaint or to seek supportive measures. Supportive measures are non-disciplinary, non-punitive steps the university can offer to help students impacted by sexual misconduct of any kind, which can include things like counseling, adjustments to class schedules or housing accommodations.
If students decide to file a report however, this becomes a more lengthy process, which involves an investigation, interviews and gathering evidence. This process can take months, or even years, before it's over.
Currently, students who undergo the Title IX reporting process are offered to have an advocate or a friend with them during the proceedings. The petition is aiming to change this and make it mandatory to have an advocate present, unless the survivor asks for this requirement to be waived.
“I’m hoping that (survivors) don’t have to go through it alone,” said Medya Ebrahim, a senior psychology major who helped draft the petition. “I think, for example, if you have Dani (Smith, sexual assault crisis coordinator), with you, not only does she know the process, but she can also help the survivor in a sense to take a break or go slower to not just jam the entire information to the person because that can be very overwhelming.”
One of the main reasons outlined in the petition for why advocates are needed is that the process of reporting can feel cold and impersonal. The legal language and nature of the process can make survivors feel overwhelmed and invalidated at times.
“I actually had an experience with Title IX when I transferred to Chapman. When I went there, honestly it did feel very much overwhelming, just because the coordinator, she just put a pack in front of me and just went over it,” said Ebrahim. “I was sitting there just trying to process; I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of information.’”
At Chapman, an advocate could be Smithor some of the clergy from the Fish Interfaith Center. During the Title IX process, the role of an advocate is to help the survivor understand what’s happening and to support them in any way they need. This can look like asking the Title IX coordinator to slow down, asking them to explain what certain things mean, taking pauses to check in with the survivor and how they’re feeling or even just sitting with them during the process.
“I feel like if I had an advocate with me, they could’ve slowed down the process, because all the information that they go through is a lot and it can be a lot to take in in like 10 minutes,” said Ebrahim. “I feel like it would’ve (helped) if someone was there to just slow it down or explain it in simpler words rather than the law words.”
The role of an advocate is to be there for the survivor and help them regain a sense of autonomy. For many, the process of reporting can be retraumatizing or it can slow down their healing process, since survivors going through Title IX can feel like things are out of their control, as the petition explains. An advocate brings a trauma-informed approach to the table that aims to give survivors back their agency and help them heal from what they’ve experienced.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand what their options are in general. They don’t understand the difference between Title IX and the advocates. They don’t understand the difference between the reporting process or the counseling services that we have, they are just kind of looking for the first resource that comes to mind and that tends to be Title IX,” said Camillari. “We believe that having an advocate there would help the survivor to be more supported.”
For now, the students who created the petition are trying to get 750 signatures — which represents 10% of the student body — before going to the Title IX office with their petition. Their aim is then to bring up the signatures to Chapman's Title IX office as a way to show that a great part of the student body believes that this is an issue that should be addressed. As of the writing of this article, the petition stands at over 300 signatures.
“I think the issue we’re having here at Chapman is not a Chapman issue or a failure of our Title IX at Chapman. It’s indicative of a much larger issue with Title IX in general,” said Camillari. “It’s something that I’m hearing about from other schools as well, where people are having their cases take a very long time, people are having their cases dismissed, survivors are feeling invalidated by the Title IX process and feeling as though it made things worse in their recovery.”
The students who wrote the petition started hearing about this issue during their C.A.R.E.S. meetings, but soon discovered that it was something many students also cared deeply about. Since then, both the Women’s Health Club and Chapman Feminists have taken the lead on spreading the petition and have become the face of it.
