University of Iowa debuts sex assault sanctioning guidelines

University of Iowa students who engage in non-consensual sex 'most likely” will be expelled, according to the UI's first-ever sanctioning guidelines for sexual misconduct announced Thursday.

The new guidelines lay out a range of penalties - from probation to suspension to expulsion - depending on the level of violation and whether aggravating factors are involved. But critics say the sanctions are too vague and don't go far enough.

'The level of discretion in the new system is so great … that it's difficult to take this model seriously,” said Jeannette Gabriel, a UI graduate student and member of ROAR Iowa City, a group organized against sexual harassment and violence.

ROAR organized a protest on the pedestrian mall in Iowa City for Thursday evening in response to three sexual assaults that have been reported on campus since school started less than two weeks ago. Critics said the assaults show the university has 'failed” to change the rape culture on campus. They called for the university to expel all students who engage in any level of sexual misconduct.

'We want zero tolerance,” said KT Hawbaker-Krohn, a UI alumnus and founding member of ROAR Iowa City. 'Kick the kid off campus.”

UI students staged similar protests during the spring semester, following controversial comments from UI President Sally Mason. Mason, at the time, apologized for saying that ending sexual assault is not realistic given 'human nature.”

On Thursday, Hawbaker-Krohn and Gabriel criticized Mason for comments she made last week while discussing campus safety - specifically, the sex assaults already reported this semester and a suspected drug-related incident that evacuated Slater Residence Hall on the eve of the first day of classes.

'When you have 30-plus thousand students on campus, things do happen,” Mason said. 'These are not the kinds of things that we want to have happen, obviously, but they do happen.”

Gabriel said Mason's comments are 'more of the same” and belittle sexual violence, which she said remains prevalent on campus despite a six-point plan the president rolled out in the spring to combat sexual misconduct.

'Three sex assaults in nine days is the wild west,” Gabriel said.

‘We must not rest'

In a message sent to the UI community Thursday, Mason addressed the three assaults. She said, 'I am grateful for the courage of the survivors who made these reports because it allows us to offer support, to investigate, and ultimately to hold perpetrators accountable.”

'We take sexual assaults very seriously,” she said. 'There is no excuse for this crime. It has no place on this campus. We must continue to address this problem, and we must not rest until it is eliminated entirely.”

Mason said her staff - through her six-point plan - aims to do 'everything in its power” to prevent sexual violence, support survivors, and hold offenders accountable. She said the new sanctioning guidelines are part of those efforts.

Sanctions for non-consensual sex range from multi-semester suspension to expulsion, 'with expulsion being the most likely sanction.”

Punishment for attempted sexual intercourse and non-consensual sexual touching ranges from probation to expulsion. Aggravating factors, according to the guidelines, include use of force, intimidation, isolation, and intentional incapacitation - like through alcohol or drugs.

Tom Rocklin, UI vice president for student life, said aggravating factors can prompt administrators to take more serious action.

'We chose to do this because we wanted to be explicit with the entire community about what the consequences would be,” Rocklin said.

The university previously did not have sanctioning guidelines in place for sexual assault, and before student protests, it had not expelled anyone for sexual violence. It did, however, issue indefinite and five-year suspensions that Rocklin said equated to expulsion.

In 2011, 2012, and 2013, 21 UI students were suspended, 11 for sexual misconduct or domestic violence. None of those 11 students returned to campus.

Last spring, the university expelled its first student for sexual misconduct. Rocklin said the university expelled a second male student during the summer semester for 'sexual assault allegations.” Details about the two cases have not been made public.

'But I can say that each of the expulsions that we have announced would clearly have resulted in expulsions under the guidelines,” Rocklin said, adding that new explicit sanctions could result in more expulsions.

‘A great improvement'

Jen Carlson, executive director of the Rape Victim Advocacy Program, said she was 'very excited” to see the announcement on sanctioning guidelines Thursday. She also praised the process involved in creating those guidelines, saying multiple departments and organizations - including the one she leads - were involved.

She said the community will be watching closely at how the guidelines are implemented.

'But this is a great improvement,” she said.

Still, Carlson said, the university and the community can do more.

'A cultural shift takes time,” she said. 'These are changes in attitude and mind and beliefs.”