According to last year's Core Survey, put out by University Health Services, 9.3 percent of self-reporting students experienced sexual harassment on campus within the preceding 12 months.
Meanwhile, the Committee on Discipline has found no student guilty of sexual harassment in the past three years, and according to Vice Provost Joanne Mitchell, only three cases of sexual harassment have passed all the way through the University's Faculty/Staff Sexual Harassment Panel during her eight years at Princeton.
The gap in the numbers can be accounted for in part by those who choose private, confidential mediation instead of the formal venues of committees and panels.
There is also the possibility, however, that confusion about what constitutes sexual harassment and a resistance to report instances result in some victims slipping through the cracks.
Battling the Myths
One obstacle in the fight against sexual harassment is misinformation, and the University's Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising Resources & Education Program is seeking to equip members of the community with useful information.
Throughout the year, SHARE holds panels for faculty, staff and students. This past fall, the program began a new training series to promote education and awareness. Together with the University's Ombuds and Human Resources offices, SHARE conducts sessions on sexual harassment for staff members.
SHARE peer educators — students trained in issues of sexual harassment — visit residential advisor groups and have discussions with freshmen and sophomores. SHARE also offers completely confidential counseling for those involved in sexual harassment cases.
To coincide with April, which is Sexual Violence Awareness month, SHARE is distributing purple ribbons to increase support of victims and is hosting Cornell Interactive Theater Education, a performance group that educates on sexual harassment. The program is also hosting a discussion on "Sexual Harassment in the Academy," with a film made on campus.
Despite such educational opportunities, Dr. Thema Bryant, coordinator of the program, said people often have trouble defining the multiple types of sexual harassment. One, she said, "would be if someone requests an unwanted sexual favor before giving a job or admittance into a class."
A sexual favor requested instead for a promotion or a good grade in a class, Bryant said, would be a different component of sexual harassment, and a third type is creating a "hostile environment," ranging from "offensive, sexual verbal behavior" to the display of pornography on an office wall.
People often do not know that a "hostile environment" qualifies as sexual harassment, Bryant said, adding that educating people on the nature of this component of harassment is an important part of SHARE's role on campus.
"Sexual harassment doesn't just occur when there's a power difference," she said. "It happens faculty-to-faculty, staff-to-staff."
Silent Acceptance
Student-to-student harassment is another type of sexual harassment that occurs on campus, Bryant said. The Organization of Women's Leadership has held panels this year on the sexual climate at Princeton and Bicker and sexual harassment — focusing particularly on student behavior at the eating clubs.
"Basically, we discussed the atmosphere at the 'Street' and why it's conducive to sexual harassment," said incoming OWL president Jessica Brondo '04. "And we talked about what actions to take in the future to prevent harassment . . . It's definitely a major issue that OWL wants to address."
Saloni Doshi '03, who is a SHARE co-coordinator and peer educator, said she believes that Princeton students, loathe to implicate or accuse their peers, are too accommodating of sexual harassment.
"Most people accept that there is some sort of issue of sexual harassment and assault on campus," she said. "But no one wants to rock the boat and implicate anyone in the discussion. It's symptomatic of how Princeton students are."
Opportunity for Recourse
The University offers several different venues for victims of sexual harassment, ranging from simple counseling to a disciplinary hearing.
"If a person is sexually harassed, we encourage them to come to the SHARE office in order to know what their options are," Bryant said. "It really is overwhelming to be in that position."
From that point, the person who believes he or she has been harassed—the accusant — has three options, Bryant said: informal mediation, formal disciplinary action or an off-campus criminal charge.
The informal process of mediation is overseen by designated officials on campus who are mostly deans. The deans listen to both the accusant and the respondent, or alleged harasser and come to some agreement on how the two should settle the matter.
Usually, Bryant said, the two form a contract of agreement that simply makes the accusant "safer on campus" and also helps the respondent understand the allegations against him or her. Bryant stressed that the two need never meet together if the accusant is uncomfortable with the idea.
Bryant also pointed out that SHARE offers counseling to respondents in sexual harassment dealings as well as to the accusers.
Informal mediation usually provides recourse for less serious cases of sexual harassment, like an off-color remark, or issues between friends.
If the accusant prefers a formal procedure, the process goes beyond SHARE mediation and counseling. There are separate procedures for complaints against undergraduate and graduate students and those against staff and faculty members.
Students
Students who elect to follow a formal procedure come before the Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline. Usually, the accusant, along with a SHARE counselor, meets with Associate Dean of Students Marianne Water-bury, who serves as secretary of the subcommittee of the Committee on Discipline that deals with sexual harassment.
"Depending on what happened, I tell [the accusant] if I believe there is enough evidence to go forward," Water-bury said.
Sometimes, Water-bury said, students who may have been harassed elect not to go before the committee because there is not enough evidence to make a case.
In front of the Committee on Discipline, evidence must be "clear and persuasive," Waterbury said — a kind of middle ground between a civil case's "preponderance of evidence" and a criminal trial's "beyond reasonable doubt."
If there is enough evidence, the case goes in front of the subcommittee. The subcommittee comprises two faculty members, one student, Associate Dean of the College Nancy Kanach, and non-voting members Waterbury and Dean of Undergrad-uate Students Kathleen Deignan.
The subcommittee listens to both parties and makes a recommendation to Deignan, who then has to approve it.
Punishment can include probation, suspension and expulsion.
For small offenses punishable with fewer than two years of probation, freshmen and sophomores are dealt with by the Residential College Board, made up of the five directors of studies and Waterbury.
Faculty and Staff
Members of the faculty and staff accused of sexual harassment come before a subcommittee of the Faculty/Staff Sexual Harassment Panel.
The subcommittee consists of five members from the Harassment Panel, three of whom need to be of the same status as the respondent, Secretary to the Harassment Panel and Vice Provost Joann Mitchell said.
The panel listens to both sides, and makes a recommendation to either the Vice President of Human Resources or the Dean of Faculty, for a staff or faculty respondent respectively. The Vice President or Dean then comes to a decision in consultation with the President of the University.
Possible sanctions include an oral warning, a written reprimand and separation from the University, Mitchell said.
The subcommittee process is rare.
"In the eight years I've worked here, only three cases have made it all the way through the panel," Mitchell said. "Most of the complaints are handled through the informal channels."
Of the three cases, she added, there were student-faculty and peer-to-peer complaints.
The fact that the process is not evoked often suggests that most campus sexual harassment cases may not be serious, Mitchell said.
The panel "has also been permitted to make policy changes, suggestions for education . . . working toward a harassment-free environment," Mitchell said. "That's our ultimate goal."
Waterbury said she hopes that, toward that end, students will become more willing to confront the issue of sexual harassment.
"Does [sexual harassment] occur? Absolutely it does," she said. "But students have to come forward . . . We're absolutely willing to pursue this."
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