USG Senate addresses grading policy, sexual assault policy

The Undergraduate Student Government Senate passed several resolutions regarding its position on the Report from the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Policy Regarding Assessment and Grading, and welcomed Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources & Education to discuss its policies and future goals at its weekly Senate meeting Sunday.

Among the resolutions made were resolutions stating that numeric quantities should be removed from the grading policy, that departments should be in charge of their own grading standards, that A-pluses should translate to a 4.3 GPA and that there should be no changes made to freshman year academics. An endorsement of the findings thatthe goal of consistent grading standards across departments is not appropriate also passed.

The resolutions come just weeks before the University faculty is expected to vote on a resolution that would repeal the controversial grade deflation policy, which has put caps on A-level grades for the past 10 years.

SHARE Services Director Jackie Deitch-Stackhouse also attended the meeting, and discussed the role and future plans of SHARE.

Deitch-Stackhouse discussed the Men Against Violence Resources & Intervention Community Project, which was started less than a year ago. Deitch-Stackhouse said this was a good way for men on campus to engage in prevention against violence.

Deitch-Stackhouse clarified that SHARE peers are not held to a confidentiality standard, meaning there is no guarantee that the peers will not disclose information to someone else. As volunteer students who are not employed by the University and not covered under the Office for Civil Rights or Title IX, they may be subpoenaed. In fact, SHARE peer advisers are expected to inform Deitch-Stackhouse that they met with a student, she said.

“We may assist in pursuing legal charges. Sometimes we assist them in pursuing disciplinary charges, sometimes they just want to check in and get a name for what happened,” Deitch-Stackhouse said of SHARE’s role in helping assault victims.

Because of this, Deitch-Stackhouse said SHARE peers employ a “validate and refer” method, giving students whatever support they need, but redirecting them to confidential sources if necessary.

When asked by U-councilor Sol Taubin ’16 about SHARE’s plans to collaborate more closely with residential colleges, Deitch-Stackhouse said that SHARE will try to solidify links between SHARE peers and residential colleges, directly advertising to advisee groups and providing opportunities for students to get to know SHARE peers at dinners.

SHARE will also attempt to expand its liaisons in eating clubs, so that SHARE peers who are members of clubs can expand awareness of the program and serve as models of appropriate behavior according to Deitch-Stackhouse.

This is part of a larger movement in the University community to address sexual assault policy following the University faculty meeting on Sept. 15 to lower the burden of proof standard. The Council of the Princeton University Community will convene and vote on the proposed changes to the sexual misconduct policy on Sept. 29.

Corrections: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated the objective ofMen Against Violence Resources & Intervention Community Project. The objective of MAVRIC is to engage men in prevention against violence. Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a USG resolution on grading did not pass by majority vote. In fact, it did. The 'Prince' regrets the errors.

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Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that the "validate and refer" process is in use by SHARE peer advisors only and not the whole of SHARE.