I'm a student at UT so I recieved this email and thought some might find it interesting.
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Office of the Chancellor
I hope all of you have had a good break to kick off spring, as we did on campus last week. We are having a very good year at the university, and we are excited about the months to come.
We are continuing to make progress in every area—student life, academics, athletics, and our physical campus.
As we welcome our students back, I want to update you on some difficult news you may have read recently—news about a Title IX lawsuit alleging that we have allowed a culture of insensitivity to sexual misconduct and assaults on campus.
The lawsuit has generated negative publicity, particularly here and in Nashville, and all of that is very uncomfortable for many of those involved and certainly for those of us who care so much about our community.
While I cannot specifically address the allegations in the lawsuit, I can say that any assertion that we do not take sexual assault seriously enough is simply not true. To claim that we have allowed a culture to exist contrary to our institutional commitment to providing a safe environment for our students or that we do not support those who report sexual assault is just false. We are a community, even if we're not a perfect one, and we hurt when any of our family members hurt or cause pain to others.
Since 2011, as the challenges of sexual misconduct on campuses across America have become more apparent and difficult, we have been in high gear, dramatically enhancing our resources, education, and support for fighting the human injury and injustice this phenomenon carries with it.
In 2013, this administration directed a full independent review of student conduct evaluation procedures and adopted thirty-seven of the review committee's thirty-nine recommendations. We are well on our way to implementing virtually all of the recommendations of the independent committee.
One of those recommendations actually changed the name of the Student Judicial Affairs Office to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, emphasizing a transition from a judgmental, punitive posture to one more focused on education, development, and support.
The list of additional resources, programs, and activities that have been instituted since then is long:
I encourage you to visit our website sexualassault.utk.edu to see all we are doing in this area to ensure that our campus is as safe as possible at all times for every single student and that when bad decisions are made we respond in the most effective, fair, and caring way.
I'd much rather spend all of these words enumerating all of the great positive things that are happening every day on our campus, but since news is being made I thought it important to share this perspective with you and to reassure you that we are on the case and the continued safety of all of our students is of the utmost importance to us.
We invite and welcome your thoughts and questions anytime. Feel free to contact me at chancellor@utk.edu. Again, I hope your spring is off to a beautiful and wonderful start. Thank you for trusting us to be part of your lives; thank you for being part of ours.
Jimmy G. Cheek
Chancellor
View as web page
Office of the Chancellor
I hope all of you have had a good break to kick off spring, as we did on campus last week. We are having a very good year at the university, and we are excited about the months to come.
We are continuing to make progress in every area—student life, academics, athletics, and our physical campus.
As we welcome our students back, I want to update you on some difficult news you may have read recently—news about a Title IX lawsuit alleging that we have allowed a culture of insensitivity to sexual misconduct and assaults on campus.
The lawsuit has generated negative publicity, particularly here and in Nashville, and all of that is very uncomfortable for many of those involved and certainly for those of us who care so much about our community.
While I cannot specifically address the allegations in the lawsuit, I can say that any assertion that we do not take sexual assault seriously enough is simply not true. To claim that we have allowed a culture to exist contrary to our institutional commitment to providing a safe environment for our students or that we do not support those who report sexual assault is just false. We are a community, even if we're not a perfect one, and we hurt when any of our family members hurt or cause pain to others.
Since 2011, as the challenges of sexual misconduct on campuses across America have become more apparent and difficult, we have been in high gear, dramatically enhancing our resources, education, and support for fighting the human injury and injustice this phenomenon carries with it.
In 2013, this administration directed a full independent review of student conduct evaluation procedures and adopted thirty-seven of the review committee's thirty-nine recommendations. We are well on our way to implementing virtually all of the recommendations of the independent committee.
One of those recommendations actually changed the name of the Student Judicial Affairs Office to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, emphasizing a transition from a judgmental, punitive posture to one more focused on education, development, and support.
The list of additional resources, programs, and activities that have been instituted since then is long:
- All of our UT police officers have been specially trained to handle sexual assaults on campus, and our police chief has assigned a special investigator just to handle sexual assaults.
- We have revised and expanded our sexual assault policy and our student code of conduct. We have developed sexual assault response protocols, a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), and a SART advisory board that meets weekly to review how we're doing. Over the past three years, the Center for Health Education and Wellness has evolved into a model program for prevention and intervention.
- We have added three positions in the Division of Student Life to work closely with this important initiative: a sexual misconduct investigator, a sexual health coordinator, and a case manager.
I encourage you to visit our website sexualassault.utk.edu to see all we are doing in this area to ensure that our campus is as safe as possible at all times for every single student and that when bad decisions are made we respond in the most effective, fair, and caring way.
I'd much rather spend all of these words enumerating all of the great positive things that are happening every day on our campus, but since news is being made I thought it important to share this perspective with you and to reassure you that we are on the case and the continued safety of all of our students is of the utmost importance to us.
We invite and welcome your thoughts and questions anytime. Feel free to contact me at chancellor@utk.edu. Again, I hope your spring is off to a beautiful and wonderful start. Thank you for trusting us to be part of your lives; thank you for being part of ours.
Jimmy G. Cheek
Chancellor
