The Undergraduate Student Congress passed a resolution addressing sexual harassment concerns at OU in its Oct. 16 meeting.
The resolution outlines the current process of handling sexual harassment at the university and urges OU to improve the process. Author of the bill, representative Elaina Fees, said she hoped those who received the resolution would “take it seriously.”
Fees said the main impetus for the resolution was sexual harassment allegations against arts donor John Scamehorn and drama professor Tom Orr.
“It’s a widespread enough problem that when I brought this to my committee, when I talk to my friends, when I talk to other people in congress about this, they were like, ‘Oh, I’ve experienced this,’ or ‘Oh, I know someone that did experience this,’” Fees said. “It was brought upon specifically by recent events, but ... sexual harassment, misconduct and discrimination have always been here, and they’re not going to go away unless we do something.”
The resolution suggests a specific protocol for “thoroughly investigating allegations of sexual misconduct, discrimination, or harassment by members of the university community with elevated or protected status,” which Fees said she believes does not exist in the Title IX or Institutional Equity offices.
The resolution also recommends that OU “more fully enforce its existing policy to investigate and respond to employees and university officials who suppress or dismiss reports of sexual misconduct, discrimination and harassment.”
For an example of administrators mishandling allegations, Fees pointed to Judith Pender, former interim director of the School of Drama, who sent an email that accused The Daily of running a smear campaign for reporting allegations of sexual harassment against Orr.
“Those actions contribute to a greater culture on campus that reinforces fear within survivors of these kind of situations to not come and speak up,” Fees said.
Although a resolution does not mandate any changes, it does state the opinion of the student congress since it passed unanimously with consent.
Copies of the resolution were sent to OU President James Gallogly and Title IX coordinator Bobby Mason, among others in the university administration. Every college dean was also sent a copy of the legislation, according to the bill.
“I hope (Gallogly) follows up on that promise to listen to us,” Fees said. “I hope that — just by sending it to all these people — that hopefully they’re not just going to put it in their recycle bin and move on. I hope this is taken seriously because it is a serious issue that is affecting so many students across campus.”
