(Note: We sent this letter to the Occidental administration on May 10, 2013. You can stillsupport our efforts by signing our new public petition at Change.org.It's open to anyone
concerned about the sexual assault epidemic at colleges around the country.)
Open Letter to the Occidental Community from Alumni and Parents
May 10, 2013
We, the undersigned Occidental College alumni and parents, are dismayed at theabhorrent climate around sexual assault at our beloved institution. At the same time, werealize this is not a new problem, but one that has long needed remedy. While we areheartened by recent steps to change policies and practices regarding sexualmisconduct, we remain deeply disturbed that the administration displayed a lack of concern until students and faculty filed two federal complaints.We join with the faculty (Open Letter to the Occidental Community, May 1, 2013) inreaffirming the right of all students to live, work, and study on a safe campus whereequity prevails. Along with the faculty, we recognize and commend the courageousefforts of the members of the Occidental community who are working to ensure thatsexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault and rape have no place in our community.We agree with the Occidental Sexual Assault Coalition (OSAC) that there must bechanges to the sexual assault policies, there must be procedural integrity in hearingboard cases, there must be additional resources for sexual assault and rape survivors,and there must be significant, on-going sexual harassment, battery, assault, and rapeeducation for all students, administration, staff, faculty, parents, and alumni.Specifically, we support OSAC's recommendation that survivors should be encouragedto report incidents of sexual assault to campus authorities and the local police. Weexpect when such a report is made that the Oxy administration will respond seriously,sensitively, and expeditiously, and that the manner of this response will be spelled out inpolicy. Furthermore, we expect that appropriate steps will be taken to protect the personmaking the report from any perceived and/or real threats related to the reported incident. As alumni and parents, we also expect that Oxy's administration will work cooperativelywith any police investigation of a sexual assault on campus.We support OSAC's recommendation that Oxy establish a set list of adjudicationoptions. We additionally request that the policy match specific violations to specificadjudication options. In the past, administrators have exercised too much discretion asto what types of actions constitute a threat to the campus community. Most important, toensure the safety and well-being of assault survivors and the general student body, wedemand that any student found to have violated the school's policy against rape beexpelled and not allowed to graduate.
We recommend that Oxy's sexual assault policies make clear that they apply to allstudents who are currently enrolled, suspended, on a leave of absence, on probation, onstudy abroad, or on exchange to or from another institution.We support OSAC's recommendation for a regular report on sexual assaults both on-and off-campus, and request that this report also be distributed to alumni and parents.To ensure that Oxy rapidly addresses its sexual assault problem, we request that thePresident of the College make regular progress reports on the above actions to alumniand parents via the following venues:
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The Occidental Magazine
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The Occidental College website's For Parents and Alumni pages, not just the
President's page
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Alumni letter distributed to the alumni email list
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Parent letter distributed to the parent email listFinally, as alumni and parents, we are deeply disappointed in the leadership shown bythe current college administration. Care for the safety and well-being of all Oxy studentsshould be the administration's top priority. It is unacceptable to us that it took so manyyears of requests from faculty and students
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and finally two federal complaints
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tomake this issue a top priority for college officials. Many students have been harmed atOccidental College. While nothing will change that fact, we expect this administration toissue a formal and public apology to everyone who has suffered because of its inaction.We vow to work constructively and tirelessly to transform the policies and underlyingculture of Occidental College toward the elimination of sexual harassment, sexualbattery, sexual assault and rape and hold the Occidental administration accountable inachieving these goals.Sincerely,Cheryl Allain-MeeParent, '10 and '13Dr. Lisa Allen, '83Chris and Karen Baer Parents, '13Mac BakewellParent, '15
Christina Bauman, '83Diana Birney, '11Zina Bleck, '82
Jennifer Brainerd, ‘92
Kristin Brown, '08Lourdes Olivas Brown, '97John and Pat BringenbergParents, '14Jerven Carter, '92Christine Chang, '86Dennis and Amy ClaytonParents, 2014Sydney Coleman, '12Kathy Cooper-Ledesma, '82Dennis Dauber Parent, '14Kate Dauber Parent, '14Emily Dion, '84Nina Dooley, '79Tom Dougherty, '83Lauren and John DoyelParents, '14Barry Drake, '85Chelsea Duncan, '12