AUSTIN, Texas _ After months of student protests and an examination by outside experts, the University of Texas on Monday announced it would change its policies around sexual misconduct.
The changes are based on recommendations made last week by the law firm Husch Blackwell. For several months, the firm's consultants have been holding meetings with students and other campus stakeholders to examine ways the university could improve its handling of faculty sexual misconduct.
In a letter to the campus Monday, UT President Gregory L. Fenves outlined the policy changes, which included making termination a presumptive punishment for any faculty member found to have committed sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking or interpersonal violence.
For those faculty who are not terminated, their names will be compiled and made publicly available, while preserving the privacy of survivors, Fenves said.
"Sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking and interpersonal violence will not be accepted at The University of Texas at Austin," Fenves wrote. "If a faculty or staff member commits these acts, the consequences will be clear."
The impetus for the changes was an outcry from students, who in October began publicly protesting the continued employment of several faculty who had violated the school's sexual misconduct policies. Since then, the university has been working with students and experts to improve its processes and be more transparent
The university and Husch Blackwell consultants debated whether or not to regularly make a list of punished professors publicly available, out of concerns for survivors. At a meeting with the UT Faculty Council last month, consultant Scott Schneider said no other school across the country releases such a list.
But ultimately, Texas' mandatory reporting laws and public information policies warrant a "unique approach," to these records, Husch Blackwell wrote in its recommendation.
"It is worth noting that this practice is not utilized by any of the peer institutions benchmarked for this review," read the report. "However, we believe there are unique legal issues in Texas, including the mandatory reporting law and Texas's robust public information law, that warrant a unique approach."
Other recommendations from Husch Blackwell include streamlining survivor services, making sexual misconduct training mandatory for employees and implementing restorative justice methods in sex discrimination matters.
Consultants found that while the university offered a robust set of support services for survivors, the system was viewed as confusing, not clearly communicated and possibly underutilized. The firm recommended UT make a single office where students can access confidential personnel to provide them support.
The firm also recommended UT clearly differentiate between forms of sexual misconduct in its policies, which it said causes confusion about the seriousness of different violations. It's recommended the university define each act of misconduct with as much precision as possible.
"We recommend that the University clarify that not all violations of its sex discrimination policy are equally egregious _ a point that should be emphasized in the definitions themselves as well as the presumptively appropriate sanctions the University metes out for violations of the policy," the report said.
