smaxwell@phoenix.princeton.EDU (Sara Maxwell) (11/21/90)
Hi. HELP!! I am looking for information about how other universities and colleges handle the problems of sexual harassment and what is sometimes called gender harassment (by which people seem to mean taking people less seriously, or whatever, because of their gender--as opposed to trying to sleep with them). The reason I'm looking is that I am part of a university-wide committee at my school that is looking at our own sexual harassment office and thinking about what else it can do, where it should be going, and where it should fit in the university structure. We are especially looking for good ideas that will travel-- things we can try here. If I get a lot of responses, and people are interested, I will post a summary. PLEASE E-MAIL ME at the above address if you do decide to help me. Thank you. This isn't a formal survey or anything; I am just groping for information. These are the sorts of things that I would like to know: If you are assaulted or harassed, is there someone you can go to whose job it is to help you? Who will counsel you on your options, or help you file a complaint? Are there outreach or education programs on your campus that deal with problems like date rape, harassment of students by teachers, etc? As part of the training for teaching assistants (or faculty) is there any discussion of sexual harassment? As part of the training for teaching assistants (or faculty) is there any discussion of classroom and advising dynamics--for example, how to help men and women participate equally in classroom discussions, how to try to avoid evaluating the work and promise of men and women differently? If you are a graduate student (or teach graduate students), is there any discussion or program that looks at how to avoid problems in the advisor-advisee relationship that have to do with sexual or gender harassment? I'm especially interested in things that have worked, that you or people you know have found helpful. It could be a poster program, a campus talk, a hotline, a presentation in a dorm, a booklet you get at registration, a seminar for faculty -- whatever. Anything that helps men and women understand each other better and be more productive students and teachers is fair game. I'll keep anything confidential that you ask me to. Thank you so much for reading this far, and I hope I hear from you. Sara