Members of Eastern Michigan University administration, faculty, Student Government, and SARA met on April 8 to discuss new suggestions for combatting sexual misconduct on campus. One of the suggestions that received support from many was requiring students to take classes on sexual health and sexual misconduct.
The suggestions given were from a survey created by the Title IX research committee.
SARA went over the report of this survey with Solange Simoes, the chair of the research committee, and Sonia Chawla, the research compliance officer. Marilyn Corsianos, Caryn Charter, Kate Mehuron, Paul Leighton, and other members of the Title IX Research Committee also contributed to the report.
The suggestions ranged from improvements to be made for the Title IX office, public safety, education, and other campus resources.
After going over an overview of the report, the Zoom meeting was separated into breakout rooms. My breakout room had Sonia Chawla, Provost Rhonda Longworth, Professor Christine Neufeld, Professor Beth Currens, Professor Tricia McTague, Professor Tony Pressley-Sanon, and myself, representing Sexual Assault and Rape Awareness.
We mainly focused on the recommendations that “EMU should require classes on sexual misconduct for all students" and “Students should undergo regular testing of knowledge of sexual misconduct,” with some influences from “Regular training on sexual misconduct should be required.”
Many believed that required courses for credit would be better than required training, but some of the ideas of the training could be applied to the classes.
The report suggested a single or multiple classes. I thought it might be a good idea to have a more general course about sexual health as a requirement and ones with a more focused topic could be created to cover general education requirements.
There were multiple suggested classes, but generally, I think they could all be divided into three topics: human sexuality, sexual violence, and sexualization and fetishization in media.
Human sexuality could be what is basically a more in-depth, age appropriate, and all encompassing sexual health class, as a lot of students never got that in high school. It could cover periods, reproductive health, consent, how to safety participate in different sexual activities, et cetera. I also would like to see it stress the reproductive health and experiences of transgender individuals.
Sexual violence would focus specifically on sexual assault, harassment, domestic abuse, et cetera, as well as misogyny, toxic masculinity, and rape culture.
Sexualization and fetishization in media would cover stereotypes of different minority groups, specifically in a sexual context. It would also cover how these stereotypes are perpetuated in the media and how we can combat these ideas.
It was also suggested that these classes would have a final project or workshop. I think it would be very productive for students creating their own additional lesson, touching on something the class didn’t cover on. perhaps the class didn’t address a particular experience, group, study, et cetera that students might think is important. This would allow for the course to be improved upon each year, and it would also promote active learning for the students.
Moving on to the next point: testing. Like most classes, the required sexual health courses will have a final. However, unlike most classes, this class would place a greater importance on the final exam grade, not only to pass the course, but also to graduate from the university. There is some debate on what this grade should be, but most people seemed to agree an A should be required. I think this is very appropriate, as it should be an expectation for people to understand sexual health, consent, sexism, et cetera. It is simply integral to being a good, educated citizen.
There were so many specific recommendations for topics, like discussing sexual assault training for RA's or lessons for international students.
All in all, there were so many good ideas coming from this meeting and it was a very productive discussion. Sexual education and being actively anti sexual assault is so important, and I am glad EMU is making steps in the right direction. I cannot wait to see what becomes of these ideas.
