TO THE EDITOR:
As survivors of sexual and relationship violence at UNC, we are pleased to see the University release a long-overdue updated Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Related Misconduct.
At the same time, we know that a new policy on its own will not come close to solving the deeply entrenched institutional culture at UNC.
The presence of an updated policy is one thing; actually providing justice for survivors and safety for all students by removing perpetrators from campus is entirely another. The University currently fails survivors in a plethora of ways — by failing to remove perpetrators from survivors’ classes and residence halls, failing to provide acceptable accommodations for survivors with disabilities, failing to enforce no-contact orders and failing to inform survivors of their rights, to name a few.
The University’s failure will not be remedied by policy changes alone.
The University must remove administrators who actively blame and disbelieve reporting survivors. We demand that the University protect our right to an education free from fear.
No student should have to see their rapist, stalker or abuser on the way to class. As things are now, this is a campus where you will be expelled for cheating or using drugs but not for raping another student.
This must change. We cannot believe that the University acts in good faith on the behalf of its students until we start seeing the University do what it is legally obligated to do and has failed to do for all of recent memory — believe survivors. Expel perpetrators.
Christine Allison, Laura Carroll and Landen Gambill
