Университет Джорджтауна вводит новые меры по борьбе с сексуальными домогательствами

Georgetown University will institute new measures to mitigate and handle sexual misconduct after a Washington, D.C. law went into effect June 30. The university will retain two confidential resource advisors (CRAs) to counsel survivors and require all students to complete a second mandatory sexual misconduct training. The bill, passed in April 2025, is intended to improve education about sexual misconduct and expand access to confidential resources on college campuses. A university spokesperson — on behalf of the Office for Equal Opportunity Compliance, which handles equal opportunity laws like Title IX — said Georgetown is dedicated to sexual misconduct prevention. “Georgetown has long been committed to eradicating all forms of sexual misconduct and creating a safe and respectful campus community,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “We encourage students to review resources available to them.” Georgetown’s Title IX office — which is not confidential but keeps information private — provides students with resources, supportive and guidance on formal complaint options. The new law will require Georgetown to designate two staff members as CRAs who connect survivors with existing confidential resources such as Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS), the Office of the Student Ombuds (OMO), the Sexual Assault, Relationship Violence and Stalking Services (SARP) team and Health and Education Services (HES). Andrew Echols — the executive director of the Every Voice Coalition, a national advocacy group that helped pass the bill — said the emotional labor associated with Title IX reporting often deters survivors from seeking other support, even from confidential providers. “What we see the big issues are with Title IX are the mandatory cross-examinations and live hearings that force survivors to sit at a table with the person who abused them and then answer their questions in front of a Title IX coordinator,” Echols told The Hoya. “That is so harmful and so anti-survivor in so many ways. We’re seeing that that is the barrier for so many students to even report at all.” At Georgetown, 25.3% of undergraduate women reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact since starting at the school, according to the university’s Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness (HESMA) 2024 survey. Izzy White (CAS ’28), the Every Voice Coalition director of state advocacy in Pennsylvania, said the bill aims to protect survivors’ stories as they navigate available resources. “But the intention is to make it impossible for a survivor’s story and data and information to go anywhere without their consent, and the only way to legally have that possible is with this privileged status,” White told The Hoya. Sara Denning (SON ’27) — a member of Sexual Assault Peer Educators (SAPE), a student group that runs trainings on sexual assault and consent — said she hopes the new law increases accountability at Georgetown. “My hope is that this legislation creates another layer of accountability and transparency around how higher education responds to sexual misconduct,” Denning wrote to The Hoya. “Having clear legal requirements means the university has external standards to meet,” Denning added. The university is also required to offer undergraduate students a second “trauma-informed and gender-inclusive” sexual misconduct training. Currently, incoming students must complete an online module and an in-person bystander training during their first year. Heidi Paisley (CAS ’27), one of SAPE’s presidents, said the second training will help students better retain important information. “I think that repeated education again, not just front-loading all of this information your first year and having the chance to reengage with it halfway through college is going to be another way that Georgetown can commit to making a survivor-centric campus and having people know how to use the resources that they have,” Paisley told The Hoya. In the HESMA survey, 28.0% of students reported being “very” or “extremely” knowledgeable about Georgetown sexual assault and misconduct resources, a 3.7% decrease from the prior survey administration in 2019. As universities continue implementing the new guidelines, Echols said she is excited to see the sexual misconduct resources become more accessible as CRAs’ role on campus expands. “One of the things personally that I’m really looking forward to monitoring and seeing how it evolves over the next couple of years is just the role of the advocate,” Echols said. “I am really excited to see how many students utilize that resource, and excited to see how having a person whose full time job is supporting survivors — what impact that can have on a college campus, and the culture of a college campus.” This article was updated Sept. 4 to better reflect resources provided by Georgetown’s Title IX office.