UMW has made a lot of changes to its sexual assault and misconduct policy since 2013. I first examine the student handbook from the 2013-14 school year and how it used harsher language and made it seem like the only reason the policy existed was to cover a law, specifically mentioning Title IX and the requirement to have a policy. The next school year’s policy would be revised to use less harsh language and indicated that sexual misconduct had no place at UMW. While the improvements were made, there was still more to be done. I used two articles, one from the Blue and Gray talking about President Hurley’s meeting with students and staff to try to improve the policy by gaining imput, and one from MS. Magazine about the Title IX suit with FUC and how the school failed to address concerns about gender discrimination. I would then transtion to discuss the current policy, how it is extensive in its length and detail, and how improvements were clearly made in terms of sexual misconduct as well as gender discrimination. I then discuss the Talley Center and the YES IS THE KEY CAMPAIGN and how their activity has helped raise awareness on campus and create change.
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I very much enjoyed your paper, and really felt like it was a good, broad look at policies and procedures at UMW regarding sexual assault and misconduct. If you decide to continue with this topic, I think it would be a good idea to pick a few areas to go in depth into. One of these would be to look even closer at the policies, at the language used in the current policy. Another thing you might consider is to add some more qualitative research by reaching out to admin, staff, or students that are involved with the policy and the issues which you wrote about. In particular, I’m curious to learn about the power relationships within these issues, though I really like how you compared and contrasted the different policies from year to year.