Oxy Parents, Alumni Distressed About Sexual Assaults

A group of Occidental College alumni and parents signed an open letter to the college community Monday, expressing deep distress over the Oxy administration’s alleged indifference to students’ complaints of rape and sexual assault on campus.

“While we’re heartened by recent steps to change policies and practices regarding sexual misconduct,” the statement said, “we remain deeply disturbed that the administration displayed a lack of concern until students and faculty filed two federal complaints.”

The timing of the open letter roughly coincided with Monday’s vote of no confidence by a wide majority of Oxy faculty members in the services of the college counsel and the students dean.

The statement by alumni and parents, issued through a Facebook group called Oxy Community Against Sexual Assault, demanded changes to the college’s sexual assault policies, including “procedural integrity” in hearing cases as well as significant education on sexual assault issues not just for all students but also for the college administration, faculty, staff, alumni and parents.

The open letter supported a recommendation by the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition, an advocacy group committed to raising awareness about the “sexual assault epidemic” on campus, that assault survivors be encouraged to report sexual assault to campus authorities as well as local police.

“Most important, to ensure the safety and well-being of assault survivors and the general student body, we demand that any student found to have violated the school’s policy against rape be expelled and not allowed to graduate,” the statement said.

See the attached PDF for a full copy of the open letter.

• Click here to read a series of recent open letters from Oxy President Veitch to the campus community regarding the sexual assaults scandal.

• Click here to read details about an April 18 news conference at which six Oxy students read statements about their alleged rape or sexual assault.

• Click here to read about an April 19 "Sleepover For Sexual Assault Awareness" at the Occidental College campus.

• Click here to read about an Oxy senior who says she was raped and that she “encountered lots of barriers” coping with her trauma at college.