USU Joins National Network to Prevent Sexual Harassment in Higher Ed

Utah State University has been accepted as a Partner Network Organization in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)’s Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. USU joins 16 other higher education-focused organizations in the partner network.

“The Action Collaborative’s commitment to ‘identifying, researching, developing, implementing and sharing efforts that move beyond basic legal compliance’ aligns with USU’s ongoing sexual harassment prevention and response work,” said Alison Adams-Perlac, executive director of the Office of Equity. “Being a partner network organization will allow USU to continue improving our work and create safer campus communities.”

As part of this network, USU will participate actively in the Action Collaborative’s work; share information about USU’s efforts and innovations around preventing and addressing sexual harassment; and use, adapt, implement and share resources and practices that are identified or published by the Action Collaborative. Members of USU’s Implementation and Coordination Committee (ICC) will be primarily responsible for ensuring the university meets the collaborative’s annual obligations.

“We’re especially looking forward to having access to the Action Collaborative’s repository, which includes information about policies, practices and programs being piloted by the membership,” said Hilary Renshaw, Title IX coordinator in the Office of Equity. “It’s important to be able to learn from other institutions that are being innovative in their sexual harassment prevention and response efforts.”

Each year, USU will contribute to the repository by sharing descriptions of work that outline the university’s recent efforts in realms such as prevention, response, remediation and evaluation.

“This year, we’ll share information about several projects we’re proud of,” said Emmalee Fishburn, a senior prevention specialist in the Office of Equity. “These include the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion topics training for search committees, sexual misconduct campus climate survey for employees and respondent education process.”

A summary of USU’s actions related to sexual harassment since spring 2016 is available at usu.edu/sexual-respect/timeline. The university’s Sexual Respect website (sexualrespect.usu.edu) includes information about prevention and response efforts, university support and reporting resources, and university oversight of sexual harassment work.

More information about the Action Collaborative is available at nationalacademies.org/our-work/action-collaborative-on-preventing-sexual-harassment-in-higher-education.