The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors on Tuesday unanimously committed to adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual assault – although the university hasn't figured out what zero tolerance means.
The university's current policy, adopted in 2011, states that sexual misconduct "will not be tolerated," but it does not take a zero-tolerance approach to punishment. And a draft of a new policy that had been circulating prior to the recent uproar includes a range of punishments for sexual assault, not all of which involve someone being forced out.
"The Board of Visitors adopted a zero-tolerance approach toward sexual assault at the university today," Anthony de Bruyn, a university spokesman, said. "The details of the approach and how it is articulated and implemented will be refined in the near term in collaboration with the university adiminstration."
The decision came during a three-hour emergency board meeting held about a week after the publication of a Rolling Stone article that detailed a gang rape at a U.Va. fraternity in 2012. While the meeting’s focus was ostensibly on how to change the campus culture surrounding sexual assault, much of the afternoon was spent specifically discussing alcohol abuse.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/26/u-virginia-board-adopts-policy-show-it-getting-tough-sexual-assault-policy-lacks