Dear Nevada State of Higher Education, Office of Student Conduct, and the Office of Equal Opportunity & Title IX,

These past few weeks have been extremely difficult for the entire UNR community, as stories of sexual assault and harassment that have occurred on and off campus have surfaced by brave survivors. Many of these stories all share the same sentiment - they bravely reported these incidents to seek justice and support, yet their voices were silenced by the school.

This is not a new issue. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men experience sexual assault or abuse at some point in their lifetime. 

 The sexual assault policy from the Office of Student Conduct states, "This policy was established to promote a community free from intimidation and harassment and to protect students from being subject to sexual assault...Any student found responsible for acts of sexual assault within the University community will be subject to disciplinary action". 

Not to mention, The sexual harassment policy from the Office of Equal Opportunity & Title IX states that they will "promptly contact the complainant to discuss the availability of supportive measures, consider the complainant’s wishes with respect to supportive measures, inform the complainant of the availability of supportive measures with or without the filing of a formal complaint, and explain to the complainant the process for filing a formal complaint.”

These actions to protect the victims and punish the perpetrators are clearly stated in the policies described above - so why is nothing being done for these victims? 

The problem is not a lack of awareness of where survivors can go to report, the problem is the UNR's administration do not act enough when survivors do come forward to report sexual assault and harassment.

The Nevada State of Higher Education(NSHE) needs to reassess its policies to ensure that these perpetrators are held accountable for their actions as well as respond to the victims as soon as possible. There needs to be a strict maximum number of days after a complaint is made for the school to be required to take concrete action to hold these people accountable. We demand transparency. The Title IX office needs to release  data showing how they handle sexual misconduct complaints under Title IX in order to improve their procedures and overall campus safety. The school needs to admit to its wrong-doings and provide concrete change to its policies and procedures. We are tired of your empty words.

Silence is compliance. We the students demand action, we demand change, we demand sexual assault and sexual harassment reform on this campus. We believe and stand with survivors. So should you.

Sincerely,

Your ashamed and disappointed students.

For more information on the stories of the survivors:

Hackbarth, Kristen. “UNR Faculty Member Launches GoFundMe, Alleges Decade of Abuse and Retaliation.” This Is Reno, 3 Oct. 2023, thisisreno.com/2023/10/unr-faculty-member-launches-gofundme-alleges-decade-of-abuse-and-retaliation/. 

Hackbarth, Kristen. “UNR Slapped with Harassment Lawsuit.” This Is Reno, 1 Sept. 2023, thisisreno.com/2023/08/unr-slapped-with-harassment-lawsuit/.