UPDATED: June 20, 9:07 p.m.

The dean of student affairs announced today that she will host a series of meetings for the Syracuse University community regarding the restructuring of sexual violence support services.

Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz said in an email on Thursday that the decision to close the Advocacy Center and align its resources and services with the Counseling Center was based on her recommendation to Chancellor Kent Syverud. Both Kantrowitz and Syverud have heard positive and negative feedback from members of the campus community, she said.

“As this new structure is implemented, I want to continue to hear your thoughts, ideas and suggestions on how it can be shaped to best serve our students and address the suggestions and concerns we have heard,” Kantrowitz said in the email.

As a result, Kantrowitz said she’ll be hosting a series of “listening meetings” in June, July and August, and into the fall semester. The first meeting is scheduled for Monday from 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m. in the Panasci Lounge in the Schine Student Center. Kantrowitz said she will provide a summary of the first meeting to the campus community.

In an interview, Kantrowitz said the administration anticipated that members of the campus community would want and need more information about the restructuring of resources following the initial announcement about the closure of the Advocacy Center. Though the listening meetings weren’t initially planned, Kantrowitz said there was a desire to communicate with the people affected by the change.

“We always had an interest in being able to have a dialogue with the community,” she said. “We didn’t expect to make the change and go back to business as usual.”

During the first meeting, Kantrowtiz said she plans on sharing additional information about why the change was made, as well as addressing common questions she’s received. For example, she said many people said they understand the need for centralized support, but are concerned about the physical location of the Counseling Center.

“That’s something I want to talk about,” Kantrowitz said. “We certainly don’t want somebody to not have access because of location.”

In the email, Kantrowitz also discussed details of the services the Counseling Center will provide as a result of the changes. The center has 17 trained staff members who provide advocacy and counseling services to students 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, she said. Janet Epstein and Jill Sneider from the Advocacy Center will continue to provide student advocacy services. Epstein will work out of the Office of Student Assistance and Sneider will be in the Office of Health Promotion.

In addition, Kantrowitz said the change was made because the Counseling Center “can offer students access to completely confidential and privileged services under federal guidelines and state law,” which she said provides the maximum privacy under law.

The university will continue reporting non-identifying, statistical data about incidents of sexual violence to the federal government, and make that data publicly available, Kantrowitz said.

Kantrowitz added that she appreciates the passionate response people have shown on the issues of sexual assault and relationship violence. She said she’s hoping that passion and commitment will continue to grow.

Said Kantrowitz: “I know there’s a lot of interest in bringing back the Advocacy Center to the way it was but I’m wanting us to look forward and find an even stronger way to provide support as we move forward.”

 

Published on June 19, 2014 at 8:34 pm

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27