Efforts within the St. Thomas dean’s office to update the school’s sexual misconduct policy and educate students on the topics of relationship violence, consent and stalking have given rise to a new partnership between the Dean of Students office and multiple student groups.

According to Rachel Harris, interim associate dean of students, a group of human resources staff and representatives from the Dean of Students office will work with student groups, faculty and staff on training students on the university’s recently updated sexual misconduct policy.

Harris said the Dean of Students office is just getting started with different upperclass student groups.

“I’ve presented to the peer ministers and the RAs, all the Tommie Central staff, all of the STAR board and the Campus Life USG execs,” Harris said. “We also did all the international students, both new and returning, the graduate and undergraduate.”

In addition to participating in these sessions, Dean of Students Karen Lange said students are reading the new policy on their own.

“When you go on Murphy Online, you have to check a box now that says you’ve read the policy,” Lange said. “I have heard some feedback from students that said students are actually reading it. We have information that about 86 percent of our students have gone through and done that so far.”

Sophomore Stephanie Garcia said she wishes the widespread training sessions had started sooner.

“Looking back on my freshman year, I wish my RA or … someone had told me more about our policies,” Garcia said. “There’s a particular person who was bothering me, sending me pornographic pictures, and I just thought there was nothing I could do about it. Turns out, I read the policy over the summer and realized I could’ve done so much to help that person who was bothering me, as well as protect the future females he would target.”

Senior Mark Hill, president of the St. Thomas chapter for national fraternity Sigma Chi, said that members will undergo training next week. Hill attended a session with STAR and said it has a lot to offer for his fraternity brothers.

“Being able to protect people in our community and providing that education and those tools, I think, are going to be really beneficial,” Hill said.

He added that students need to make prevention a priority.

“If you’re not talking about it and just keeping it in the dark where it’s been for, you know, you can say centuries, is not going to help the situation,” Hill said. “I think, specifically to our organization, it’s important to have men who are advocating for those women because men, whether we like it or not, we’re part of a group that instigates a lot of it.”

Hill said having male advocates makes prevention and spreading awareness more accessible to all men.

“I want more men … to understand that this is a real issue, and if you’re not actively eliminating the problem, you’re not necessarily a part of the problem, but you’re not making it any better,” he said.

Junior Joseph Blatner said a lot of students aren’t encouraged to speak out and that the training could give them the confidence and the means to do so.

“It doesn’t take much to train students, so I think this could help a lot of people,” Blatner said.

According to Harris, it will take a while to reach all of the upperclassmen, but she said she hopes students will pass the knowledge on to their peers in the meantime.

“This policy has a role for you,” Harris said. “As a student in a community, we’re a community who cares about each other, and you need to be a part of that.”

Jamie Bernard can be reached at bern2479@stthomas.edu.