Hello friends and colleagues. Welcome to the NCHERM Spring 2004 Newsletter. Here’s a quick overview of what’s inside this issue:

1) Updates on NCHERM news and activities
2) Great Semester…Great Opportunity.
3) Upcoming Fall 2004 NCHERM Seminars and Presentations
4) Exciting!!! — New NCHERM Judicial Training Video Available
5) The NCHERM Spring 2005 Calendar of Seminars
6) Book Now for Spring 2005 Campus Visits
7) Free Article on Psychological Disorders

View the Fall 2004 Newsletter in PDF format.

If you would prefer not to receive our quarterly newsletter, please e-mail NCHERM@aol.com and ask to be removed from the subscription list. We’ll take care of it right away.

1) Updates on NCHERM News and Activities

Usually, you would have received this newsletter in August. For two reasons, we decided to wait until mid-semester to release our newsletter this fall. First, we wanted to wait until we had big news to share, and now that our newest video is out, the timing is perfect.

More on that, below.

Our second reason was just a simple time constraint. Brett just finished his 50th campus visit since August 15th, so there has barely been time to breathe, let alone prepare and send the newsletter. Sorry for delay, but we have the time now, so here it is.

2) Great Semester... Great Opportunity

Fifty campus visits in two and a half months! Is Brett insane? Yes and no. It is a grueling schedule, but with good reason. Many of you know that Brett and Cori are expecting a baby on November 12th. Despite Brett’s best efforts, we know our baby will arrive when she wants to, and not according to Brett’s travel schedule. So, we intentionally packed all our visits into the early part of the semester, to make sure that Brett would be home for the birth. Now he’s home, and is working on many of the policy reviews that colleges and universities have recently requested. We appreciate that many of you have contacted us to engage NCHERM to review your campus conduct codes, crisis protocols, student government manuals, confidentiality policies, honor codes, student assistance brochures and other important documents. For those of you who have not yet engaged our services, this is perfect timing. Brett is looking for work to do from home, his turnaround time is quick, and Cori is likely to give you a good price on his services, to keep him home and busy. Contact us today. Once the spring semester rolls around, Brett will be on the road again, so any other reviews will have to wait until May.

3) Upcoming Fall 2004 NCHERM Seminars and Presentations

Brett Sokolow will be a featured speaker at the ASJA Circuit III Drive-In Conference at York College on Friday, December 10th 2004. He will address Best Practices for Adjudication of Campus Sexual Misconduct.

Brett Sokolow will be presenting two sessions at the National Conference on Student Leadership in Orlando, Florida on November 22nd, 2004.

On Friday, December 3rd, 2004, NCHERM will be presenting an Intensive Institute at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. The topic is Crafting a Code of Conduct for the 21st Century College.

This is a full-day intensive institute on writing and revising codes of conduct, including both policies and procedures. Most codes are not educational, developmental tools. This workshop will guide participants in a process to re-envision conduct codes as tools of prevention that are connected to the institutional mission and values. Most policies are dense, and are not written for ease of understanding or application. This workshop teaches participants how to make a paradigm shift in how we craft policies and procedures, taking them from reactive rules to proactive guidance.

Participants will be involved in:

• Learning techniques for assessing policies and procedures
• Learning the difference between a rule and a policy
• Determining whether policies have an educational emphasis and impact
• Determining whether policies have a developmental emphasis and impact
• Drafting policies for ease of understanding and application
• Drafting procedures that allow for maximum flexibility and risk management
• Learning how examples can enhance conduct codes
• Determining how to connect codes to institutional and community values
• Acquire a four-step process for drafting policies

4) Exciting!!! — New NCHERM Judicial Training Video Available

On September 23rd, 2004, NCHERM held its videoseminar, Best Practices for Campus Sexual Misconduct Judicial Training at the University of Dayton. The seminar was a great success, with more than one hundred participants at campuses across the country.

One of our desires, in organizing this event, was to be able replace the tape of the 2002 judicial training event that NCHERM has been marketing. While the content was good, the video quality and sound were not up to our demanding standards. The 2004 version was taped digitally, and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. You will be too. It is a four hour tape (also available as a DVD), featuring facilitation by Brett Sokolow and Saunie Schuster (the Senior Assistant Attorney General for the State of Ohio in the Higher Education Section, representing public colleges and universities), and interaction with a live judicial board and judicial boards participating by remote from around the country. This seminar sets the standard for sexual misconduct judicial training, even if we do say so ourselves.

This comprehensive training seminar focused on the best practices for adjudicating sexual misconduct through campus judicial hearings. The training was broadcast live, using judicial officers from the University of Dayton as the on-site training group. Registrants had the opportunity from off-site to train their boards via this televised format, and off-site participants had the opportunity to fax and e-mail questions to the presenters and on-site judicial officers. Now, the full tape of this valuable seminar is available.

• Look for news soon of a February 2005 two-day conference at Catawba College in North Carolina. Brett Sokolow and Alan Berkowitz will present one day focused on Culture Change Strategies for Problem Drinking on Campus and a second day on Culture Change Strategies for Address Campus Sexual Misconduct.
• Brett Sokolow will be presenting pre-con and post-con sessions at the ASJA 2005 International Conference in Clearwater Beach, Florida. The pre-con presentation is the NCHERM Judicial Decision-Maker Training Academy, an advanced judicial training on policy analysis and deliberation. Brett will present a post-con with Dr. Linda Rowe on the confluence of free speech and sexual harassment issues.
• NCHERM will be offering several audio and web-seminars throughout the spring of 2005, on topics including sexual misconduct and general judicial training, risk management of problem drinking, and investigation training. Look for information to be posted in December on www.ncherm.org
• Brett Sokolow will Keynote the Guardian Conference at the University of Central Oklahoma on Wednesday, June 8th, 2005. This conference focuses on sexual assault and sexual harassment issues for colleges and schools.

6) Book Now for Spring 2005 Campus Visits

We are planning our calendar of visits to campus for spring 2005 now. Please contact us if you would like to arrange a visit from Brett Sokolow and/or Alan Berkowitz. A list of the student programs offered by Brett and Alan is provided below, and you can find out more about their consulting services by visiting www.ncherm.org. Additionally, please keep in mind that booking Brett Sokolow through Campus Outreach Services is no longer possible—you should call NCHERM directly. We can be reached at: NCHERM • 20 Callery Way • Willistown, PA 19355 • NCHERM@aol.com • (610) 993-0229.

Programs Presented by Brett Sokolow That Will Connect With Your Students

Drunk Sex or Date Rape: Can You Tell the Difference?

This acclaimed program has been presented on 900 college campuses, and was the Keynote of the 2004 Safe Society Zone Conference. This interactive jury exercise engages the audience in a discussion of consent and incapacity that is crucial for every college campus.

Ten Things Every Student Should Know About Drinking

This program is not for every campus. Ten Things acknowledges that many college students drink, and is not a “don’t drink” approach. Instead the program offers a harm reduction framework by encouraging protective behaviors and bursting alcohol mythology. In fact, you could say that this program teaches students how to be safer drinkers. It is a message many colleges need to send, but are hesitant to address.

A Conversation About Consent

This is an advanced program on sexual communication. Men and women make enormous assumptions about consent, and often don't get how it really works. This program asks critical questions such as: Does consent have an expiration date? Can consent be withdrawn? When must consent be given--before, during or after sexual contact? Are there different levels of sexual interaction to which consent must be specifically given? What are some indicators of a lack of clarity in a sexual situation? What are common assumptions men and women make about sex. How consent is like—and unlike—baseball? What is the difference between seduction and coercion?

What You Don't Know About Hazing Can Kill You

A one hour interactive program for Greeks, Athletes, ROTC, etc. This is a workshop where audience members are challenged to work in small groups and think critically to identify problematic practices that might violate state hazing law and/or campus policy, and propose alternative events and practices that would still allow for group engagement without violating law/policy.

Engaging Educational Programs presented by Alan Berkowitz:

Promoting Consent, Preventing Coercion: What Men and Women Can Do to Prevent Sexual Assault.

Men and women both must take responsibility for preventing sexual assault, but in different ways. This lecture presents guidelines for relationships in which sexual activity is mutual, uncoerced, and consenting, helps explain men's fear of false accusation, and outlines steps both men and women can take to prevent sexual assault and intervene in risky situations. (For mixed gender audiences.)

Is Rape Prevention A Men's Issue?

This lecture outlines reasons why men must take responsibility for preventing sexual assault. What do men feel about this issue and about the politics of sexual behavior? What can men do to address our fear of false accusation? How do men feel about the way other men talk about women and sex? This lecture is designed to address men's concerns about sexual assault and provide guidelines for consenting sexual intimacy. (For all male groups, including general audiences, members of men's groups—including fraternities and athletic teams—and male faculty and staff. Can also be offered as a 2-hour workshop.)

Is What I Want What You Want? Promoting Consent and Preventing Coercion in Intimate Relationships.

What can men and women do to ensure that all sexual intimacy is mutual, uncoerced and consenting? What are guidelines for ensuring that consent is present? This lecture provides guidelines for what men can do to prevent rape and what women can do to reduce their risk of victimization, and what we can all do to create healthy campuses where sexual assault is uncommon.

Taking Back the Night: What it Means for Men and Women.

“Take Back the Night” marches are common on college campuses and in communities. This keynote address takes a careful look at the different roles women and men can play in Take Back the Night activities, focusing on men’s role as allies in ending violence against women, and on what it means for women to “take back the night.”

Effective Strategies for Solving Residence Life Problems.

This session focuses on more effective leadership skills for addressing campus problems such as substance abuse and sexual assault. Challenges commonly faced by residence life staff are discussed along with effective strategies for creating a sense of community and promoting responsibility for the well being of the living unit.

7) Free Article on Psychological Disorders

As with every issue, we try to provide you with a thought-provoking article. Recently, I came across this one, and have been sharing it with clients. I think you’ll find it valuable, too. It is reprinted with permission of the author.

Issue Brief

Examining Current Challenges in Secondary Education and Transition (*PDF)
September 2004 • Vol. 3, Issue 1

© The NCHERM Newsletter. Fall 2004. All rights reserved.

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