UW-Madison administration is simplifying protocol for students to report incidents involving prejudice conduct, speech or expression.
Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp said the current procedure has deterred some students from reporting incidents, and the new protocol will allow for more complete reporting of bias. Currently, students must fill out a written form and deliver it to the Dean of Students Office if they wish to report an occurrence.
Under the new process, Helmkamp said an investigative team will be in charge of determining what happened in each incident. Following this, a “response team” composed of various departments and relevant personnel will determine how the university should respond.
“I would hope that [the new protocol] strengthens our ability to support individual students who experience incidents of bias,” Helmkamp said.
Administrators are testing the new process to address a recent report of students at Delta Upsilon party at UW-Madison shouting racial insults and throwing a bottle at two African-American women. Officials will then assess the protocol’s strengths and weaknesses.
Helmkamp said the new protocol will also allow officials to better track prejudice altercations. He said this will allow the university to identify patterns causing such incidents, which can help prevent them from happening in the future.
“By having better knowledge as to where there are problems, we can put ourselves as a university in a better position to be proactive,” Helmkamp added.
