Zoe Berg, Photo Editor

In-person sexual misconduct workshops are back this fall after a COVID-19 pandemic-induced hiatus last year.

Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Janay Garrett wrote in an Oct. 20 email to upper-level students that sexual misconduct training is required for all juniors and seniors. The requirement was fulfilled entirely online during the 2020-21 academic year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Per Boyd and Garrett’s email, students can choose from a “menu of options” to fulfill the requirement, including a host of in-person workshops, an online course or an individualized conversation.

“Preventing, recognizing, and responding to sexual misconduct is a community-wide effort: every one of us has a part to play in making our campus culture as safe, respectful, and supportive as it can be,” Boyd and Garrett wrote in the email. “Annual training enables us to build our individual and collective skills.”

The training sessions, offered by the Office of Gender and Campus Culture, focus on sexual misconduct prevention, intervention and response. They are facilitated by student Communication and Consent Educators and fulfill the College’s annual Title IX training requirement.

Among the menu of current offerings are workshops entitled “Advanced Bystander Intervention,” “Intimate Communication” and “Making the Party Your Own: Hosting Skills 101.” TIPS bartender training, “Self-Care Toolkit: Building Resilience” and “Supporting Survivors: Exploring Impacts and Promoting Holistic Wellness” are other options, in addition to a self-guided online course.

According to Garrett, the development of the in-person workshops was a yearslong collaborative process between generations of CCEs and student affairs fellows. The director and assistant director of the Office of Gender and Campus Culture — Garrett and Caitlin Slattery — supervise the work.

The opportunity to again host in-person workshops this year is “especially exciting” in light of last year’s pandemic-induced shutdown of many campus operations, Garrett wrote in a statement to the News.

Garrett added that both the menu of workshops and the content of the sessions themselves have evolved over time in response to shifting student opinions and new research. From Garrett’s perspective, in-person workshops are more tailored to the student experience, affording participants the chance to learn through “scenario-based dialogue” and incorporate engagement with peers and CCEs.

According to Garrett, the “scaffolded” organization of the training sessions aims to reflect a student’s “progression” through their college years — a first-year student’s Yale experience might be quite different than a senior’s, Garrett explained. Upper-level workshops allow the strategies taught in introductory sessions to be “refined, nuanced and built upon,” she wrote.

“It’s [definitely] more convenient when first and second year, they just [kind of] roll it into pre-existing commitments, but I’m also really glad it’s mandatory all four years,” Sophie Ascheim ’23 said.

Students can register for training on the Office of Gender and Campus Culture page located on YaleConnect. While juniors may fulfill the requirement in either the fall or spring semester — registering by Feb. 18 and completing the session by April 22 — seniors must fulfill the requirement in the fall, registering for a session by this Friday and completing it by Dec. 3. 

Some students who are members of certain groups are already required to participate in training sessions that fulfill the requirement, such as first-year counselors, pre-orientation leaders, peer liaisons and varsity athletes.

A “few dozen” student organizations opted into group-specific workshops every year prior to the pandemic, according to Garrett. She noted that while only a “handful” of students opt into an one-on-one conversation rather than a group workshop each year, making the option available is important. Students can choose to have that conversation with a student affairs fellow, a CCE or Garrett herself.

Garrett added that another major focus of the Office of Gender and Campus Culture’s work this semester has been ensuring that sophomore students who missed out on in-person workshops last year “get caught up” on content traditionally required of first years.

“Annual training strengthens our community’s capacity to prevent, intervene, and respond to sexual misconduct,” Boyd and Garrett wrote in their email. “Working together, we can cultivate a community where sexual misconduct has no place, where each of us can feel safe, supported, and fully able to take advantage of all the opportunities that Yale has to offer.”

The Office of Gender and Campus Culture is located at 135 Prospect St.