What is the Response Working Group?

The Response Working Group is a subset of the Members of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education that are working to develop, implement, evaluate, and compile approaches for responding to sexual harassment so that it contributes to creating an organizational climate in which sexual harassment is not tolerated. The Group is taking on this task by identifying promising practices within and beyond their institutions; engaging and learning from those doing work and developing new approaches; and working to address any on-the-ground barriers, unintended consequences, and challenges that arise in working to implement promising strategies and best practices. Topics and approaches examined by this working group range from preventing the “pass the harasser” problem to identifying and addressing current challenges in higher education response systems for faculty found responsible for sexual harassment.

What is the Response Working Group Currently Working on?

The Response Working Group is organized into project groups that work on specific topics of interest to the Action Collaborative Members. Each project group gathers information and produces a publication that provide information on research and practices to help inform efforts to prevent and address sexual harassment in higher education. The Response Working Group's current projects are:

1. Implementing Policies to Prevent “Passing the Harasser” in Higher Education
2. Postdoctoral Scholars' Experiences of Sexual Harassment and Opportunities for Support

Working Group projects generally meet virtually once a month to:

• Identify promising practices within and beyond their institutions, and across different types of academic institutions
• Engage and learn from research experts and practitioners
• Identify on-the-ground barriers, unintended consequences, and challenges that arise with changes to practices
• Call out areas in need of research

As they do this work and gather information about research and practices, they take into account: applicable federal and state level laws and regulations; the role of power dynamics between individuals and stakeholder groups within higher education; how different groups of people experience more sexual harassment or multiple forms of harassment (NASEM 2018); and the differences across types of academic institutions (e.g. community colleges, technical colleges, large public and private universities, research universities, and liberal arts colleges).