CAPS to Offer Support Group for Students Accused of Sexual Misconduct
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Beginning this fall, Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) will offer a weekly support group for Texas A&M University students accused of sexual misconduct. The new offering by CAPS comes after Texas A&M President Michael K. Young ordered extensive internal and external reviews of A&M’s Title IX processes last fall. The reviews were conducted as a result of numerous current and former students publicly alleging that the process lacked transparency and that their Title IX complaints were mishandled by university officials.
“We feel that offering a support group for students accused of sexual misconduct will be immensely beneficial,” said Dr. Lewis Molten, the psychologist organizing the group. “Navigating the Title IX process can be very stressful and disruptive, so we want to equip students with the coping skills they need to continue to excel in their academic and athletic endeavors until their investigation concludes.”
Reactions to the new offering have been mixed among the student body. Some students have praised the expansion of on-campus mental health services, while others have criticized the move as representing the university’s failure to support survivors of sexual violence. “Even after all the publicity, task forces, and long emails from President Young, CAPS still doesn’t offer an on-campus support group for survivors,” said Angela Fuero, a sophomore math major active in survivor advocacy on campus. “Local resources for survivors may be excellent, but they’re inaccessible to, say, a freshman without a car who is struggling to even leave her dorm room.”
Last week, students began circling a petition online asking the university and CAPS to offer a support group for victims in lieu of offering similar options for those accused. The university has yet to respond, but President Michael K. Young is reportedly drafting a new campus-wide email pledging to end campus sexual assault.
—Heldenfalls
Once an average student eons ago, Heldenfalls committed some unknown sin against the Aggie gods and has since been burdened with a strange punishment: She is forced to carry her backpack to the top of the infamous Heldenfels stairs only to fall back to the bottom again over and over for all eternity. Though this may seem like a horrible fate, the philosophy department argues that Heldenfalls’ endless task represents the absurd heroism of the human condition. Each atom of that backpack, each mineral flake of those concrete stairs, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a woman’s heart. One must imagine Heldenfalls happy.