Feedback may be closed for next year’s new sexual conduct policy, but the conversation is far from over. This morning, Friday, March 26, Case Western Reserve University will host a forum entitled “Sexual Misconduct in Higher Education: A National Conversation.”

Announcements for the forum highlight a notable guest speaker: Saundra Schuster from the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM). University administrators consulted with and received training from NCHERM while creating the new sexual conduct policy, the direct result of a “Dear Colleague” letter sent out to all schools receiving federal funding 2011.

The policy has been in development throughout the last several years; earlier this year an interim policy (a draft of next year’s new policy) was put into effect and posted on the website of the Office of Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity. Throughout the year the university has collected feedback on the policy from the CWRU community.

This is the latest in a series of steps the university took to include the community in the conversation surrounding the new policy. At the end of last month, the university extended the period for the community to provide feedback by an additional three weeks. Additionally, Louis Stark, vice president of student affairs, and Marilyn Mobley, vice president for inclusion, diversity and equal opportunity, who have been in charge of the changes, have presented the new policy to the Undergraduate Student Government, the Graduate Student Senate and faculty members, providing opportunities for discussion and feedback.

Stark and Mobley will participate in a panel discussion at the forum. The panel also includes Director of University Health Services Eleanor Davidson, Health Services physician Sara Lee, CWRU police chief Arthur Hardee, University Counseling Services director Jes Sellers and deputy of the General Counsel Colleen Treml.

The forum is free and open to everyone in the campus community. It will take place at 10 a.m. on March 28, in the Toepfer Room at Adelbert Hall.