Dartmouth Forms Sexual Misconduct Committee

Hanover — Dartmouth College on Monday announced the launch of the Presidential Steering Committee on Sexual Misconduct, a group that will work to update the college's policies on sexual assault.

The committee will weigh the lessons Dartmouth has learned in the past four years since college President Phil Hanlon took office, during which the school adopted many new initiatives to combat sexual assault.

Among other measures, the school held an academic summit on sexual violence in 2014, hired a Title IX coordinator to handle responses to federal equal protection law, launched a four-year sexual violence education curriculum for students and brought a survivor advocate from area nonprofit WISE to campus.

Recent surveys of the student population, in 2015 and 2017, revealed that undergraduates increasingly reported intervening when they saw sexual misconduct, administrators noted in a news release on Monday.

Hanlon has yet to appoint the committee members, but they likely will include representatives from the students, faculty and staff, the release said.