Student's Story Of Sexual Assault On Campus Leads To OU Policy Changes

Jacqueline Sit, News 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- What was originally planned as a protest turned into a rally with students urging changes in the reporting policies for sexual assaults. The rally was planned after a student rape victim decided to share her story.

OU sophomore Jordan Ward was raped at a fraternity party in January 2010. After several months, Ward decided to press charges only to learn that OU has a 30-day statute of limitations in the Student Code of Conduct. Now, she's pushing for changes in the university's sexual assault policy.

In a letter to OU President David Boren dated in March, Ward stated "the 30 day statute needs to be amended and a policy included for sexual misconduct situations and the statute needs to be extended to a reasonable amount of time for victims to recover before forcing them to act."

Victims and other students rallied to show their support for changes in rape policies at OU.

"When you have students raping students, it's a university problem. Students are supposed to feel safe here and when you have a statute of limitations that silences them, that's not safety," Ward said.

Her concern for safety turned into a push for changes in the campus rape policy. Ward feels the statue needs to be extended beyond 30 days.

"As I know from firsthand experience, there's a lot of confusion when you're sexually assaulted," she said.

Ward is also asking for mandatory sexual assault education for incoming freshman and OUPD to brush up on their policies. To this day Ward said her perpetrator is still on campus and with these proposed changes, the sophomore hopes no one else will have to suffer through the same struggles.

"You know society, they kind of drill us to believe that rape is you're attacked in an alley way at night with a gun or knife to your throat," Ward said. "And 80 percent of rapes are acquaintances or someone you know and students need to be aware of that, especially on a campus where we're all so close together."

News 9 received a comment from President Boren office agreeing with many of the changes. OU is currently working on the following changes:

• The statute of limitation will be changed from 30 days to a full year from when it's reported.
• OU Police officers will get extensive training.
• An advisory board will be built to address student concerns.

Students can also expect to see changes to the sexual misconduct policy as early as fall.

In Oklahoma, a victim has two years under state law to file a court action for civil damages. For criminal prosecution, the statute of limitations is 12 years.