Graduate and Professional Student Council learned the details of the university’s sexual harassment policy during an hour-long presentation Tuesday.

University lawyers attended the regular GPSC meeting as part of a campaign to inform as many people on campus as possible about the university’s sexual harassment policy.

Kyle Stevens, president of GPSC, said he welcomed the presentation because he thought students are one of the groups most vulnerable to harassment.

He said he thought it was important for organizations such as GPSC to relay the messages from the presentation to the students they represent.

SIU General Counsel Jerry Blakemore and Assistant General Counsel Phyleccia Cole gave the presentation.

Blakemore said this is one of about seven presentations scheduled for different groups throughout campus.

He said it was especially important for student groups to know about the policy for their own protection.

“It goes to the university being a welcoming place of students, faculty and staff -” Blakemore began.

“- one that’s free of all kinds of harassment,” Cole finished.

Steve Middleton, GPSC vice president for academic affairs, said he gathered from the presentation that the people in charge had a pretty good grasp on what the policy should be, but thought the procedures for each campus needed more work.

Middleton said he agreed with Blakemore and Cole on the idea that each of the three campuses should continue to have different policies.

“Each campus has a different make up of structure, different faculty, the way they go about academics is different, so no I don’t think policy should be uniform,” he said.

Christian Holt can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 259 or [email protected].