Carmen Suarez said she has dealt with issues surrounding sexual harassment for more than 25 years.

Now, as the university community prepares to change the way it deals with sexual harassment, she sees herself as being in the right place at the right time.

With experience as the director for the office of diversity and equity – as well as an investigator of sexual harassment allegations including that of John Y. Simon – Suarez said she jumped at the chance to join the Sexual Harassment Working Group, which is responsible for compiling the opinions of constituency groups about the revised sexual harassment policy.

“We came together because we were real concerned about what appeared to be misunderstandings on campus about what sexual harassment is,” she said. “You have groups out there talking about, ‘Freedom of speech! Freedom of speech!’ which you thought you put to bed 25 years ago.

“We had these discussions on campuses 25 years ago, and now folks are starting to talk about that again. It’s not good. We were concerned. That’s how we came together in the first place – just a group of people that wanted to talk to each other about what’s happening, and then it all grew. We were in the right place at the right time.”

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