In Campuses’ Sexual-Assault Crises, an Outside Voice Offers Guidance

Courtesy of Gina M. Smith

Just a few days after the U.S. Department of Education announced it would investigate the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s handling of sexual-assault cases, Holden Thorp, the chancellor, sent a lengthy letter to students and members of the faculty and staff.

The university, he pledged on March 8, would cooperate fully with the federal investigation, make meaningful changes in policies, and encourage an “open and honest dialogue” on the campus. Then Mr. Thorp dropped a name: Gina Smith.

This “nationally recognized expert,” he said, was already working closely with the university. He promised that in the weeks to come, she would meet with students and help revise the university’s policies. Her very presence, he seemed to suggest, signaled progress on this difficult issue.

So who is Gina M. Smith? For starters, she is a former sex-crimes prosecutor. Since 2006 she has been in private legal practice, counseling colleges on sexual misconduct by, among other things, drafting policies, conducting audits, and training campus officials. Last fall, when a former student’s harrowing account of an alleged rape and its aftermath put Amherst College in the spotlight, Ms. Smith became a leading voice in the institution’s response. Equal parts strategist, spokeswoman, adviser, and envoy, she took on a swarm of duties: moderating heated campus discussions, guiding officials as they created a “sexual respect” Web site, and lingering for late-night debriefing sessions.

It’s too soon to tell how extensive Ms. Smith’s involvement will be in Chapel Hill’s crisis, brought on by a federal complaint, filed in January by five women, alleging that the university had created a hostile climate for sexual-assault victims. (Mr. Thorp was not available for comment.) But she seems to offer a combination of skills that many institutions find indispensable.

Two years ago, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights issued a “Dear Colleague” letter laying out colleges’ responsibilities on sexual assault and signaling stepped-up enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal law barring sex discrimination at institutions that receive federal funds. That prescriptive guidance—and simultaneous investigations of Harvard and Yale Universities—sent colleges scrambling to scrutinize their policies. The child sex-abuse scandal at Pennsylvania State University at University Park and recent attention to Amherst and Chapel Hill have heightened awareness further: Many institutions have sought help on how to handle reports of sexual assault and hired consultants to guide them.

In the past six years, more than three dozen colleges have retained Ms. Smith’s services, some more than once. She declined to say how much she charges, sharing only that she tailors her fees to fit clients’ needs—using hourly rates, monthly retainers, fixed project fees, and other structures. At the moment, she has 18 higher-education clients.

Ms. Smith sells her expertise on three counts. Legal and regulatory know-how, in plain language. A nuanced understanding of the messy human dynamics that surround sexual misconduct. And the people skills to grasp the culture of each campus. That’s a three-part equation that colleges, too, must master, she says.

Campus officials have to be Solomonic, says Ms. Smith. They must offer support and resources to students who report incidents, provide a fair process to both alleged victims and perpetrators, comply with federal privacy regulations, and balance campus safety with students’ desire for confidentiality.

“It is a very complicated constellation of responsibilities,” Ms. Smith says. “Especially when colleges are seen as being all things to all people.”

Prescription for Change

Ms. Smith, who is 52, speaks with the dexterity of someone who’s spent a career in conversation. In a Webinar this week, she efficiently ticked off best practices in responding to sexual assault, using “we” and “us” for campus officials as she moved through a flow chart.

For nearly 20 years after earning a law degree from Temple University, in 1987, Ms. Smith prosecuted sex crimes for the Philadelphia district attorney’s office. Then, seven years ago, she went to work for the law firm Ballard Spahr, which was building up a Title IX practice. Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Smith and a longtime colleague, Leslie M. Gomez, joined Pepper Hamilton, the Philadelphia law firm that last year acquired the former FBI director Louis J. Freeh’s law and risk-management consulting firm. The Freeh Group, as it is known, wrote a scathing report on Penn State’s handling of sex-abuse charges; Ms. Smith says she jumped at the chance to work with Mr. Freeh.

Prosecuting cases of domestic violence, child sex abuse, rape, and homicide taught Ms. Smith how to discuss sensitive details with alleged victims, she says. And arguing before a jury forced her to distill complex legal concepts into everyday language. Both skills, she says, have proved useful on campuses.

Many of Ms. Smith’s clients want help guiding campus discussions of sexual assault. Large public gatherings and smaller dialogues, she says, typically give rise to a host of questions and concerns. Does every report have to go to the police? (Usually not, she says, but colleges have to weigh confidentiality against public safety.) Does reporting an incident to the college necessarily trigger a disciplinary process? (Short answer: No. Longer answer: No, but the college must help the accuser understand all available options.)

Ms. Smith lives in Philadelphia but spends a lot of time on the road. Last week she was in Amherst; this week, Chapel Hill. “It’s hard for me to remember to brush my teeth,” says Ms. Smith, the mother of a 20-year-old daughter and four teenage sons.

Last summer she was working closely with Amherst as the college, with a fairly new president at the helm, began to rethink its policies on sexual misconduct. In September, Ms. Smith spent several days training the college’s new Title IX coordinator, Suzanne R. Coffey. “It was like having a great coach,” says Ms. Coffey, who is also Amherst’s athletic director.

Not long afterward, Amherst’s student newspaper published a long article in which a former student described being raped by a classmate and having the seriousness of her accusations disregarded by campus officials. The account went viral, and in the days and weeks that followed, Amherst confronted the fallout.

Ms. Coffey observed how students, in particular, gravitated to the lawyer from Philadelphia and shared their concerns. “She welcomed the students’ angst in a way that said to the community, ‘We have to say these things,’” Ms. Coffey says.

Listening to students is one part of Ms. Smith’s prescription for colleges. They should also, she says, make their sexual-misconduct policies clear and easy to find, educate staff members on how to put them in place, use trained investigators, and support accusers while fairly adjudicating each case.

Ms. Smith says she is trying to change the conversation about sexual misconduct on campuses. If she can help get colleges on what she sees as the right path, then she can ensure that they won’t need her again.