Future UK faculty must complete a questionnaire about their history related to sexual misconduct before they are hired, President Eli Capilouto said in a campus-wide email on Wednesday. 

In addition to the questionnaire, graduate students and their mentors will go through training to understand the “appropriate dynamics of that critical relationship better,” and establish a “specific and timely process” to review if faculty members found with clear examples of sexual assault should continue in their position. 

The conversation to make these changes began last Monday when Capilouto spoke before the University Senate, he said in the email. 

Capilouto wrote that 80 percent of UK student victims do not report because of “the desire for privacy, the overwhelming feeling of shame, retribution, or the understandable desire to forget.”

UK has a legal responsibility to victim survivors to “stop the harassment, remedy the effects on the victim survivor, prevent the harassment from recurring,” Capiluoto wrote. 

UK will seek input while making the changes and will inform the campus, he said. 

Journalism professor Al Cross said the Kentucky Kernel’s reporting about a sexual misconduct case involving former associate professor James Harwood caused UK to make the changes. Cross said Capilouto should recognize the newpaper’s role. 

“He ought to be thanking the Kernel for bringing this to his attention rather than blaming it, or falsely blaming it, for printing salacious details to build an audience,” Cross said. 

The Kernel has published more than 10 stories about the case.

UK spokesman Jay Blanton said these issues have been worked on for some time. He said UK requires students to participate in a climate survey, the university has spent millions of dollars on safety and support measures, and the Violence Intervention and Prevention Center is a leader in victim support. 

“Although we respectfully have a different view from the Kernel as to what the law requires concerning the privacy of victim/survivor confidentiality – an issue that is being settled, as it should, in a court, respectfully and dispassionately – we all want a safe, caring campus to best cultivate student success,” he said.