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Leaders of CARE, OEO explain organizational differences
OEO continued from page 20 described the office as naturally more reactive. This sentiment led to students asking for a more proactive office, leading to the creation of CARE in the 2014–15 school year.
“The CARE office … was implemented … as a department under AS&E’s Office of Health and Wellness,” Zellmer wrote. “The CARE office is policy confidential. … However, CARE still has to report de-identified data to TUPD for federal … purposes and is subject to the laws and regulations of the state. Only clergy, medical providers, and clinicians acting in those capacities for Tufts are confidential by law.”
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Zellmer noted that, while OEO collaborates closely with CARE when possible, OEO does not oversee the Sex Health Representatives or the Green Dot program, a student-run organization which focuses on teaching bystander intervention to students. Zellmer also suggested that confusion about the role of the two offices may have stemmed from shared leadership between the offices in the past.
“If there is confusion among students about the differences between OEO and CARE, it may have developed because the Executive Director of the OEO used to supervise the CARE managers. Tufts moved away from that model over 5 years ago in order to better support students,” Zellmer wrote.
Donovan spoke to the confusion regarding the two offices.
“The confusion between OEO and CARE comes up a lot because we both do this work, we just do it in very different ways,” Donovan said. “Sometimes CARE will accom- pany someone to OEO … but we are two distinct offices. I don’t know who comes to see them, and they don’t know who comes to see me.”
Donovan explained that CARE specifically gets confused with counseling or another confidential resource on campus, whereas the organization is specifically concerned with offering support surrounding sexual misconduct.
The issue of misidentifying Green Dot and Sex Health Representatives occurs less commonly, Donovan said, because they are both student groups, neither one of which
