UC Berkeley is in the midst of hiring an advocate who will assist and advise survivors of sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking beginning in the fall.

First announced by Chancellor Nicholas Dirks in February, the position aims to coordinate a student-focused campus response to sexual assault. Administrators are also in talks to create a sexual assault resource center, which the hired individual would help develop.

Federal investigators from the U.S. Department of Education began a probe of the campus in late March. Fifty-four other campuses were also under investigation as of May. A recently published state audit report criticized the handling of sexual assault by UC Berkeley staff such as athletic coaches and residence hall advisors but hailed those specifically trained to handle reported cases.

The establishment of the new advocate position is not a response to the federal investigation or state audit, administrators say. It was lauded at last week’s UC Board of Regents meeting as a crucial development in ongoing efforts to improve the campus’s handling of sexual assault.

According to a job posting from July 10, the hired individual will act as “director of sexual assault prevention and student advocacy” and work with existing offices such as the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, Center for Student Conduct, Gender Equity Resource Center, Tang Center and law enforcement agencies. The advocate will also maintain confidentiality of cases, unlike other designated campus positions, which are required to report sexual assault offenses to certain campus authorities.

“It all needs to be done in concert,” said Joseph Greenwell, associate vice chancellor and dean of students, who is helping to shepherd the hiring process. “Part of it is to have someone that is a very public person that students know they can go to and seek assistance in a centralized location that they feel comfortable in to disclose what happened.”

For sexual assault survivors like UC Berkeley freshman Lindsay Maurer, the new position is welcome news but may not be able to meet the vast demand.

“There is a huge burnout risk for advocates, and if the advocate is unavailable for any reason, a backup advocate needs to be in place,” Maurer said in an email, adding that a resource center is desperately needed but that long-term funding for it is worrisome.

After she was raped, Maurer said she had to speak with 24 campus employees to understand how to attain academic support. Navigating the process while still healing from the assault, she said, has been extremely emotionally triggering.

Maurer, along with UC Berkeley sophomore Meghan Warner, sits on a working group that advises UC President Janet Napolitano’s sexual assault task force. Warner stressed that student survivors face bureaucratic challenges if they report sexual assault to campus authorities. Both said the new position will hopefully support survivors in ways that don’t currently exist but are urgently needed.

UC Berkeley junior Sofie Karasek, also a survivor of sexual assault, said the advocate position will ideally encourage more reporting, given that sexual assault is a notoriously underreported crime.

“There can hopefully be a greater level of account and transparency beyond what the numbers show currently,” Karasek said. “By having more people working on this, they can take on more cases. By having more cases, there might over time create this image of ‘I can report my case, and it will be handled well.’”

The position pays between $52,500 and $80,300. It will be under the dean of students’ office and independent from employees who adjudicate cases.