By Kieran McQuilkin
An amendment to the 1965 Higher Education Act that targets sexual violence on college campuses is working its way through Congress.
The Campus Safety and Accountability Act was introduced in late February by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D.-Mo., and is sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of 15 senators, including Virginia Democrat Mark Warner.
“We’ve got data that says one in four, or one in five, women are victims of sexual assault [while in college],” Warner said. “It shouldn’t be less safe to go to college than going through your daily life.”
The “one in five” statistic comes from a 2007 study by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its accuracy has been widely criticized, as it surveyed students at just two universities and had a less than 50 percent response rate.
But 10 congressional offices are now working together to survey colleges nationwide annually, in an attempt to more fully understand the baseline needs of a sexual assault victim.
“This is a problem that is not for any particular campus or any particular region. It needs a baseline solution,” Warner said. “What we wanted to do was at least put a floor in place — about transparency, about access to an advisor.”
Warner said the amendment calls for schools to be penalized if they do not follow the baseline policy. He said the bill would not require mandatory reporting, and would ensure a victim could report the incident to a confidential adviser without it having to go past that person.
Warner said the adviser should not be the school’s Title IX Coordinator, as that person has an obligation to report to the university and law enforcement.
New Virginia law on reporting sexual assault
Virginia’s General Assembly recently approved a bill that requires a responsible employee to report an alleged case of sexual assault to the school’s Title IX coordinator. That could contradict the federal legislation, which requires a third-party advisor with no obligation to share information. Gov. Terry McAuliffe is scheduled to review that bill by the end of March.
At Washington and Lee, “responsible employees” are required to report incidents of sexual misconduct to the Title IX coordinator, Lauren Kozak. Responsible employees are those designated by the university to receive such complaints, or those whom students assume have that designation.
Kozak said that receiving a report does not necessitate an investigation by the university’s Student-Faculty Hearing Board, nor is the school required to notify law enforcement officials. The federal bill would mandate improved communication between schools and law enforcement, but does not say the schools would need to notify local law enforcement about sexual misconduct investigations.
“Under current Title IX policies, we do not report to law enforcement unless it’s what the complainant wants,” said Kozak. “That is completely up to the complainant.”
Washington and Lee has interim policy
Washington and Lee currently has an interim sexual misconduct policy. Kozak said the interim policy is supposed to be replaced by the start of the next academic year with a more permanent one. However, she said the administration will wait to see results of the state and federal legislation before making any changes.
Kozak said Washington and Lee would likely need to change its sexual harassment policy if the federal bill is passed, because some cases might have to be reported to law enforcement officials.
“But the university procedures and the criminal law procedures will be separate,” said Kozak. “Even if it gets reported to law enforcement, a complainant would get to decide whether it goes anywhere past that reporting.”
Main Provisions of the Campus Safety and Accountability Act
• Colleges will be required to designate confidential advisers to act as a resource for victims of sexual assault.
• Congress will establish minimum training standards for university personnel who are responsible for dealing with sexual misconduct cases.
• There will be annual nationwide surveys of college students about sexual violence.
• The Department of Education will publish the names of all schools with pending investigations and their resolutions.
• Colleges will be required to make an agreement with local law enforcement agencies on how and when information will be shared.
• Schools that do not comply with certain requirements will be penalized by up to 1 percent of the school’s operating budget.