Grassley Kicks Off Press Conference Urging Senate Passage of Bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act

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WASHINGTON – Marking Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Sen. Chuck Grassley today joined a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and survivors of sexual assault urging the Senate to pass the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. This bipartisan legislation would protect students, professionalize the response to and reporting of sexual assault cases, and provide colleges and universities with incentives to solve the problem of sexual assault on their campuses. 

“We started from the premise that sexual assault is a serious crime and should be treated as a crime,” Grassley said.  “The bill helps survivors get the support they need so they know their options.  It’s meant to make them comfortable reporting to police and campus authorities.  This is a common-sense bipartisan measure, and I hope to see it pass the Senate soon.”

Grassley helped develop the bill.  It’s pending in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where leaders have expressed interest in considering it.

"EROC supports the Campus Safety and Accountability Act because it provides institutions of higher education with more comprehensive tools with which to empower their students and effectively prevent campus sexual assault,” said Andrea Pino, Director of Policy and Support at End Rape On Campus (EROC). “The bill also bolsters the Department of Education's effectiveness in enforcing Title IX and holding institutions accountable that do violate Title IX — an essential gender-equity and civil rights educational amendment that college students need."

"The Bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act will help improve the way that colleges deal with sexual violence, and will give more victims an opportunity for justice,” said RAINN Vice President for Public Policy Rebecca O’Connor. “It will also help us measure progress, through an annual survey, and will stop the practice of letting athletic departments investigate allegations against their own players. We’re grateful that so many Senate leaders are working hard to solve the problem of rape on campus, and we remain committed to working with them to pass a bill that will help victims and help reduce the number of violent assaults.”

"CASAct is a critical step on the path towards ensuring every American student can pursue a college education free from fear of sexual assault,” said SAFER Policy and Research Coordinator and Board Chair-elect Jennifer Snow. “By standardizing campus climate surveys and requiring colleges and universities to maintain more accurate data, students now have a real opportunity to hold their institutions accountable for the epidemic of sexual and gender violence on campus. We also believe that amnesty policies and truly confidential resources are critical for creating a campus environment that is supportive of survivors." 

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, college campuses reported over 6,700 forcible sex offenses (rape and sexual battery) in 2014 – but a recent Department of Justice study shows that the actual number of offenses is estimated to be at least four times that number. Colleges must create an environment where more students feel comfortable coming forward to report sexual assault, so that more perpetrators can be brought to justice.

Quick Facts:

•    80% of rape and sexual assault victimizations against female students ages 18-24 go unreported to police. 
•    Law enforcement officials at 30 percent of institutions of higher education receive no training on how to respond to reports of sexual violence.
•    73 percent of institutions of higher education have no protocols on how the institution and law enforcement work together to respond to campus sexual violence. 
•    Most cases of campus sexual assault are not instances of “stranger rape.” 78% of campus sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knows.
•    Confidential reporting options facilitate reporting of campus sexual assault to police and campus authorities.

Current federal law has had the perverse effect of encouraging colleges to under-report sexual assaults. The bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act (S. 590) would flip the incentives to protect students and professionalize the response to and reporting of sexual assault by doing the following:  

1. Establishing new campus resources and support services for student survivors 
Colleges and universities would be required to designate Confidential Advisors to assist survivors of sexual harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. Confidential Advisors would coordinate support services and accommodations for survivors, and provide information and assistance regarding options for reporting the crime to local law enforcement and/or campus authorities at the direction of the survivor. A report to a Confidential Advisor would not automatically trigger a Title IX investigation and survivors would have support in filing a police report, thus making prosecutions more likely. Schools would no longer be allowed to sanction students who report sexual violence but reveal a non-violent student conduct violation, like underage drinking, in good faith. 
 
2. Ensuring minimum training standards for on-campus personnel
The lack of training for campus personnel can interfere with sexual assault investigations and student disciplinary proceedings, resulting in negative outcomes for both survivors and accused students. This legislation would ensure that everyone from the Confidential Advisor to those responsible for investigating and participating in student disciplinary proceedings would receive specialized training, so that they would have a firm understanding of the nature of these crimes.

3. Creating historic new transparency requirements 
Students at every university in America would be surveyed about their experience with sexual violence. The new biennial survey would be standardized and anonymous. Colleges and universities would publish the results online, and the Department of Education would be required to publish the names of all schools with pending investigations, final resolutions, and voluntary resolution agreements related to Title IX with respect to sexual violence.

4. Requiring a uniform discipline process and coordination with law enforcement
      All schools would use one uniform process for campus student disciplinary proceedings and would no longer be allowed to have athletic departments or other subgroups handle complaints of sexual violence against members of that subgroup. Both survivors and accused students would receive notification if schools proceed with a disciplinary process regarding an allegation of sexual assault within 24 hours of such decision being made and both survivors and the accused would be informed of their rights. Colleges and universities would be required to enter into memoranda of understanding with each local law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction to report to a campus as a first responder to clearly delineate responsibilities and facilitate law enforcement investigations.

5. Establishing enforceable Title IX penalties and stiffer penalties for Clery Act violations
      Schools that do not comply with certain requirements under the bill may face a penalty of up to 1 percent of the institution’s operating budget. Currently, the only allowable penalty is the loss of all financial aid, which is not practical and has never been done. The bill would increase penalties for Clery Act violations to up to $150,000 per violation, from the current penalty of $35,000 per violation.

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