Dive Brief:
- A U.S. Senate bill introduced Wednesday by a bipartisan group of eight senators backing would require colleges and universities to conduct student surveys about sexual assault, publicize the results, provide confidential advisors to reported victims and special training for staff who handle the cases, and encourage reporting by not punishing students for other infractions, like underage drinking, when they come forward.
- The proposed legislation would impose severe financial penalties for noncompliance: up to 1% of a school’s operating budget and up to $150,000 per violation of the Clery Act, compared to $35,000 now.
- A lower standard of evidence suggested by the Obama administration was absent from the bill.
Dive Insight:
Count the American Council on Education as skeptical. Terry Hartle, the council’s senior vice president for government and public affairs, told Insider Higher Ed that the proposed legislation offered a heavy-handed approach to a complex problem. Also, the 1% figure was just “pulled out of the air,” and unfairly indicated that schools didn’t want to deal with the problem, which isn’t true, he said. Regarding the penalty, schools now face, in theory, a loss of federal funding for violating students' rights in a Title IX case, but because such a penalty would essentially be a death sentence for an institution, it’s considered impractical. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), a co-sponsor of the bill who has butted heads with the education council in the past, said she will be keeping an eye on how the group handles its advocacy on the proposal.