By: Conner Williams Editor-in-Chief
A bill formed last year addressing sexual assault on college campuses is being urged in part by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and 34 other cosponsors to be passed by the Senate immediately.
After being idle for about nine months, the bill, titled the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, would “ensure campus sexual assault cases are handled with professionalism and fairness to better protect and empower students, and would provide colleges and universities with incentives to solve the problem of sexual assault on their campuses,” according to a statement from Hank Stern, Wyden’s press secretary.
“Ensuring the most basic protection – safety – for young people trying to get an education ought to be foremost in our minds,” Wyden said in the statement.
Of the bill’s 35 cosponsors, 22 are Democrats, 12 are Republicans, and one is an Independent. The bill is being pushed as a strongly bipartisan effort to address many of the issues relating to sexual assault on college campuses. The bill was originally introduced to the Senate in February 2015, was then reviewed by a committee in late July 2015, and has since gained some headway in being brought back into the spotlight in hopes of being passed.
If passed, the bill would do the following: establish new campus resources and support services for student survivors, ensure minimum training standards for on-campus personnel, create new transparency requirements, require a uniform discipline process and coordination with law enforcement, and establish enforceable Title IX penalties and stiffer penalties for Clery Act violations.
Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that college campuses reported more than 6,700 forcible sex offenses in 2014. However, a study from the Department of Justice claims that that figure may be underreported by at least four times the true amount.
For Western, data shows that there were five occurrences of rape on campus in 2014, and one case of rape in on-campus student-housing facilities.
Rebecca Chiles, director of Campus Public Safety at Western, said that the main goal to combat sexual assault is to provide tactics that address preventative measures, rather than simply resources for after the fact.
“We have so many resources available for people here on campus,” said Chiles. “We want it to be confronted before it happens and to be stopped, we don’t want it to just be a resource place for after it happens.”
Chiles also noted that if a student reports an instance of sexual assault to Public Safety, the department cannot legally report it to the local law enforcement agency.
“The victim has to say, ‘I want this reported.’ They have to decide if it will be reported to the police or not,” said Chiles.
Chiles said that Public Safety works with student leaders on campus, including Resident Advisers, PLUS Team leaders, and Summer Bridge leaders, among others.
“It’s about education, and it’s about encouraging people to report [instances] that may not rise to the level of sexual assault, but could still be considered inappropriate,” said Chiles.
“I would encourage people to speak up and speak out, and to not let this stuff go unnoticed,” said Chiles. “Call out people’s behavior that is inappropriate, unhealthy, and, especially, criminal.”
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