U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) last month introduced legislation into the U.S. House of Representatives that would expand universities' obligations regarding reporting and adjudicating incidents of sexual violence on college campuses.
The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act would amend the 1990 Jeanne Clery Act, a federal law requiring all institutions of higher education participating in federal student aid programs to publish an annual report of their crime statistics.
The amendment would mandate that universities include instances of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking in their annual reports. Universities would also be required to provide victims of sexual violence with a written summary of their rights and provide bystander education for students.
The bill also calls for institutions of higher education to clarify and publish their policies and procedures for dealing with incidents of sexual violence on campus. Those policies must include a definition of consent.
Campus SaVE was designed to clarify both universities' duties and students' rights surrounding reports of sexual violence, according to Ian Jannetta, deputy press secretary for Casey.
"Campus SaVE provides a greater level of detail to ensure that students are given the information they need to protect themselves and to get the help they need if they have become victims," Jannetta told the Daily in an email. "There is a lot of overlap between Title IX and Clery; the Campus SaVE Act makes it clear what institutions' responsibilities are, all in one place." Title IX bans sex discrimination in schools.
Although Tufts already complies with some provisions of the proposed legislation, Campus SaVE would bring significant changes to Tufts' practices, according to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman.
The school's annual Clery Act-mandated security report includes reports of forcible sex offenses, such as rape, and non-forcible offenses, such as statutory rape. The SaVE Act will expand the report, requiring it to include statistics on instances of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, according to Jannetta.
The university already has a clear sexual assault policy and sexual assault adjudication procedure, both of which were rewritten last year, Reitman said. He anticipates, however, that the policy will undergo some minor revisions regardless of the bill's fate.
"We know already that there are some things that need to be tweaked and improved for clarity, so that's a plan for this summer," he said.
The university's updated policy includes a definition of consent as "an affirmative, conscious decision to engage in mutually accepted sexual contact."
Tufts does not currently present reported victims of sexual assault with a written summary of their rights, though the sexual assault policy and adjudication procedures do outline victims' resources and possible courses of action, according to Reitman.
Reitman said if the changes were enacted, the responsibility of compiling the summary would fall to the university's interim Title IX Coordinator Sonia Jurado at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action.
The proposed bill would also mandate that universities provide all incoming students and employees with primary prevention and awareness programs, including ones that deal specifically with bystander intervention.
The university already has several bystander intervention awareness programs in place for new students, with several more in the works, according to Elaine Theodore, the university's Health Education and Prevention Coordinator and Sexual Violence Resource Coordinator.
In the SACK (Safety, Awareness, Consent and Knowledge in relationships), a mandatory presentation during fall freshman orientation, specifically addresses bystander intervention, according to Theodore. The program is one of the most popular among the school's orientation activities, Theodore added.
In addition, next fall's freshman orientation will have the theme of "just ask," according to Theodore. The theme not only highlights the need for consent in sexual intimacy, but also the importance of bystander intervention.
"It was promoted as ‘ask if this is OK' or ‘ask if you are OK,' really giving people permission to intervene in anything they felt was potentially not a good situation," she said.
Also on the horizon is a proposed collaboration between Theodore and the Athletics Department. The program, which originated at Northeastern University as Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), would train student athletes in bystander intervention, Theodore explained.
"[The program] will train a cadre of students in [bystander intervention] curriculum, to go out to different groups on campus, to teams, to Greek houses and do workshops," she said.
The collaboration is still in the developmental phase, according to Theodore.
Reitman praised the legislation's mandate for bystander education.
"I don't think we could do anything more important than bystander intervention encouragement," Reitman said. "It seems extremely significant to prevent this social victimization rather than adjudicate it after the fact."
Reitman stressed, however, that the cultural change will have a greater impact than legislative change in ending sexual victimization.
"I think a lot of the emerging laws are very important, but changing the culture and the mindset is just as or more important," he said. "I don't think relying on the laws is either prudent or pragmatically useful. You need to do more than that."
The Campus SaVE Act has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, according to Jannetta. It will have to pass to the full body before it can be voted upon, he said.
