Proposed Campus Crime Rules Require Reporting of Stalking, Dating Violence; Expand Hate Crime Categories

The
U.S. Education Department has released
new draft rules for how colleges must handle campus sexual assault
cases and some other crimes. It’s part of an ongoing
effort from the Obama administration to make less of a mess of the
“campus
rape crisis.” 

Released yesterday, the proposed rules are part of efforts to
implement the 2013 Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act,
an update on the Jeanne Clery Act of 1990. The Clery act
established for the first time that colleges must disclose
information about crime on campus if they want to participate in
federal student financial aid programs.

The Clery Act is one of two federal laws governing how schools
must respond to reports of sexual assault,
explains the Christian
Science Monitor. 

The other key law is Title IX, which bans sex discrimination and
requires action on sexual violence and harassment because they
interfere with victims’ access to equal education. The Education
Department has taken a number of steps in recent years to
strengthen those aspects of Title IX.

The new
Clery Act rules are open for public comment until July 21,
with final rules scheduled for Nov. 1. Here are some of their key
components: 

• Require colleges and universities to report annual statistics
  on dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking, in addition to
  sexual assault.
• Define sexual assault as “an offense that meets the definition
  of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape.” 
• Change the definition of “rape” to match the FBI’s current
  definition, so it now will include sodomy and sexual assault with
  an object.
• Define “hate crime” to mean a crime “that manifests evidence
  that the victim was intentionally selected because of the
  perpetrator’s bias” against the victim based on race, religion,
  gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability status and, now,
  gender identity or national origin. 
• Provide domestic violence and sexual assault complainants with
  a written explanation of their rights and options. 
• Establish “comprehensive, intentional, and integrated
  programming, initiatives, strategies, and campaigns intended to end
  dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking
  that are culturally relevant, inclusive of diverse communities and
  identities, sustainable, responsive to community needs, and
  informed by research or assessed for value, effectiveness, or
  outcome.”
• Require colleges to submit an annual report on their procedures
  for institutional disciplinary action in cases of alleged dating
  violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

The department declined to weigh in on the meaning of sexual
consent, as “several
negotiators strongly urged.” Though earlier draft regulations
had included language similar to those
currently being considered in California, the agency has since
removed it.