Campus Sexual Assault Bills Go to Governor’s Desk

RICHMOND – It’s now up to the governor to sign legislation passed by the General Assembly that seeks to stymie sexual assaults on college campuses by requiring higher-education employees to report such incidents and by creating sexual assault response teams.

On Friday, before they adjourned their 2015 session, both the House and Senate gave final approval to two identical bills – HB 1930 and SB 712 – to address the issue. The bills, crafted by a conference committee of delegates and senators, passed unanimously. They will be sent to Gov. Terry McAuliffe to be signed into law.

Approval of the legislation came after a series of high-profile rape cases on college campuses where responses by university authorities often left victims without a sense of justice by allowing perpetrators off the hook. To preserve their school’s reputation, some administrators chose to sweep the allegations under the rug and to keep them out of the public eye.

The bills aim to correct that situation.

“As we worked on this legislation, our two goals were to ensure that Virginia colleges protect victims of assault and that we prevent future victims,” said Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, who sponsored HB 1930. “It was our objective to put some teeth in the law so we get sexual predators off of campuses.”

The legislation has five components. It:

•Creates a multidisciplinary sexual assault response team to handle cases

•Mandates that employees of higher education institutions inform administrators within four hours after they become aware of a felony sexual assault on a student

•Establishes an avenue for victims to receive information about victim-support services and access to an advocate who can provide a trauma-sensitive response

•Requires campus police and law-enforcement agencies to notify the commonwealth’s attorney of any reported sexual assaults

•Mandates that campus law-enforcement receive victim sensitivity training

Federal laws such as Title IX also address campus sexual assaults and student privacy, and state legislators had to tailor their bills accordingly, said Sen. Dick Black, R-Loudoun, who sponsored SB 712.

“We were somewhat boxed in by federal law, but we worked around that challenge by putting law-enforcement officials on the Title IX committees,” he said.

A 2007 report by the National Institute of Justice found that one in five women is sexually assaulted while enrolled in college. A 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Justice found that 80 percent of sexual assaults go unreported.

Virginia lawmakers hope the bills will increase the likelihood that campus sexual assaults are reported and investigated.

“Strengthening Virginia’s reporting of sexual assaults on college campuses was one of the main objectives of this year’s session,” said Black, who served with Bell on the conference committee.

However, the bills do not include specific measures to stop sexual assaults from happening in the first place. Moreover, some organizations such as Virginia21 and the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance say the new laws could backfire and make sexual assault victims less likely to come forward.

Advocacy groups fear that the legislation would take power away from victims by compelling the professors and administrators they trust and have chosen to confide in to breach their confidentiality.

“If at the end of the day, students will be required to report to police after speaking with a professor, it’s likely that reporting will be further suppressed,” said Frank Muraca, a fellow at Virginia21, an advocacy group for college students and other young adults.

“If the goal of legislation is to increase the number of convictions for campus, mandatory reporting will hurt that effort.”