Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is optimistic that a bipartisan bill to combat sexual assault on college campuses will pass into law, she said at a roundtable event at Syracuse University on Monday.

Members of the SU and local communities gathered in Eggers Hall on Monday afternoon with Gillibrand, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) and Mayor Stephanie Miner to discuss the bill.

The Campus Accountability and Safety Act was reintroduced to the Senate on Thursday as a bipartisan bill backed by six Democrat and six Republican senators. The purpose of the bill is to create a standardized way to protect students and increase transparency and accountability amongst colleges and universities across the U.S. Gillibrand added that the bill would also increase incentives for colleges to report sexual assault investigations.

Gillibrand, who also spoke at the University of Buffalo and University of Rochester on Monday, arrived about 30 minutes late to the event. At the beginning of the roundtable event, Gillibrand said she was inspired to sit at a table with advocates for sexual assault victims, survivors and local leaders to discuss the challenge of sexual assault on college campuses.

“Frankly the only way we’re ever going to get anything done is if regular people stand up and demand action,” she said. “That’s when our democracy works the best and obviously sexual violence is not a political issue.”

Gillibrand said the bill will require every campus to have a confidential adviser that will provide survivors of sexual assault with all options they have for reporting. All staff involved in sexual assault cases on campuses will also have minimum training requirements.

The bill will also have a component that would require campus-wide surveys conducted every two years where students can confidentially disclose whether their campus is safe or not. This portion of the bill, Gillibrand said, is vital to help campuses understand their individual problems with sexual assault, as well as to help the government understand college sexual assault problems as a whole.

The bill will also require a uniform discipline process in coordination with law enforcement that does not treat the survivor or the accused unfairly.

If the bill is passed, the Department of Education will be able to raise fines on colleges that do not hold proper hearings for reported incidents of sexual assault. The money collected in these increased fines will also go toward research grants aiming to understand what works and doesn’t work in college sexual assault reporting and better ways to improve training.

“Right now for most schools, there’s no incentive to report,” Gillibrand said. “Because if you were to report a school of crimes, people are going to think you’re an unsafe school — that you’re some rape campus and that kids can’t go to school there safely.”

As a former prosecutor for 20 years, Katko, the local congressman, said he supports the bill because he believes it will help provide survivors strength in a new way to come forward to law enforcement to better find sexual assault perpetrators.

Randi Bregman, the executive director of Vera House, a sexual violence service agency, and a member of the roundtable, said the bill also provides an opportunity to specifically give survivors the tools and information they need and bring their voices and issues to light.

Clare Keaney, the co-president of Students Advocating Sexual Safety and Empowerment and a member of the roundtable, said she is happy with the bill’s standardization of sexual assault proceedings on campuses because it doesn’t allow universities to sweep certain details and cases under the rug.

“This bill is a wonderful first step in moving toward reducing the amount of sexual assault that happens on college campuses,” Keaney said.

Correction: In the March 3 article “Gillibrand speaks at SU roundtable, promotes bill to combat sexual assault on college campuses,” the department that will be able to raise fines on colleges and universities found in violation of the Clery Act was misstated. The Department of Education will oversee this. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on March 2, 2015 at 11:33 pm

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu