An additional push to prevent sexual violence on college campuses is coming from the federal level.
The U.S. Department of Higher Education proposed new campus safety and security requirements last week. Changes include adding gender identity and national origin to a legal, federal definition of hate crimes and specifying requirements for sexual assault prevention and awareness programs.
“These new rules strengthen schools’ capacity to provide safer college campuses for students and to keep everyone better informed about campus security policies and procedures,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.
The new regulations would implement changes to the Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to publish campus security policies and crime statistics, maintain a daily crime log, provide timely warnings about ongoing threats to students and campus employees and report hate crime statistics.
Under the changes, colleges and universities would also have to add incidents of dating violence, domestic violence and stalking to their required crime reports.
The University is currently under three open investigations by the U.S. Department of Higher — two from the Office of Civil Rights for its handling of sexual assault procedures, and one from the department’s Clery Act Compliance Division.
Failure to comply with the Clery Act affects an institution’s ability to receive federal student aid funds.
President Barack Obama approved the future implementation of changes to the Clery Act when he signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act last March. The original act was first signed in 1994.
“Tribal governments have an inherent right to protect their people, and all women deserve the right to live free from fear,” Obama said in a speech before signing the act’s reauthorization. “And that is what today is all about.”
University handling of sexual assault cases falls under the jurisdiction of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which applies to campuses that receive funding for federal financial aid.
Title IX prohibits discrimination of students on the basis of sex in higher education. The Department of Higher Education released a full list of all the institutions under investigation for potential Title IX violations in the handling of sexual assault for the first time in May.
Title IX is enforced by the Department of Higher Education’s Office of Civil Rights. UNC is one of 55 colleges and universities on the list for open sexual violence investigations.
"We are making this list available in an effort to bring more transparency to our enforcement work and to foster better public awareness of civil rights," Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon said in a statement. "We hope this increased transparency will spur community dialogue about this important issue.
Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.
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