Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) and Carolyn Maloney (D-New York), along with 37 additional members of Congress, sent a letter to the Office of Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education last Wednesday.
The letter urged the Department of Education to take more action in requiring campuses to confront the issues surrounding sexual assault. According to the letter, the National Institute of Justice finds that 63 percent of universities in our nation still fail to meet their legal obligations, even over 40 years after Title IX was passed, according to Speier’s official website.
Rep. Maloney and Sen. Bob Casey introduced a similar act last year, according to the Clery Center website, called the Campus Sexual Violence and Elimination Act of 2013 as an amendment to the Clery Act. The Save Act requires most institutions of higher education to provide extensive preventative education and awareness programs about sexual misconduct and similar offenses.
The letter lays out various requests. “We urge (the Department of Education) to be more transparent about its own investigations and enforcement actions against colleges and universities regarding campus sexual harassment and sexual assault,” wrote Maloney and Speier in the letter. They urge the Department to push for a centralized database of all universities’ records. As of today, they argue, students and their families have a difficult time accessing information on a school’s safety, including the campus history of Title IX-related compliance issues, sexual assault incidents, statistics and policies.
The representatives also seek to require schools to conduct surveys and exit interviews regarding campus safety. These surveys could provide a more accurate picture of the scope of sexual assault on campuses, giving students a better idea of how safe their school is.
In addition, the Congressional letter requests that Title IX be expanded to include protections for transgender students and address issues of same-sex violence on campuses. It cites a study by the American Association of University Women, claiming that over 70 percent of LGBT students are confronted with some form of sexual harassment while in college.
Speier hosted a Google conference on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by a handful of individuals pushing the envelope on women’s rights in institutions. In her conference, Speier pointed out that not every institution is doing well to comply with Title IX. Some universities still lack both Title IX coordinators and surveys to assess institutions’ safety climates.
According to Speier in the Google conference, annual exit surveys are now required in the military. Mandating similar surveys at universities “would take nothing more than an amendment to Title IX, and that’s something I’m very willing and interested in pursuing,” said Speier in the Google conference. “We could get this into a bill this year and make it law next year if we’re successful.”