On July 9, TICUA and Waller presented a webinar on the Campus SaVE Act ("SaVE"), addressing the newly effective legislative amendments to the Clery Act incorporated into the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. A recording of the webinar is available on the TICUA website. In addition to outlining proposed regulations that have been recently negotiated to implement SaVE, the webinar forecasted likely compliance requirements as well as anticipated guidance from the Department of Education. That forecast noted the unsettled state of affairs, with an effective statute requiring legal compliance but scant regulatory or other guidance on what compliance entails, including compliance requirements for upcoming October 1, 2014 Annual Safety Reports ("ASR").
On July 14, the Department of Education indeed provided some additional guidance through a Dear Colleague Letter on what the Department expects of institutions in this interim period, and specifically what is expected of institutions when they complete their ASRs later this year. Building on the Department's prior instruction to make good faith efforts at compliance, the Dear Colleague Letter provides the following additional guidance:
Institutions must make a good-faith effort to include these statistics for these crimes for calendar year 2013 in the ASR that must be issued later this year. Institutions must also make a good-faith effort to ensure that the statistics for the new crime categories are accurate and complete; however, we understand that institutions may not have complete statistics for 2013. While institutions must include calendar year 2013 statistics for domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking in their ASRs to be issued to students, employees, and prospective students and employees later this year, they will not report these new crimes to the Department in the Web-based data collection this year. Instead, institutions will report the statistics for both calendar years 2013 and 2014 to the Department during the data collection period in Fall 2015. We have delayed the reporting of statistics for incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking for one year because, once the final regulations are in place, the Department must follow certain procedures required under the Paperwork Reduction Act to revise the Web-based data collection instrument.
A complete copy of the July 14, 2014 Dear Colleague Letter is available here. This Letter confirms, albeit somewhat implicitly, that the Department makes a distinction between "accurate" and "complete" information in ASRs for 2013. While the Department understands that 2013 data may not be complete, any data provided should be accurate.
Those watching higher ed news are likely aware that the regulations implementing SaVE are not the only governmental actions institutions should be monitoring. A bipartisan group of senators has recently proposed a new bill, entitled the "Campus Accountability and Safety Act," that would amend Clery yet again to increase investigative and reporting requirements, to modify training and disciplinary protocols, and to increase penalties to institutions for violations. Notably, the monetary penalty for violations would jump drastically from $35,000 per violation to $150,000, and the Department would further be authorized to penalize institutions up to one percent of their annual operating budget. A copy of the Senate bill is available here.
So are compliance requirements clearer now than they were a month ago? A little, and there will likely be additional guidance later this year. While, the landscape continues to change, current momentum is toward requiring increased investment in addressing and remediating campus sexual violence. In the interim, member institutions would be well-served to remain diligent in monitoring for additional guidance from the Department, and to continue evaluating how best to direct resources to insure compliance.
For further information visit Waller
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
