Dr. Cindi Love, Executive Director

On Monday, October 20, 2014 the Department of Education announced the final rules on the changes to the Clery Act by the VAWA Reauthorization Act of 2013. These new rules are will take effect July 2015 and are similar to what the Department released in June.
 
These rules are also inline with the mission of our Presidential Task Force on Sexual Violence in Higher Education and our resources.
 
Here are some key components of these important rules.  

  • Campuses must now report the number of sexual assaults that the Campus Police and other law enforcement officials have determined to be “unfounded”.  This description is based on FBI terms in which crimes are “false and baseless”.  These will be asked to be listed in a separate category.
  • Both alleged victims and accused perpetrators will be allowed to choose a lawyer, family member, campus official or other advocate to appear with them throughout the disciplinary proceedings.  However, the college will be allowed to limit that person’s participation in the campus proceedings. This was clarified as, campus advisors was a concern as associations have voiced on the impact of allowing anyone who is deemed an “advisor” into the proceedings. 
  • The rules do not define consent, many institutions are adopting the legal definition of consent as “yes means yes” instead of “no means no”.  
  • Institutions should use the “preponderance of evidence” standard, rather than the stricter “beyond a reasonable doubt”.  The new regulations do not specify a burden of proof.
  • Add gender identity and national origin as two new categories of bias that serve as the basis for a determination of a hate crime.
  • Describe each type of disciplinary proceeding used by the institution in cases of alleged dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, including the steps, anticipated timelines, and decision-making process for each, and how the institution determines which type of disciplinary proceeding to use.
  • Include in their annual security report a statement of policy regarding the institution's programs to prevent dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking as well as the procedures that the institutions will follow when one of these crimes is reported.
  • Provide that an institution's disciplinary proceeding will afford the accuser and the accused the same opportunities to have others present during the institutional disciplinary proceeding, including the opportunity to be accompanied to any related meeting or proceeding by an advisor of their choice. 

View the Department of Education Resources.

We fully appreciate the complexity of interpretation and implementation of these new regulations and continue our efforts to engage proactively with the Department of Education, Congress and our peer associations through the Public Policy Consortium.  In addition, the ACPA Task Force on Sexual Violence is deep in its deliberations and our partnership with We End Violence, the developers of Agent of Change is well underway. 

Peace,

Cindi