NEW YORK—One in five women attending undergraduate college is a victim of rape or attempted rape, according to statistics by the National Organization for Women.
Amid nationwide concerns over the failure of universities and colleges to deal with student complaints of sexual assault on campus, City Council committees convened on Monday to question local college officials on their sexual assault policies.
A July 2014 survey of 440 four-year colleges conducted by U.S. senator Claire McCaskill found that more than 40 percent of schools had not conducted a single sexual assault investigation in the past five years.
As of mid-October, 85 colleges across the country are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for violations of Title IX, a federal law that requires schools to respond appropriately to student complaints of sexual harassment or violence.
On Monday, officials from the City University of New York (CUNY), Columbia University, and New York University (NYU) before council members in the higher education, women’s issues, civil rights, and public safety committees.
The committees mainly focused on how the schools worked with police in reporting sexual assault crimes, how the schools’ disciplinary process dealt with perpetrators, and whether the schools had policies clearly stating the definition of sexual consent.
CUNY, Columbia, and NYU all noted that they have revised their sexual assault policies recently to clearly state that sexual consent requires affirmative agreement to sexual activity, that silence does not constitute consent, and that someone cannot give consent under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or other impairments to judgment.
