According to CleryCenter.org, “The Campus SaVE Act seeks to address the violence women face on campus: the highest rates of stalking, the highest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence, and 20-25 percent of female students experiencing rape or attempted rape.”
Bridget Butwin, general counsel, explained what the act is meant to do. “The SaVE Act actually amends the Violence Against Women Act and was passed in March 2014,” Butwin said. “We had some regulations issued in October 2014 that go into effect on July 1, 2015. What the SaVE Act does is it requires us to define attritional terms like stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence.”
Another requirement is that the reports of the incidents must go through campus security. They would then be in the yearly security report that comes out every October and identifies the number of reports for different crimes. “In addition to amending the Violence Against Women Act, [the SaVE Act] amends the Clery Act,” Butwin said.
According to CleryCenter.org, the Clery Act is a federal law that requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Stalking, domestic violence and dating violence are all crimes punishable with heavy fines. “The Department of Education enforces the Clery Act requirement of reporting incidents,” Butwin said. “They would [have] some sort of investigation if they received a complaint. The fines are $35,000 per incident and there is some legislation that would increase those fines.”
Before the act is put into effect, it will go through student and faculty scrutiny to ensure that it is as effective as possible. “Our plan is to release our act to the university very soon and different groups will be asked to comment on it,” Butwin said. “Faculty Senate will be asked, Student Government Association will as well. We hope to take the revised version to the Board of Trustees by June of this year.”
The act is meant to help students who are victims of sexual violence and stalking to have the resources to get help and report the crime. “It’s all about the resources,” Butwin said. “These are criminal acts so it’s a complex situation. We are going to identify the kinds of resources that are available to students who may be the victims. We want to be clearer about confidential report options.”
The goal is to inform as many people on campus as possible about the prevention and effects of violence and stalking. “In addition to defining our terms and streamlining the process of the complaints, we also really think it’s important to have prevention and training programs,” Butwin said.
Some activities are going to happen this month to raise awareness. However, April will have many more because it is National Sexual Assault Awareness month. Next semester will have activities that are focused on prevention and training.