Barbara Boxer was on Democracy Now the other day, talking about some bills to address the campus rape issue...
SEN. BARBARA BOXER: Yes. There are two bills, essentially. One is a very broad, comprehensive bill, which is very important—it’s going to take a while to get done—by Kirsten Gillibrand. Mine is a very narrow, but important, bill that would say, until we stop this, we immediately need to have an advocate for the survivors on every single campus that gets federal funds. And that’s, by the way, every campus gets federal funds. So it would say, on all campuses, you need to have an independent advocate.
And what would that advocate do? They’d be available 24/7, so the minute something horrible happens, someone would have an advocate by their side, telling them their rights, putting an arm around them, leading them to the hospital, making sure the forensics were done, letting them know their legal options, and stay with them throughout the entire process.
That sounds like it could be helpful, but I was even more interested in the Gillibrand bill, as described by Boxer it sounds like a good systemic fix:
... it really changes the penalties if a college doesn’t really report the truth. It’s pretty broad. And it gives them disincentives not to report. It’s a little more controversial, but I think we can get it done ...
Gillibrand had an article about it in the Huffington Post recently:
Under the Campus Accountability And Safety Act:
- underreporting will have stiff fines with real teeth;
- students will have a place to confidentially access the services they deserve;
- survivors will work with advisors who have proper training; and
- high school students across the country will have a new criterion to consider as they sit with their families and decide where to attend college.
Gillibrand points to a site about this. It provides an Action Toolkit, but that's essentially a "build-your-own movement" package, they're not pushing any one action item at present.
I might suggest it's a good time for the write your congressional rep routine.