A proposed sexual assault bill that would make it mandatory for universities to report sexual assault allegations involving their students or employees to law enforcement was introduced Jan. 7 to the General Assembly by Rep. Mia Ackerman, D-Cumberland and Lincoln.
Sexual assault cases in which the victim is a female student are less likely to be reported to the police than cases in which the victim is female and not a student, according to a decade-long study by the U.S. Department of Justice released in December 2014.
“This is actually an issue of national scale,” Ackerman said of sexual assault on college campuses in a Jan. 8 press release. “We have some great colleges and universities in this state, and we’re not saying they’re not equipped to handle the problem,” she said. “But our local law enforcement agencies are very well trained, equipped with special victims units and best able to handle complaints of sexual assault.”
“A lot of the times universities … want to save their reputation,” Ackerman told The Herald. Universities “might want to handle it internally so the word doesn’t get out that there was an assault.”
Ackerman said the issue of sexual assault on college campuses is of personal significance to her, since her son is in college and her daughter will soon be in college.
Though the intention behind the bill is good, the bill is too vague about institutions’ responsibilities, said Rep. Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield and Burrillville, minority leader for the House.
“The question is: What exactly are they supposed to report?” Newberry said. “What if a student at Brown tells their friends about something that happened and one of the friends mentions it to (an administrator) … Is that a report?”
Universities will end up overreporting unless their responsibilities under state-mandated legislation are made clear, Newberry added.
“You could clearly create a situation with lots of overreporting,” said Dan Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island.
“Mandatory reporting … may create an unintended consequence of dissuading people from reporting,” Egan said.
Despite these concerns, Ackerman said she intentionally made the language in the bill broad so she could “get the dialogue going on this epidemic that we have going on in the country.”
Looking ahead, Ackerman said she hopes to discuss the bill with law enforcement officials, universities and victim advocacy groups. She will be sending letters to Rhode Island colleges and universities soliciting their input on the bill in the following weeks.
“Every story has two sides to it,” Ackerman said. “To perfect a bill you really need to open a dialogue.
