Less than half of NYS colleges, universities are fully compliant with sexual assault laws

Less than half of New York state’s colleges and universities presented evidence of full compliance with “Enough is Enough,” the state’s campus sexual assault law, according to a report published by the state’s Office of Campus Safety.

Of New York’s 244 higher education institutions, the state found 95 to be fully compliant with the law, while 120 were “significantly compliant” but needed to present additional documentation.

There were 29 schools classified as noncompliant, meaning that they had failed to meet the majority of the law’s requirements, according to a press release published by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s press office on Sept. 19.

The preliminary report, which represents the first of two phases in the state’s review process, required schools to voluntarily send the OCS proof they were in compliance with the law, said Kevin Gagan, director of the OCS.

“Enough is Enough,” or Senate Bill S5965, was passed in June 2015.

The bill includes provisions requiring schools to adopt a definition of affirmative consent, implement a drug and alcohol amnesty policy for students who report sexual assault and conduct regular campus climate assessments such as the one SU completed in 2016.

Syracuse University was fully compliant with the legislation, as were many of New York’s top-ranking institutions, including Columbia University, Cornell University and Fordham University, according to the OCS’s data breakdown.

Queensborough Community College, City University of New York Herbert H. Lehman College and City University of New York Brooklyn College were among the 29 schools listed as noncompliant.

CUNY Lehman fully supports the “Enough is Enough” law and is actively addressing any concerns about its policies and processes, said Joseph Tirella, director of media relations at the college, in an email.

Tirella said the college requires student athletes and student leaders to participate in sexual harassment training every year and all students to live in residential housing.

More than 2,000 full and part-time CUNY Lehman students participated in an online Title IX program since spring 2016, she added.

The university has a total enrollment of 13,287, per U.S. News.

Melissa Moore, Title IX coordinator at Bryant and Stratton College in Syracuse, said her school — which was listed as noncompliant in the OCS report — is doing what it can to prevent sexual assault on its campus.

She said Bryant and Stratton currently has an arrangement with a New York State Police detective to investigate reports of sexual assault. The school also provides drug and alcohol amnesty to students who report sexual assault, and the school now mandates sexual assault prevention training for all athletes, she added.

Moore noted that the drug and alcohol amnesty policy is not contained in the college’s student code of conduct.

She said she was confused as to why Bryant and Stratton was listed as noncompliant given the services it provides and the paperwork she says the college submitted.

“A lot of what they were asking, we actually provided to them … my guess is they haven’t updated whatever the report was,” Moore said.

Other New York colleges — including New York University, the University of Rochester and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — were listed as “significantly compliant.”

“In what was called ‘significantly compliant’ … it may have not been clear that the school offered the student the chance to report to the state police as opposed to the local police or the campus police,” Gagan said.

Betsy DeVos, U.S. education secretary, rescinded an Obama-era rule that had colleges use the lowest standard of proof to determine if a student was responsible for sexual assault. DeVos said the rule was unfair to students accused of sexual assault.

“Governor (Cuomo) is committed to enforcement of his ‘Enough is Enough’ legislation no matter what the federal government does,” Gagan said in an email.

Gagan said the next step for the OCS is to investigate schools deemed noncompliant, as well as schools that were significantly compliant but had left some major concerns unaddressed.

Schools that are not fully compliant will be notified and required to submit an action plan to reach full compliance within 30 days, according to the press release. They will also be required to submit documentation that they have reached full compliance within 60 days of being notified.

Schools that don’t comply may be at risk of losing funding, Gagan said.

“Phase two is to first take the schools we had in the red zone of noncompliance, and we have to work with them to get them up to speed,” Gagan said. “What’s more important here than to play ‘gotcha’ and take money away from schools’ funding is to get the schools to comply.”