Blog: Weekly Column: Returning to Campus: What We're Doing to Keep Students Safe

Statement

We're taking my oldest daughter back to college this week. It's hard to believe that she's going to be a Junior already! I hope and pray that she understands just how proud Bryon and I are of her and what she's working to achieve. We trust that she'll make the right decisions, but it's still hard not to feel uneasy sometimes because we just don't have control over who surrounds her anymore.

South Dakota is extremely blessed to have college campuses filled with tremendous faculty, personnel and students. While our campuses are much safer than many around the country, today's college culture can sometimes put good kids in bad situations.

Nationwide, one in five young women and one in 16 young men are targets of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault while they are college students, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The vast majority -- about 89 percent -- occur when the victim is incapacitated due to alcohol. The independent Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network points out that college-aged women are four times more likely to face sexual assault than any other age group.

Schools have taken great strides in recent years to improve education and awareness on campuses to help guard students from putting themselves in a dangerous situation. Reporting requirements have also helped better address complaints and deal with recurring problems. There is more that can and should be done, however.

At the end of July, I helped introduce the House version of the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. This is a bipartisan bill that takes aim at sexual assaults on college campuses by empowering students, strengthening accountability measures, and establishing stiff penalties for non-compliance with training and data standards.

More specifically, if passed, colleges and universities would need to designate Confidential Advisors to serve as a resource for victims. This Advisor would help coordinate support services, provide information about options for reporting, and offer help in reporting the crime to campus authorities or law enforcement, if the survivor chooses to do so.

We've also created minimum training standards for on-campus personnel to ensure they are equipped to handle investigations and the disciplinary process as well as included stronger accountability provisions. For instance, the bill prohibits athletic departments or other subgroups to handle complaints of sexual violence for members of that subgroup alone. As such, there will be a uniform way of addressing claims of assault. I'm hopeful this will ensure any potential bias is suppressed and that both campus authorities and local law enforcement can focus on solving the crime rather than debating jurisdiction, as has happened too often in the past.

I am very grateful to all those at our colleges and universities who help ensure our young people are safe as they work toward a college degree. What you do is incredibly important. With this legislation, I'm hopeful we can give you and the students you serve even more tools, resources, and guidance.

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