In announcing bipartisan campus sexual assault legislation earlier this month, Senator Claire McCaskill suggested that colleges could either protest the scrutiny or get on board with the effort.
“There’s two ways to handle it: you can circle the wagons, deny it, and fight it,” she said at a press conference. “Or you can join forces, and say, ‘Thank you for the heads-up; we need help in this area.’ ”
Several higher education groups in Washington have responded by pushing back against the legislation. While acknowledging that colleges have a moral and legal obligation to root out sexual violence on their campus, some higher education advocates in Washington said that the bill is mostly too heavy-handed. The American Council on Education, for example, said it liked some elements of the bill but said that much of it would add too much complexity to the already-confusing array of federal requirements that colleges must follow when it comes to handling sexual assault cases.
Some individual colleges and university systems, though, are opting for a different approach: they're either embracing the legislation outright or cautiously deferring judgment on it, careful not to be dismissive of the concerns about sexual assault animating the legislative effort.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/15/some-colleges-embrace-tepidly-federal-scrutiny-campus-sexual-assaults