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The ability for campuses to investigate cases of sexual assault crimes is now on the line due to the introduction of the Safe Campus Act.

“Campus was extremely involved in my case, everyone knew what was going on and they helped keep us all safe,” says Junior Zabrina Hvostal.

This issue is now in the hands of The U.S. House of Representatives to decide whether or not the Safe Campus Act should be implemented amending the Higher Education Act of 1965. This will implement new policies for how cases of sexual assault crimes are handled and prosecuted within college and university systems.

If passed, it will bar the university systems from investigating crimes of sexual assault thus giving police departments’ full control over the investigation and potential prosecutions.

 

 

Therefore the act gives both parties equal pull allowing both the accused and the victim to obtain a lawyer whom will view evidence and be present during the time of the hearings. By giving police departments’ full jurisdiction over these cases it prohibits schools from enacting any disciplinary actions toward the offender.

Currently the laws in place allow universities to investigate reported cases of rape and sexual assault, involve the police and finally punish the accused person on and off campus.

This is very important to the students of Kent State University. Junior Bailey Purpura states, “If something were to happen to me and I had to call the official authorities I would question whether or not my problem was important enough, but if I could just call the university police to help me, I feel like that’s specifically there job.”

Initially when the idea of this act was introduced National Panhellenic Conference and the North American Interfraternity Conference they stood in agreement, but since then have withdrew there support. Because students would have to go through the trouble of reporting to schools and authorities the alleged victims would be less likely to report these cases leaving them unrecognized and unreported.

“I agree with my National Chapter of Alpha Phi’s decision to oppose this act, keeping students safe on campus should always be a priority” states Alpha Phi member Casey Johnson.

The act is also widely unsupported by rape victims’ and advocacy groups and has very little support from the higher education system as a whole. Over 200 groups have signed a letter to the House opposing this act.

“I think if students are able to report to RA’s first a lot more cases would be reported and having campus involved is very beneficial” says Kent State Student’s Against Sexual Assault E board member, Kaylee Hopping.

In addition to the numerous other changes at hand this act it would also allow authorities to impose sanctions against organizations, bars and chartered clubs if the crime occurred during event they were hosting.

Kent State fraternities Alpha Phi, Phi Mu, Chi Omega and Delta Gamma have all stood up in opposition of the act and since then the entire North American Interfraternity Conference and National Panhellenic Conference have withdrawn there support.

Currently the Safe Campus Act is going through the U.S. House of Representatives to decide whether or not it will be passed sometime is 2016.

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Kent State Students Against Sexual Assault (SASA) bi-weekly meetings being Jan. 26 at 8:00 p.m. in Bowman Hall room 110.