The occurrence of sexual assaults on college campuses is a prevalent issue, as devastating stories continue to make news headlines.
In an effort to combat this problem, there has been a push for colleges to include sexual assault punishments on transcripts.
However, I do not think this is the right step to take in an effort to prevent sexual assault.
It seems noting sexual assault punishments on transcripts is a way for colleges to temporarily deal with the issue rather than trying to stop it from happening.
It only adds to an already confusing system, and it creates the potential for innocent students to have their transcripts permanently marked. Virginia and New York are the first states so far to require this.
Virginia enacted legislation in May 2015, and New York passed a law in June that requires students of public and private colleges to have their transcripts noted if they are found responsible for sexual assault or more specifically, “suspended/expelled after a finding of responsibility for a code of conduct violation.”
If a student withdraws pending charges, their transcript will mark that as well, in hopes of preventing them from transferring to avoid charges.
Students can appeal to have their transcript cleared one year after completing a suspension.
In February of 2015, California and Maryland attempted to pass similar legislation.
The California bill was vetoed by the governor eight months later, and the bill failed in committee in Maryland.
For two decades, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers has recommended that schools manage information about students’ disciplinary actions, but not include it on academic transcripts.
But in the 2016 Academic Record and Transcript Guide, they changed that from saying that including disciplinary violations on transcripts is “not recommend” to “optional.”
I think noting sexual assault punishments on transcripts can lead to many problems.
Like many heated issues, the topic of sexual assault in general is not transparent. From false accusations to defining consent, sexual assault is not clear cut. Enforcing new laws could make the topic even more confusing and the system less efficient.
In “'Enough is enough': Colleges don’t need more sex-assault legislation,” Kevin Kruger, president of NAPSA — Student Affairs Administrator in Higher Education, wrote that while the new law has a lot of good qualities, he is still concerned about the broader implications of state-by-state legislation to deal with sexual assault.
“I must stress that colleges aren’t courts of law,” Kruger wrote. “We may soon have a state-by-state patchwork dictating what are very complex campus processes.”
With varying disciplinary suspensions among institutions, the system becomes unclear.
Another point to make against noting transcripts of sexual assaults is that when it comes to sexual assault cases, many times the situation is ambiguous, so we should not create laws that could alter a potentially wrongfully charged student’s life.
But for those who are correctly found guilty, the new laws might not do much to prevent future sexual assaults anyway.
Psychologist David Lisak from the University of Massachusetts completed a study, which found that the majority of students who commit rape on a campus are serial rapists.
On college campuses, repeat rapists account for 9 out of every 10 rapes, his study showed.
Just as criminals will find ways to obtain guns despite laws that prevent them from doing so, passing legislation to deter and punish those found guilty of sexual assault will not necessarily stop them from doing so again.
Also, while the legislation might be intended to stop the cases of potential sexual assaults from occurring, many times the situation in which they occur involves drinking and a lack of awareness.
In 1 in 3 sexual assaults, the perpetrator was intoxicated, according to Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
Ultimately, the progress that we are seeing with dealing with sexual assaults on college campuses proves that we have made great strides, but we should not force harsh legislation.
That does not mean colleges shouldn’t continue to push boundaries to prevent sexual assaults. But a limit exists as to how much colleges can control the situation before they start to create an entirely different problem.
Amanda can be reached at intrigue@ThePlainsman.com.
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