By Don Clyde and Mina Kim

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) spoke with military sexual assault survivors during a House Veteran Affairs Subcomittee on Capitol Hill. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) — Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) spoke with military sexual assault survivors during a House Veteran Affairs Subcomittee on Capitol Hill. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

A slew of new legislation targeting sexual assaults on college campuses was introduced in both houses of Congress Wednesday.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced a bill called the Survivor Outreach and Support Campus Act. It would require universities to provide assault victims with an on-campus advocate to offer guidance on legal and medical matters.

"Survivors of sexual assault deserve an advocate who will fight for them every step of the way," Boxer said in a press release. "Our bill, which has been endorsed by the University of California, will help encourage more victims to come forward and report these heinous crimes. I will work with my colleagues to pass this important bill and other broader legislation to end the epidemic of violence on our nation's campuses."

In the House, Bay Area Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) introduced a bill that would require universities to survey students on whether they've experienced sexual violence, post online the names of colleges under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for their handling of sexual assault cases, and stiffen penalties for violations. (Read the bill at the end of the post.)

“I think there’s just a heightened awareness that we’ve got a huge problem here that for the most part has been swept under the proverbial rug for a very long period of time, and Title IX has not been taken seriously in terms of making sure that there’s an equal educational opportunity for all students regardless of sex or sexual orientation,” Speier said. “And we are going to fix it.”

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Speier described some of the stipulations that would be placed on universities by her legislation in an interview with KQED:

"If a university is not appropriately reporting under what's called the Clery Act when there have been incidents on campus, there is an opportunity now to bring a private right of action (a lawsuit) against the university," Speier said. "It also extends the protection and the education to the LGBT community and those who are eligible under the Americans With Disabilities Act, because we do know the incidents of sexual harassment extends beyond gender. It also applies to those under sexual orientation."

Speier said the university surveys would help hold campuses accountable to students and their families.

"We are patterning this after the military system, where climate surveys have been done and we've been able to track the incidents of sexual assault and rape in the military. And it creates accountability by virtue of seeing how many victims will report," Speier said. "Now they tend to report anonymously in a survey, and you see the disparity between the figure that represents those who actually have been sexually assaulted and those who report. And that draws in clear relief the problem and the fact that there has to be something done about it."

Earlier this year, a White House task force found that one out of five female college students has been assaulted. In May, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights released a list of 55 colleges and universities under investigation over their handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints.

Listen to an extended interview with Speier below:

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators also introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at curbing sexual assaults on campus. The New York Times described some of the requirements and punitive measures that would be placed on universities:

The new measure would require every university in the United States to conduct anonymous surveys of students about their experience with sexual violence on campus, with the results published online. The survey, which had been pushed for by sexual assault victims, is similar to one conducted by the military, and would allow parents and high school students to make comparative choices.

The bill would also increase the financial risk for schools that do not comply with certain requirements of the bill, like conducting the surveys. Schools would face possible penalties of up to 1 percent of their operating budget; previously, universities that violated student rights in sexual assault cases risked the loss of federal funding, but the punishment (had) never been applied and lawmakers said it was impractical.

The bill increases penalties under the Clery Act — a federal law requiring all colleges and universities receiving federal financial aid to disclose information about campus crimes — to up to $150,000 per violation, from $35,000. Last year, the Department of Education fined Yale University $165,000 for failing to disclose four sexual offenses involving force that had occurred over several years, and other schools have also been fined.

Stanford University Creates Its Own Sexual Assault Task Force

Stanford University is taking steps to crack down on campus sexual assaults and has named 17 students, faculty and staff to a task force that will review and recommend changes to the universities' policies.

They will consider how to prevent sexual assaults, help with support following an incident and improve the disciplinary process. From the Palo Alto Weekly:

The university said in a release that the Task Force on Sexual Assault Policies and Practices, chaired by Stanford Law School Dean M. Elizabeth Magill and Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) President Elizabeth Woodson, will begin work shortly and continue through the upcoming academic year.

The task force has been asked to seek input from the campus community and to review and make recommendations about Stanford's activities in three areas: education and prevention, support following an incident and adjudication of reported cases of sexual violence, including both the Title IX investigation process and the disciplinary process. The task force will make its first set of recommendations this fall, the university said.

The Stanford task force is calling for expulsion as the default sanction for students who are found guilty of sexual assault.

"In the institution there's a code of conduct, and if you violate the code of conduct by committing a crime, I believe you should be expelled," Speier said. "And what many of these universities have done is suspended the student or expelled them after they graduated and prevented them from coming back to take course work on campus as a postgraduate until one or two semesters have passed. That is the proverbial slap on the hand."

Congresswoman Jackie Speier's bill to increase transparency and reporting on campus sexual violence.

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