Daniel C.
Swinton, senior executive vice president of the National Center for Higher
Education Risk Management, said the 2011 letter "was them saying, 'Hey,
we're serious.'"
Since
then, Swinton said, the Office of Civil Rights also been far more public — with
fanfare and news releases — about its efforts, releasing information on its
findings in the wake of complaints, and the resulting agreements it has made
with institutions about how to address the underlying problems.
In the
past, Swinton said, such agreements were "normally filed away and not paid
much attention to." But since 2011, "these things have taken on an
added gravitas."
He said
that many colleges and universities now pore over resolutions, looking for
guidelines on exactly how to handle assault allegations on their own campuses.
One
challenge is that the cases often involve acquaintances or friends, and often
both parties had been drinking alcohol, making the cases difficult to
prosecute, Swinton said. "Most of them become 'He said, she said.'"
Historically,
some colleges and universities have put a lid on problems, discouraged victims
from reporting and given favoritism to certain groups of people such as
student-athletes, Swinton said.
"I
think OCR saw enough of those and said, 'We're done with this. We are going to
take more action on this, and make sure it's being enforced, because this is a
major problem.'"
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