"There is a
changed legal dynamic now where campuses are under pressure to act on reports
of assault," says Brett A. Sokolow, president of the National Center for
Higher Education Risk Management, a consulting and law firm that advises
colleges.
When it comes to how
colleges deal with sexual assault, whether it is in statements on course
syllabi or in conversations with students, professors no longer are in the
driver’s seat. "This is a universitywide issue," Mr. Sokolow says.
"Faculty members have always acted like they had the privilege of keeping
their conversations with students confidential. But that privilege mentality is
now coming to clash with federal regulations."
It is the last part of
that answer that campus officials believe requires professors to report
information about assaults. That also means it is not up to faculty members,
but to a university’s Title
IX coordinator, to handle that information appropriately, including
deciding whether a case should be pursued, says Mr. Sokolow.
Some universities
already have made professors conducting research exempt from reporting details
on sexual assault if the information comes up as part of a confidential study.
And Mr. Sokolow believes that is how the law should be interpreted.
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