College campuses will soon change how sexual assaults are handled.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie recently announced an agreement has been reached on the “Enough is Enough” legislation to combat sexual assault on college campuses in New York State.
“Today is a victory for students across New York State,” Cuomo said. “As the Governor, and as a father, I am proud that with this legislation New York will become a national leader in the fight against sexual assault on college campuses. This action is a major step forward to protect students from an issue that has been plaguing schools nationwide for far too long. Once again, New York is setting the standard for other states to follow, and I look forward to signing this legislation into law as soon as possible.”
This on-campus sexual assault prevention and response legislation was first proposed by Cuomo in January. The package includes a statewide definition of affirmative consent, defining consent as a knowing, voluntary, and mutual decision among all participants to engage in sexual activity; a statewide amnesty policy, to ensure that students reporting incidents of sexual assault or other sexual violence are granted immunity for certain campus policy violations, such as drug and alcohol use; A Students’ Bill of Rights, which campuses will be required to distribute to all students in order to specifically inform sexual violence victims of their legal rights and how they may access appropriate resources; comprehensive training requirements for administrators, staff and students, including at new student orientations; reporting requirements for campuses to annually submit aggregate data on reported incidents of sexual violence and their adjudication and handling to the State Education Department; a new unit within the State Police called the “sexual assault victims unit” specialized in advanced training in responding to sexual assaults and related crimes that shall also provide assistance to campus police or local law enforcement, as well as training to college campus communities; a commitment of $10 million to help combat campus sexual assault through various partners, split in the following manner: $4.5 million to rape crisis centers to provide services and resources to students, $4.5 million to the state police to create sexual assault victims unit and $1 million to colleges and universities; and a requirement for first responders to notify survivors of their right to contact outside law enforcement.
