Nine months after the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into its handling of sexual assaults, administrators at the College of William & Mary say they are focused on creating a safe environment for students.
The college was one of 55 universities across the country that came under investigation for potential violations of the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex at schools that receive federal funding.
William & Mary’s Board of Visitors spent more than two hours Thursday night discussing the college’s progress in efforts to improve its handling of sexual violence, along with other safety issues, on campus.
“Our university’s bedrock responsibility is to ensure the safety of William & Mary people while they’re on the campus, [and] while they’re involved in William & Mary activities off the campus,” college president Taylor Reveley told BOV members. “Our people have to feel secure and be secure if they’re to thrive as members of our community.”
Vice President for Administration Anna Martin said statistics suggested, by and large, most students at William & Mary felt safe during their collegiate activities.
Results from the national health assessment for students, administered at the college during the fall, showed 99.8 percent of William & Mary students reported feeling safe on campus during the day, and 95.6 percent felt safe at night. When they were in the City of Williamsburg, 99 percent of students reported feeling safe during the day, while 78.8 percent felt the same at night.
Martin said those numbers concerned a team of evaluators who assessed the college’s security last year, noting there was a “genuine feeling that members of the community are immune from crime while on campus.”
Despite that feeling, crime has been present on the William & Mary campus.
From 2011 to 2013 — the most recent year for which data is available — 12 instances of forcible sexual assault occurring on campus were reported to police, according to statistics gathered under the Clery Act, which requires universities to disclose reported violent crimes that occurred on campus.
A full account of William & Mary’s Clery statistics is available here.
Clery statistics do not present a full picture of the level of crime, including sexual assaults, happening at universities, as the law requires schools to report only incidents occurring on campus. Crimes happening beyond the college grounds, even if they involve students, do not fall under Clery’s purview.
Clery is one of several legal mandates Virginia colleges — including William & Mary — must adhere to when reporting crimes involving members of their communities. Title IX requires universities to institute policies to combat sexual harassment on campus, while state statutes passed in the wake of the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech require university officials to report threats made against the school.
Additionally, the college’s code of ethics requires faculty and staff members to report any “illegal or unethical actions” they are made aware of, and the university must investigate.
Kiersten Boyce, William & Mary’s Title IX coordinator, said the various laws, and their often overlapping nature, resulted in a complex legal landscape for universities.
Beyond its report duties, the college also has institutional mechanisms for dealing with reports of sexual violence. Students can report incidents to the Dean of Students office anonymously, or up to full disclosure. The level of disclosure affects the college’s ability to follow up with reporters.
When a report of sexual violence reaches the college’s Title IX coordinator, an investigation into the allegation is launched. The investigation can include collecting photos of the scene of the incident, medical records, texts and emails, IT records and door access records, along with eyewitness interviews.
That information becomes a comprehensive report that is sent to Dean of Students Marjorie Thomas, who reviews the file and determines whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the student conduct process.
William & Mary’s sexual misconduct policy covers a range of behavior, from inappropriate comments to “intercourse without consent.” Under the current policy, the minimum punishment for non-consensual intercourse is suspension for two full semesters.
The incident would go before a student conduct panel, consisting of administrators, faculty and students, which would determine whether an accused students was responsible for the incident based on a propensity of the evidence.
For incidents of sexual violence, sanctions can range from suspension to permanent dismissal from the college. Secondary punishments can also include restriction of privileges, banning a student from certain campus buildings or requiring counseling.
The policy also allows for students found responsible of sexual violence to appeal the decision directly to the college’s provost.
Thomas said this approach avoided an adversarial approach by following an administrative law model, rather than a courtly law model.
William & Mary also launched a sexual assault task force in October 2014 to improve the college’s efforts at preventing and addressing sexual violence on campus.
Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler, who chairs the task force, said the committee reviewed the college’s current policy through the fall semester and created a list of recommendations for improving the sexual misconduct policy, which went into effect Feb. 2.
Ambler said the updated policy more explicitly align with the Violence Against Women Act and existing Title IX guidelines, and provides clearer descriptions of the adjudication process.
Several BOV members suggested more work was left to be done regarding William & Mary’s policy.
“We use clinical terms, or polite terms, instead of direct terms, but on non-consensual intercourse, that really kind of surprised me,” BOV member John Little said. “To us, that would be a forcible crime — a violent crime — and we have a minimum punishment of two semesters suspension? … If they stepped outside of the campus and did this, they would be arrested.”
BOV member Kendrick Ashton said it seemed the college’s policy and procedures had been executed fairly, but added the style of its approach could open the school to criticism.
“That also is an external criticism, that we treat [reports of sexual violence] like an administrative thing when it should be treated as an adversarial thing, with some of the protection of due process,” he said.
While the task force’s work is still underway, the General Assembly is also considering changes to the way Virginia’s universities handle sexual violence. Del. Robert Bell (R-58) has introduced a bill that would require universities to report instances of sexual violence to police if student health or safety is at risk.
Some of the bills introduced treat the issue of campus sexual violence as an educational matter, while others treat it as a criminal one, a situation Reveley said was creating confusion for Virginia’s universities.
“It’s just a big mess,” Reveley said. “Too many cooks are involved, many of them without a scintilla of an idea of what they’re doing.”
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