Colleges provide fuller picture of sex assaults

10-18-15 Tennessee, National:

Nashville-area colleges big and small are developing programs to address the issue. Still, numbers suggest many have work to do.

New federal regulations now require colleges to log incidents of domestic assault, dating violence and stalking — in addition to sexual assaults — in their annual campus safety reports, which had to be completed this month.

Local advocates say the additional data provide a clearer picture of the realities of sexual violence on campus.

“Sexual violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” said Kathy Walsh, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. “If you really want to address sexual violence, you have to address dating violence, intimate partner violence and stalking.”

The rules, part of amendments to the Violence Against Women Act and the Clery Act, also require colleges work to prevent those crimes.

Although the changes went into effect in July, Tennessee colleges have been scrambling to meet them for more than a year. Nonprofits, including the Tennessee Coalition, have hosted roundtables, workshops and conferences as colleges big and small developed and refined policies to address the issues. ..Continued.. by Adam Tamburin