Recently proposed legislation may require universities to report the number of sexual assault hearings and their outcomes annually.
The legislation was introduced Friday by the lobbying group Security on Campus and would be an enhancement to the Clery Act, which consists of crime-reporting and sex-discrimination laws.
If passed, the enhancements would require universities to disclose the number of sexual assault hearings, including their time frame and any action taken. Failure to disclose these numbers would cost universities roughly $27,500 for each offense, according to the Security on Campus website.
The website also said the proposed enhancements would require universities to consistently enforce these laws, implement a sexual assault education program and provide accommodations for sexual assault victims.
Kevin Helmkamp, associate dean of students, said typically about 40 sexual assault cases are reported on campus each year. Of those 40, he said only a handful choose to proceed with disciplinary action and take the case to court.
He said the university currently only reports sanctions where the assailant was found guilty and suspended from the university, not the total number of hearings.
Helmkamp said he would be against the legislation if it were to require the university to make the court cases public, fearing this would cause victims to be hesitant in reporting their cases.
""Anything that would have the end result of making it more difficult and harder on victims, we're generally opposed to,"" he said. ""It's hard enough to report these kinds of things.""
Tera Meerkins, chair of Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, said sexual assault cases are under-reported to begin with, so this requirement would still fail to provide an accurate account of the issue.
However, Meerkins also said she feels some aspects of the legislation, like the education programs, would help reduce sexual assault cases on campus.
""Raising awareness and educating students would help, but since it's such a high statistic, there is never going to be enough of that,"" she said. ""So, definitely a lot of the steps in the proposed enhancements could help reduce these statistics.""
She said UW-Madison already has a lot of the legislation's proposed requirements, but they are not strictly enforced.
She said the proposed enhancements would help to eliminate this problem.
