Iowa colleges strike delicate balance in responding to sexual assault reports

FAIRFIELD - When a Maharishi University of Management student reported a sexual assault to a campus security guard late last year, the guard emailed the sparse details she knew to her supervisor within 75 minutes.

The next day the guard, Christina Brooks, investigated further, but by that point the school said Brooks had already broken protocol by not relaying the information quickly enough or through the proper medium. She was fired three days later.

When he ruled last month, administrative Law Judge Terrence P. Nice sided with the school in denying Brooks unemployment benefits.

On a different campus, Brooks might still have a job.

Colleges are still trying to strike the right balance of what to do with the information when a sexual assault is reported. The goal is to have strong enough protocols to quickly investigate what happened and respond if necessary, while being flexible enough to honor a victim's wishes.

But sometimes those two goals conflict.

'If the sense on campus is that everyone has to tell, it might have a chilling effect,” said Alison Kiss, executive director of the Wayne, Pa.-based Clery Center for Security on Campus. 'While there are people who have to report, you also want to have a number of options of confidential resources for students.”

Colleges are required to be transparent about sexual assaults on campus under the federal Jeanne Clery Act, which mandates schools receiving federal financial aid disclose crimes on or near campus and annually report statistics.

While schools are refining their protocols, they are being managed differently.

'There is variability in how campuses are assessing who is a mandatory reporter,” said Elizabeth Barnhill, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault. 'From our viewpoint, campuses can have confidential personnel, and we believe it's important for victims to have that resource. In the aftermath of an assault, it's hard enough to disclose to anyone, much less to figure out the campus' policy and try and assess what you want to do in a moment of trauma.”

Increase in reports

In Fairfield, the reporting Maharishi University student initially only revealed an allegation of a sexual assault by another student and that she had filed a police report. Brooks didn't want to push her, according to the files of the unemployment hearing.

It didn't matter that Brooks later found out the incident happened off campus months earlier, or that Fairfield police closed the case without filing charges. The school's protocols for responding to a sexual assault required that Brooks notify the security director immediately while still on the scene by phone or walkie-talkie.

Security Director James Bedinger wrote in a termination letter the university has a legal requirement to look into any such charge and to make it known to the general campus population if it is believed there is a greater or lingering danger for the residents at large.

Reports of sex offenses are shooting up around Iowa and the nation, and that is a good thing, analysts say. The increase doesn't mean more incidents are taking place, but rather it's a testament to enhanced federal rules and increased awareness of a notoriously under reported crime, Kiss said. It's helping breakdown a 'culture of silence,” she said.

Iowa has seen a 52 percent increase in reports of forcible and non-forcible sex offenses on or near college campuses, according to campus crime data maintained by the Clery Center. Reporting in Iowa, which jumped from 75 in 2011 to 114 in 2013, has increased more than the national spike of 47 percent over the same period.

On other campuses:

l The University of Iowa has a number of mandatory reporters including faculty or staff in leadership positions, executives, student advisers, faculty or staff that supervise student employees and human resource staff.

Reporters are required to notify the Office of Sexual Misconduct Response Coordinator of allegations within two business days, refer the person making the report to the office, and inform the person of victim advocacy services available through the Rape Victim Advocacy Program.

l At Cornell College in Mount Vernon, almost all staff and faculty are mandatory reporters with an expectation of disclosing 'all information” about suspected sexual misconduct, according to Cornell's policy manual. Only trained sexual assault advocates, the school's chaplain and staff in counseling or health services are considered confidential resources.

Heidi Levine, Cornell's assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of students, said while Cornell leans more toward full disclosure, it doesn't appear to be hampering reporting.

'What we are finding in the early days is, as students are talking with faculty members and asking if faculty are mandated to report, most students who had something they wanted to share are going ahead and doing so anyway,” Levine said.

The school advertises options for confidential reporting, and if a reporting student later resists participating in an investigation, the school doesn't force her, Levine added.

'It is extremely challenging because I think the vast majority of us want to be as sensitive as possible to the issues that survivors are experiencing, but we also want to honor due process as we are investigating and adjudicating these cases,” she said. 'They are very challenging balances to find and maintain.”

l The majority of campus employees at Coe College in Cedar Rapids are 'quasi-confidential” reporters.

Quasi-confidential reporters must relay reports to supervisors for purposes of federal statistics, but they don't reveal private, personally identifiable information unless there is fear for safety, according to the manual.

'Our main goal if someone wants to report is to give as much control back to the victim survivor, while still maintaining the rights of others involved,” said Tom Hicks, Coe's dean of students.

Kiss said there isn't one right model for protocols as long as staff fully understand what the protocols are and they don't discourage reporting.

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com

Reports of forcible or non-forcible sexual offenses on or near campus:

l Coe College - 7 in 2011, 4 in 2012, 6 in 2013

l Cornell College - 4 in 2011, 3 in 2012, 6 in 2013

l Grinnell College - 6 in 2011, 18 in 2012, 8 in 2013

l Mount Mercy University - 0 in 2011, 0 in 2012, 1 in 2013

l University of Iowa - 11 in 2011, 17 in 2012, 11 in 2013

l Iowa State University - 7 in 2011, 11, in 2012, 17 in 2013

l University of Northern Iowa - 9 in 2011, 6 in 2012, 7 in 2013

l Drake University - 2 in 2011, 0 in 2012, 3 in 2013

Source: Clery Center for Security on Campus