me today. [applause] >> thank you, senator. just a reminder to those watching on c-span or listening in, the public is invited to our lunch and you're at the national press club. the applause here is not necessarily from the journalists covering the event. let me ask you first off, are you planning any dramatic strategy to put the can issue on the front burner this fall, like your june filibuster on the senate floor? are you going to try to top your record? >> yeah, i am very pleased that in the wake of the filibuster and the city and, the momentum has seemed to have shifted on this issue -- sit-in. i think went to be in the business over the next two months of the basic blocking and tackling of winning elections. there are some key elections out there that i'm dense and

political prognosticators are going to look at when you decide whether or not guns are on the ballot in 2016 and which side one. i'm going to be spending much of my time between now and the election traveling to states in which we have a clear difference between candidates for the senate announced on issue of guns. i'll be spending time in the states that have referendum's that will expand background checks. nevada and -- i don't think that we will need to do anything extraordinary or noteworthy from a public relations standpoint right now. we just have to go out and win some elections. >> let's talk about pennsylvania because with the question about the point at the gabby giffords and mike bloomberg are supporting pat toomey. his race is a port in who controls the senate. would you campaign for his opponent? >> so if you are working on the issue of protecting americans

from gun violence, you have a lot of reason to think pat toomey. pat toomey, you know, did something that was exceptional in reaching out and work with democrats on this issue. i don't just work on this issue. i worked on lots of other issues as well. i'm supporting katie mcginty and i'll be supporting her from now until election day because though i appreciate what pat toomey did on the issue of background checks, there are a lot of other issues which i deeply disagree with pat toomey. and so long as republicans are not charged by the united states senate, good luck getting these votes on the floor of the senate in the absence of extraordinary measures like the filibuster. that being said, i don't think we are going to make progress on this issue. if all we do is to try to elect democrats. i do think that we have to be

honest about republicans who have stuck their neck out. some of my friends get upset when i acknowledge that pat toomey did something that was mildly heroic when he worked with democrats on background checks. but that's the truth. he did. we should congratulate and applaud republicans when they do work with us. i think we would be fools to ignore the fact that ultimately we will get a quicker route to success by finding republicans who are willing work with us. >> you're pretty good at this filibuster sent some going to start asking rapidfire. which do you think is more effective that all gun violence prevention or positions have their own erica which to work or should we all work together for one object at the same time? >> a lot has been made of the fact we have a bunch of different ethic of violence groups today that are all very strong. i think that's a great thing. i think it's great to have a

number of anti-gu anti-gun viole groups that sometimes have different priorities for different areas of focus. i think that brings more, not less people into our ranks because they don't have to fit themselves into one policy agenda, that they can take a look at the brady campaign, as america's responsible solutions, moms demand action, every town, sandy hook promise, and decide which one fits the model of advocacy the best. i don't think this is anything that hurts us. i think it makes us stronger. >> you alluded to this but do you think you should be an overlap between the gun violence prevention movement and the black lives matter movement where they can work together since gun violence does disproportionate effect people in communities of color? >> i struggle with what, with what happened earlier this year that provided this psychological tipping point for the country. why are you seeing in polls today the disapproval rate of

the nra in spring ventures is twice what it was a year ago? what i said republican candidates all of the sudden running to talk about how strong they are on the ground checks? .. when all of the bad news that you saw on tv had one thing in common, firearms and that became unacceptable to people and yes, i think you have got to marry black lives matter movement into the anti- gun movement because ultimately this isn't just about

police officer shooting unarmed black man, but also about this country making a decision to allow the flow of illegal weapons into the cities, which result in the assassination and slaughter of young black men by others in the city, not just law enforcement. >> question from the audience on that point. doesn't the breakdown in law and order in some of the towns and cities contribute to the promotion of gun sales? >> there is no doubt that every time there is a mass shooting there is ace bike in gun sales again as i laid out the nra has effectively proffer this argument that the only way to protect yourself is to buy more weapons, which is incumbent on us in the wake of these mass shootings when people are thinking about buying a weapon for protection to remind americans that there's one cold hard truth statistic, which is

if you have a weapon in your house it is much more likely to be used to kill you than it is to kill someone trying to do harm to you and people just don't believe that they either don't know it or they don't believe it, so there is no doubt the nra capitalizes on these tragedies to sell more weapons. of course every time you buy a weapon, statistically it is making you less safe, not more safe and that is something a lot of americans don't know. >> can you respond to the threat and consequences to how democrats sitting on gun violence prevention? >> in terms of breaking the rules? >> apparently the question is about they were threatened with consequences for breaking rules, sanctions or something. >> they did break the rules. i don't know the details of house protocols and house rules and a sanctions, but they did break the rules and i assume there are some sanction that comes with that.

everyone engaged in civil disobedience, founding of the nation knows there are often consequences, so i'm not one that will make a stink if there is a sanction against house democrats for sitting in. you know, sanctions have consequences and are in the best tradition of civil disobedience. >> what would it take to get gun control passed through congress-- congress if sandy hook was not enough, orlando was not enough, what do you think it will take? >> this is the question that gets asked most often and there is a famous tweet they got retweeted a million times that says something like, america decided with the current rates of gun violence acceptable the day we did nothing in the wake of sandy hook. i don't buy that. number one, i think in the wake

of sandy hook this country was not ready to have a thoughtful debate on policy change because that tragedy was so psychologically disruptive to this country that all their energy in the wake of sandy hook that just trying to reconcile how you square sandy hook with a just world in which at our essence we are so good and i think it took a long time for americans to figure out how to emotionally and psychologically reconcile sandy hook with their lives. i understand why it has taken a few years for americans to become ready to plug into this conversation and i also know it's taken a long time to get the political movement so we can actually change selection and change policy debates. .-dot gun lobby had 20 years of run from 1994 to 2012. we had three years to build this movement's. title by the idea that sandy

hook should have just automatically flipped for the political paradigm on guns. i think for a lot of issues connected, psychology and reasons connected to peer logistics of organizing, it's understandable that it's taken us three years. it might take us a few more years in order to get this done, but the momentum is heading in one direction and one direction only and i that's what you pay attention to. >> let me follow on that. you set a couple more years and in some ways this is almost generational. want to take longer for attitudes to change? >> i don't think so. if you to look at the number of republicans that loaded the background check versus those that were willing to break with the nra in 2013, about double that number are willing to break with the nra to support the compromise on closing the terror gap took again, you see a change

in some of these elections are kind mentioned the flip on gun politics in a state like new hampshire. i think this is not moving fast enough for many of us, but it's moving fast enough that we are not talking about a generational change, but a change going to take months or years, not decades. >> we had this to some degree with michael bloomberg involved. do use foresee any super pac fund levels sort of like tom stier did with the terminal movement? >> i think bloomberg has made a commitment on this issue and i think bloomberg will continue to spend a lot of money here. i don't know of any other individual funders who are willing to spend that kind of money, but as i mentioned america's solutions have made major ad buys in states already. i'm not sure that we can rely on

that strategy. i think we are better off building our numbers across the country rather than try to go out and find one or two more white nights that will spend a million dollars. >> another question from the audience's. why don't democrats just a focus on banning military style weapons such as ak-47s and ammunition for such weapons, none of which are needed for hunting imac i think there is a long laundry list of policies that need to change. we went backwards for nearly took-- two decades, so i would add to that list the liability protection of the gun industry that they enjoy like no other industry. i would add to that list prohibition on research and development into the causes of gun violence that are currently in effect. i mean, we have a long list of policy changes that we need to make in order to make this country safer, so i hate it when people say, well why are you focusing on banning assault

weapons, well of course i am. you have to pick the battles you can win first and order them in a way that is logically sequenced and i think i best chance right now is to get bills passed that increase the number of background checks for the country and a bill passed that stops people on terrorist watch list from getting guns. i won't stop talking about the need to ban on assault style weapons. you don't need to tell us what it would have met in sandy hook if those weapons were illegal in off the street. >> this questionnaire once to know if you think the gop will be willing to accept reasonable gun control or gun control at all if donald trump loses badly against frequent in this november? >> yes, in this respect. hillary clinton is running proudly on the issue of changing our nation's gun laws and there was a lot of skeptics who said

that she was only talking about guns as a means of differentiate herself from bernie sanders, but this was an issue she was using to get through the primary. that has not proved to be the case and she is continue to make this a part of every speech she gives. she is the first candidate in modern times running very publicly on a promise to make changing gun laws a priority as president, so there is the question that people have to take a signal from her election. i think what is more important is that in legislative races there are a few seen-- the signals sent that there are consequences for being on the other side of your constituents, so i will be looking more closely to that new hampshire senator race than i am to the presidential race when i'm deciding whether my colleagues on the republican side have gotten the message that they cannot oppose changes in our gun

laws without some political consequences. >> i hear you are an expert-- if democrats take over the senate would you be willing to modify the filibuster rules to ease the passage of gun laws? >> absolutely, yeah. absolutely. i have no plans nor do i ever want to ever do that again, so if the laws made it harder for me to flirt with standing on my feet for 15 hours i would gladly accept that. so, i am separate and aside from my decision to mount a filibuster, a supporter of changing the rules of the senate we have a rule now that says you have to effectively get 60 senators in order to pass any bill. i think our founding fathers are turning over in their graves seeing how difficult we have made it to pass a piece of legislation. on top of a system that they intentionally built as being

very difficult to pass a piece of legislation, they debated this issue of super majority and in the constitution they specifically told us when a super majority would be necessary, constitutional amendments, treaty, ratification and so it stands to reason that they thought about whether or not we should have super majority or ordinary pieces of legislation and instead built a bicameral slave system with a strong residential detail as a means of making change hard instead of imposing super majority. so-- listen i even as a member of the minority have fought for the end of the filibuster, so i will be hypocritical about this and only advocate for it when i'm in the majority. >> let me switch to another subject. the 15th anniversary of september 11, is upon us which had a direct impact on the lot of connecticut and-- families.

where were you at the time and what lessons have we learned since 911? >> i was in a high school in southern connecticut when i was a state representative when i saw the initial coverage on a tv screen in the library and went home to watch the rest of it. i was a state legislator at the time. we have learned a lot. one of the things we learned is that good laws protect us from attack. what we learned september 11, was that our airports were vulnerable and that terrorist had figured that out and so they were able to penetrate our relatively relaxed security at our airports at the time with box cutters and do great harm to americans. so what we'd do? we hardened our defensive and ban certain things from being brought on airplanes and instructed tsa and though they have attempted to penetrate our airlines to attack americans,

they have not been successful. so, why aren't we learning the same thing now when al qaeda operatives are stating clearly that lone wolf attackers should go to gun shows and take advantage of loose american gun laws in order to buy assault weapons to shoot civilians? that's what recruiters are saying. i can show you the video of one of the most prominent al qaeda recruiter saying here's what you do, go to a gun show, by one of these weapons and start shooting. why aren't we doing the same thing today we did after september 11? today terrorists are using assault weapons. they are not using improvised explosive devices or boarding airplanes and yet we refuse to change our laws, so i think we learned in the wake of september 11, that good policy and good protection and we

unfortunately are not using that when it comes to this new tactic of terrorist groups to take advantage of our gun in the laws. >> think senator. a quick reminder the national press club is the leading professional organization for journalists. for more information about the club visit our website. i would like to remind you about upcoming programs on september 15, secretary ash carter will be here at the national press club. october 3, secretary of the department agriculture tom ville sack. please remain seated until the senator has departed. he needs to make that photo and we don't want to make him late. would like to present our guest with a national press club mug. >> thank you very much. [applause].

>> if you come back and do our spelling bee i will give you another mug. last question. we do something a little more fun with the last question. a movie "hunting in the connecticut" was apparently based on the how she once lived in. do you believe and goes and what year he thinks might have lived in the house? >> that is good research. i've moved into my first rental house would i was 22 years old with two friends from high school and the second day we had a plumber come to work and he walked a very tentatively up the stairs and when he entered we asked him what was wrong and he told us we were living in a haunted house. i won't tell you the full story because you can find it online, but it was an old funeral home and the story was that the ghosts of the deceased had come back to haunt the house, but as we watched the old videos of every crew from entertainment tonight, in -- inside edition

outcome and do a story on her house we found out it was only the first floor that was haunted, so not the floor. so, i never experienced anything out of the ordinary in the house, but it was a wonderful welcome to connecticut and it's been a great story to tell ever since. interestingly, some of the other houses in the neighborhood when we moved in we thought it was odd were painted purple and pink and apparently some people in the neighborhood took it very seriously and went to these ghost hunters to get advice and they were told that goes don't like certain colors and so that's why some of the houses are painted a strange colors, but that is deep in my biography , so congratulations for finding that out. >> thank you, senator. we are adjourned. [applause].

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> light programming to tell you about, join us a little after 2:00 p.m. eastern today as we take you to the family research council's values of voters a

summit in washington. this afternoon speakers include republican presidential nominee donald trump. he's expected to take the stage around 3:30 p.m. eastern. you can see all of that live right here on c-span2. the u.s. house today passed a bill allowing 911 related lawsuits against foreign countries and nationals. of the bill now goes to the president for his signature. watch the house live on our companion network c-span. earlier today we had live coverage of a hearing looking at fema's response to recent flooding in louisiana. our capitol hill producer has tweeted out this picture showing former louisiana democratic senator attending the hearing. watch the whole event online at c-span.org. >> four campaign 2016 c-span continues on the road for the white house. >> i will be a present for democrats, republicans and independents.

>> we will win with education. we will win with the second amendment. we will wind. >> ahead live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debate on c-span. the c-span radio africa and c-span.org. monday september 26, is the first presidential debate life from new york. on tuesday october 4, vice presidential candidate governor mike pence and senator tim kaine debate in farmville, virginia. on sunday october 9, washington university in st. louis as the second presidential debate leading up to the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump taking place at the university of nevada, las vegas, october 19. live coverage of the presidential vice president shall debate on c-span. listen live on the free c-span radio or watch live or anytime on demand at c-span.org. >> this weekend book tv brings

you 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. here are some of our programs for the coming weekend. saturday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern, new york city principal talks about starting an intercity middle school in her book the bridge to brilliance how one principle in a tough community is inspiring the world she gained national attention when she was featured in a post on the humans of new york website that subsequently went viral. at 10:00 p.m., former us attorney general alberto gonzales talks about his life during the george w. bush administration in his book. a story of service and sacrifice and warranties. he's interviewed by brett kendo, "wall street journal" reporter. >> there have been several memoirs written with people's perspective out there and i thought it might be important to add mine for my son's sake. there has been a lot written and said about me, some of it true and some not to and i wanted him to get my perspective about the

events that shaped me and really affected their lives as well. >> sunday at 7:45 p.m. eastern, political cartoonist discusses his latest book. about his use of donald trump is a character in his comic strips. he speaks up politics and prose work-- books are here in washington dc. plus, douglas combe of lessons that us presidents learn their first year in office. great remount bow of the positive and negative aspects of studying abroad. go to book tv.org for the complete weekend schedule. >> testimony from security experts, college officials and advocates working to prevent violence on college campuses. the senate held education labor and pensions committee meeting runs about an hour and 20 minutes.

[inaudible conversations] >> were you going to make an opening statement? i would like the opportunity to do that and i want to thank everyone and i'm glad we are able to be here to talk about these important issues and i want to thank our colleagues joining us at this hearing today and i also want to thank the many great advocates here who have been working with us on reauthorizing the higher education act and improving campus safety. it is great to see so many new faces as well today, students are making major investments to pursue her education, which they correctly see as an opportunity to grow and challenge themselves and to develop skills that will better prepare them for their

future. while students work hard to succeed in higher education the last of thing they should ever have to worry about is whether they are safe on campus. i would like to begin by saying a few words about the stanford university rape case. its example of why today's discussion is so urgent and of the need for us to acknowledge the reality of violence and fear experienced by too many students on our college campuses. i want to make clear the anger and frustration of the sensing in this case that has generated is justified. our criminal justice system failed a brave survivor who deserved to know her rapist had been held accountable. but, i admire this young woman who has shown so much strength in telling her story and giving hope to many other survivors across our country and around the world. i admire the two students, strangers and responsible bystanders who did step up and take action, which highlights the critical importance of

bystander intervention, a prevention strategy for combating all types of violence on campus and a something i look forward to hearing about state. their actions show how important it is to build a community and a campus culture that empowers students to step in and support students who are being targeted whether it is sexual assault or bullying or harassment or hazing. it's a critical part of dispelling the myth that bullying and harassment are inevitable aspects of life. i have introduced legislation named in honor of tyler clementi, the young man who we know to do so might after experiencing bullying and harassment on the internet and i'm so glad that jane clementi is here today to talk about her son, tyler, what he and his family experienced and how we can protect students and all gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender so no one has to endure what he did.

i'm also looking forward to hearing from doctor allen today about hazing. 74% of varsity athletes and 73% of students participating in social fraternities and sororities have experienced at least one hazing behavior. alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep deprivation are hazing practices , costs-- across all student groups. hazing activities are often billed as tradition, but they can have such damaging and lasting impacts on young people even claiming student slides. i'd know there are sincere disagreements on what congress response really should be when it comes to sexual assault and violence on campus, but i firmly believe the federal government has a role to play to hold institutions of higher education responsible for providing a safe learning environment for students. colleges and universities must create culture that does not accept violence and to be clear

a flyer or one-time training in freshman year is not enough. we at the federal government have a responsibility to engage and support these efforts in every way we can. lastly, there is a lot of heartache in our cities and our communities right now. we mourn the victims and families impacted by the horrific violence in dallas, the tragic death in baton rouge and st. paul and we are once again reminded that nowhere is safe from epidemic of gun violence, not even in our schools, which should be safe havens for our students. my home state of washington is no stranger to this violence as we saw clearly with the shooting at seattle university two years ago. we know there are steps we can take to make our students safer. we should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of government and to refuse to accept these horrors as the new normal. i will conclude here so we can start this discussion, but it is clear we have a lot of challenges before us. everyone hears today has stepped

up to make a real difference and going forward we must challenge yourself to do even more to make campuses safer. day by day, step by step we can change not just our laws and policies, but our behaviors and culture. i'm committed to making sure that happens. i know my colleagues are as well and i look forward to our continued work. thank you. >> thank you very much. senator kirk, senator murray, and want to thank you for putting together this excellent roundtable to explore the issue of the hazing. i'm delighted to introduce one of our panelists today. professor elizabeth allen from the university of maine. professor alan teaches courses in higher education at the university and the college of education and human development. her research focuses on college

cultures and climates with expertise in student hazing and prevention. the professor is president of stop hazing.org and an organization focused on sharing information and strategy to promote safe campus climates. she also leads the research efforts of the hazing prevention consortium, a partnership of eight colleges and universities engaged in a multiyear initiative to build an evidence base for the prevention of hazing on college campuses. she has been involved in this issue for a number of years work for example, in 2008 professor alan was the principal investigator of the national study of student hazing which surveyed 11000 students from 53

university colleges and major findings included hazing exists outside of traditional fraternity and sorority environments and that's too-- schools should develop hazing prevention efforts that reach a right-- wider range of student groups. professor alan received her phd in educational policy leadership from ohio state university and her masters in health education and promotion and bachelors degree both from springfield college. it's a special honor for me to welcome professor alan to our panel today. thank you. >> thank you. i'm very pleased today to introduce doctor melinda husky. she currently serves as interim vice president of student

affairs where her goal is and i quote to support the determination of students. she has served at washington state university for more than 22 years working with students and overseen universities work on student affairs at a time when schools are becoming more and more important in the fight against all forms of violence and discrimination on our college campuses. while also dedicating her self to all students walk to the door. in 2014 to increase transparency and accountability that apartment of education for the first time released a public list of the schools with title ix investigations. doctor melynda huskey's school was among the first school on that list. under her leadership and the leadership of the late president elson floyd made a commitment to them-- improved campus safety. sheeter staff has worked

tirelessly to improve the safety and well-being of students dedicating themselves to new training and protocol and i could not be happier to have her here today to talk about what she and her staff are doing. as a cougar alum myself i'm proud of this work and how seriously washington state university has taken this responsibility. my staff and i have seen dr. huskey's leadership on summary fronts. she is a true leader on addressing hurls that face first time colleges students and their families and helping students who are facing severe challenges that come with the lack of housing and financial security and medical coverage. i know there are still things dr. huskey would like to see improved to make her school and even safer place for students to learn and grow and thrive, but i want to take this opportunity to praise her and her team in the university's leadership for making the stripes-- strives we are seeing their ballot for it to your testimony and thank you for coming all the way to what

we call the other washington to testify today. >> let me recognize our ranking ranking member. i tell members i put a piece of colored paper before you. that's an anti- bullying had i developed with the leadership divisor. you will notice the motorola android symbol. they put that in because they pretty much did all the work and as to encourage you, you could even do software development on this subject. we have passed out that. looks a bit like donkey. >> thank you, senator kirk. going to thank those that are here today for this hearing and we want to thank the witnesses that are here to talk about an

issue i believe is a crisis that we need to take action against. i know there's been progress made the last couple of years, but we have a long way to go to get this right. i am privileged today to injured -- introduce a pennsylvania witness, to introduce windy preset the director counseling. wendy is also the faculty advisor for pace, which is a program that trains students to be. counselors and we are grateful she is here to testify and take questions. also, looking forward to hearing more about the-- about pace itself and the role it's playing in ensuring a safe and supportive campus climate for all the students on her campus. wendy krisak has a ba and a masters in counseling psychology wendy, we thank you for being

here today and representing not only your school, but i guess in a sense our state. thank you. >> with that we will introduce our last three witnesses. we have rick amweg, a security consultant who has more than 35 years of experience working at the intersection of higher education including assistant chief of policy and the director of public safety administration at ohio state university. he also served as as a negotiation for the rulemaking process with us to part of education, which conducted the regulations. thank you for being here today. we also have joseph storch who is an associate counsel for the state university of the new york system. in that role he chairs the student affairs practice group and specializes in legal issues

around campus safety, domestic and admissions and financial aid. he has written on the issue of cyber bullying and as a member of the counsel's office he helps the 26th campuses part of the system implement and understand the title ix making the campus safer. thank you for being here today and our final witness i am pleased to introduce jane clementi who along with her husband, joe, is a cofounder of the tyler clementi foundation, which is an organization that speaks to prevent bullying that she founded on the half of her, tyler. tyler was just a college freshman who was harassed and cyber bullied and see suicide is a sexual and transgender rights and the needs for families and communities in school to embrace lg bt's students and to reduce harassment in our schools. thank you for the work you do and for taking the time to be

here with us today. we value your participation. thank you. >> i went to think all of our witnesses for coming today. we really enjoy your expertise in coming to this critical committee. went to encourage my colleagues to get into the software development industry with me to put together an app like this. as we know with kids we have to speak to them with apps. with that i will-- [inaudible] >> each one of our witnesses will give three statements to begin with. >> good afternoon, senator kirk, members of the committee. thank you for inviting me here today. am honored to be here and take

part in this process. i look forward to the discussion and the opportunity specifically to discuss the effects of harassment, intimidation, bullying including cyber bullying and hazing on the post secondary learning environment and export ways to improve campus safety by improving prevention response efforts in those areas. there are various definitions of bullying, hazing and related activities. most experts agree there are three conditions that must be present for activity to be defined as bullying. first imbalance of power, wherein people who bully use their power to control or harm and the people being bullied may have a hard time defending themselves. second, attempt to cause harm. actions done by accident or not bullying. the person bullying has a goal to cause harm. third, repetition. instance of boeing happened to the same person over and over by the same person or group. this definition is supportive of

the us department of education bullying.gov. harassment, intimidation, bullying and hazing are often times that of occurring only in elementary and secondary school environments and until recently most research has focused on students in this environment. studies show bullying and related activities as well as cyber bullying do not end with high school, but continuing to the post secondary system. it's important to understand these definitions in the context of which they are applied. in elementary and secondary school environment these activities are generally prohibited by rule in order-- and the minister your process and individuals when they reach the age of 18 protections are provided to victims by laws and laws address the illegal behavior of the perpetrators. part of the problem is from the different way activities are defined. some behaviors typically labeled as bullying in high school are not treated similarly in college. findings from use it-- recent study showing bullying and

hazing occur in college the consequences for the perpetrators are often harsher than for younger students who are less likely to face legal repercussions. two approaches to this issue need to be considered, prevention and response. some measures such as trade programs for campus staff that interact with students, bystander intervention program and familiarity training could impact the prevalence of bullying, hazing and related entities on campus. changing behaviors and attitudes towards bullying and hazing are also important for prevention. colleges and universities already implement similar programs in other areas such as sexual and intimate partner violence. applying these principles to bullying and hazing prevention is a logical step. from the response perspective, most if not all states have statutes that address bullying and hazing. similarly, most colleges and universities have policies and guidelines related to bullying and hazing activities.

some campuses address the issue within the context of harassment in general. for example, any action that falls generally under the definition of bullying or hazing would be considered a violation of the code of student conduct and will be debt with through the student judicial process. tickly students are responsible and in violation with the subject would be immediate discipline action including suspension. any case of bullying or hazing determined to be a violation of criminal statute could be referred to that campus and local law-enforcement authorities. our efforts today and through the continued work of this committee should be to identify ways to positively impact their learning experiences are campuses by reducing incidence of bullying and hazing and raise awareness for these activities are campuses in identifying existing and promising prevention programs and ensuring that the application of existing

statutes and conduct rules applied to the situations. thank you and i look forward to the forthcoming dialogue. >> thank you, doctor alan. >> senator kirk, ranking member murray and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to participate. i'm honored to be here. my remarks are grounded in more than 25 years of research and education about hazing and its prevention. i would like to begin with a statement shared with me this week by a parent who lost her son from hazing. she wrote quote hazing is emotionally and physically hurting our youth and young adults and can lead to death. my son would be 27 years old. no parent ever expects to send their child off to college and come home in a coffin. it is time for each and every one of us to make a difference for our children and for generations to come. my 18-year old daughter will leave for college in the next few weeks and i worry for her

and her fellow students, not only for hazing, but also for sexual abuse, alcohol abuse and campus violence". hazing is any activity expected of someone joining or maintaining membership in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers them regardless of a person's willingness to participate. hazing is widespread with 55% of college students experiencing it and 47% in high school. it occurs among athletic teams, fraternities and sororities, marching bands and also recreation clubs, intramural sports and even honor society. hazing extends beyond pranks and antics to include behaviors that are dangerous, demeaning and abusive. acts-- i'll call abuse, sexual harassment are commonly involve. further, hazing occurs in context where students are learning how to be leaders and team members. while we need to eliminate hazing to enhance campus safety, we also need to illuminate hazing to promote educational environment conducive to

learning and promote the development of ethical leaders who treat each other with dignity and respect. though, we now have solid research about the nature and extent of hazing we are only in the early stages of generating an evidence -based prevention. at this time it remains common for individuals and organizations to promote and implement prevention strategies that have limited if any evidence for impact in changing behavior. my work in recent years has focused on addressing this gap in the research. as part of a three-year research to practice initiative called the hazing prevention consortium i collaborated with a pioneering university to test strategies and evaluate their impact. through this consortium with conducted a considerable amount of research to formalize a data driven framework for prevention, but as we move up or do we remain cognitive that building a rigorous evidence base is

necessary and also long-term and resource intensive. as we consider hazing prevention in relation to other forms of interpersonal violence in this roundtable, i will briefly point to several areas in which there are needs for government support and engagement as we strive to formulate effective approaches to hazing prevention as one among many campus safety issues. we need ongoing research to continue to improve our understanding of the problem of hazing and continued testing and evaluation of prevention strategies to identify approaches that have proven track records for effectiveness. we need the establishment of sound law, policy and procedures to protect students from hazing and address incidents when they occur. we need mandates to increase transparency that hazing incidents and reports on campus, so institutions are held accountable for tracking hazing as of the public has access to accurate information. we need to develop and of research and prevention framework that addresses that intersections that cross campus 80-- a safety issues so we are not operating in a silo

approach. state and federal support of education and training are needed with a focus on ethical leadership helmet and bystander intervention, financial support for disseminating broad-based information campaigns to educate the public about hazing, signs of it and where to report it and coordination of regional and national conferences and meetings to gather scholars, practitioners, educators, families and other stakeholders to advance the cause of hazing prevention. in closing, the time is now to ensure that hazing is for granted as a threat to campus safety and a threat to positive leadership development in our youth. the time to start to prevent further senseless tragedies and loss of human potential as a result of hazing. and at the time is not to recognize the educational institutions will be stronger and safer without hazing. we all have an opportunity and responsibility to make a difference by committing to hazing prevention and promoting safer schools and campuses for

the use of this nation. thank you. >> thank you. doctor husky. >> mr. chairman, senator marie, members of the community, my name is francis-- melynda husky. i am honored to participate today in this roundtable on this important issue of campus safety and violence prevention. i'm here on the half up washington state university leadership and our more than 29000 students. where the land-grant institution of washington and are present in every county in the state of the green education, research and services that benefit washington my role as vice president of student affairs is to oversee all programs and offices which is support that out of classroom student experience. in that role i been asked to share with you the approach we take on a campus towards violence prevention for like many universities are campus has

experienced incidents of hazing, bullying, fighting and cyber bullying. we are committed to using the best evidence -based practice is available and have adopted-- adopted the public health model for violence prevention. multidisciplinary teams work together to define the nature and extent of violence on a campus, identify risk and protective factors, develop and implement intervention and evaluate their effectiveness. we look at all levels of interaction, social, community, relationship and individual which support healthy choices and promote a healthy campus we evaluate how well our intervention serves a distinct population, veterans, members of the lgb to community, ethnic and racial communities and national students and students with disabilities. our hazing prevention efforts are distributed across campus

while if you campus organizations are likely to come to mind the fact is hazing occurs in many organizations and once establish as a practice can be exceptionally resistant to change. we offer preventative training information to all student organizations on this issue, provide anonymous reporting and work with advisors and mentors locally and nationally to identify the risk and protective factors which change outcomes for students. we take the same approach to bullying and harassment. we are also now focusing on improving suicide prevention efforts on our campus. with support from the substance abuse and mental health service administration in partnership with the washington state department health, we and other institutions of higher ed across the state are creating suicide prevention plans designed specifically for student life. since 2011, we have been fortunate to receive federal support for our work in the areas of sex and gender-based

violence from the us department of justice office of violence against women to reduce sexual soul, domestic violence, dating violence and stocking on campus and have implemented training for all incoming student which includes face to face model group mac and gender-- gender-based pilots. we are committed to creating a safe supportive environment free from violence in which all of our focus on learning and in which they can graduate as educated citizens ready to contribute to their community. thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. >> senator kirk, ranking member murray and members of the health education labor and pension committee i thank you for this opportunity to testify and share our university's effort regarding the reduction and efforts of reducing bullying and hazing. the 50-year old catholic institution crowding in the

teaching of st. francis in addition to academics we focus on educating students morally, socially and spiritually through its out of the classroom programming which provide students with a moral compass and enriches their lives on a deeper level. the university faces christian humanism at its core and intentionally works to enhance the dignity of the individual. as freshmen students learn our character code which asks them to conduct themselves in a respectful manner and treat others with dignity and respect. the code is posted everywhere campus. our communities committed to maintaining a healthy and consciously kind environment. the four fret-- before freshmen arrive they are engaged in character you, our first-year express program. this program teaches them the basics of navigating college, and also immerses them in a character curriculum that focuses on the virtues of patients, trust and cooperation, perseverance, love, forgiveness and help. these are integrated into their learning experience for keynotes, community service

projects and other programs. through this they learn about themselves, and the role they play in the world. it helps new students meet new people, form relationships and communicate with one another. in a texting and twitter world this is not always easy for them. outside of the custom programming is committed to instilling the concept that every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and reset. the university takes a multidisciplinary approach to caring for students. we have an early alert system that places struggling students on a radar, so we can be proactive in supporting the. early alert prompted the creation of art care team an acronym for concern, assessment and response. the team includes health professionals and staff from all areas of campus. we meet bimonthly to investigators found to to matters of concern related to students. we coordinate interventions and make recommendations that will ensure the safety and well-being of our students. in 2003, one of my colleagues

and i created a six-member team, pasted the acronym stands for. , advising, and emphasizes personal response ability, disrespect for other and concern for the common good. the student team research on wellness topics to their fellow students. in 2012 they created #siam not sorry, i program that address bullying and hazing in the cyber world as well as prevention methods. this program led to a student driven cyber bullying policy which is now official policy in our student handbook. since then pace has geared its efforts towards addressing the root of bullying in a positive way through the kindness programming. from harsh words to ruthless behavior society has tossed aside human compassion for their own gain. pace created a week demonstrated to dedicating kindness to others. these program inspire others to pass on the kindnesses to

promote positive behavior anymore unified campus community. kindness week is an annual event , #happier. it includes program such as kindness can change the world, a program about bullying that motivates students to help around campus. includes activities and giveaways. this promotes consent and respect for relationships. other independent programs have included community members nominating someone to receive a letter of encouragement, support gratitude. everyone was invited to help write the letters which were distributed during kindness week. it encourages students not to rely on how me like they get on social media to define their self-worth. digging deeper the diversity of individuality highlights our campus solitary initiative which focuses on celebrating our

differences and developing mutual respect for one another as valued human beings care all of these programs have that great impacts on both students and staff. i thank you for your time and opportunity to share with you the efforts being made by our small university to derail bullying and unkindness of any kind and nurturing strong character development among our student population. thank you. >> thank you. >> senator kirk, embers of the committee on behalf of the state university of new york the largest comprehensive higher education institution in the nation, thank the committee for convening this important hearing. 55 years ago next month the fifth circuit issued a decision in dixon versus alabama requiring public colleges offer due process to students charged with filing should. ..

a a complete overhaul such students are far safer on campus that in the surrounding communities. congress and the department of education have drawn attention to violence and the need for colleges to respond robustly. there is far more work to be done. we like to say the best response to bowling, hazing and other files as when you don't need to respond at all since it didn't happen in the first place. while the, conform balance responds with clinical policies and due process are important, students was excited by this congresses shift in the violence

against women act commitment to clear he took our significant prevention work not just at orientation but at a campaign across the year. traditionally the clery act and powerline guidance was backward. respond to violation, report, count, congress set institutions must look forward, prevented. but at suny we went farther. while the requested can be offered to all students, at suny rukh our student leaders and athletes complete training before they can compete in intercollegiate athletics afford, before the club can be recognized. why? we think they are more likely to be offenders, we think the more likely to be victims? know. because we think that most likely to be leaders and leaders of the model prosocial behavior to their fellow students. we part with the department of health to offer green dot in bringing and training to all campuses. we work closely with the nuke state police, office of campus safety and the state coalition

against sexual assault and domestic violence to develop programs for response and prevention. we take the assessment of you analysis seriously and to train with with the fbi and u.s. marshals to oppose identify and respond to student threats before violence the curse. suny partner with governor cuomo to policies that proposing applause across the state. all new york college students have the same protections. as a public institution we spend significant resources training on constitutional due process including model policies can laughter and and webinars. in every case we strive for a fair and equitable process. unlike anything 25 years old, my repairs to the clery act are in order. while congress is probably added additional requirements for colleges it has including the ones that are no longer effective or whose bureaucracy awaits its effectiveness. make no mistake, so he wants to do more to prevent bullying, hazing and other files. we just wanted to more effectively. ultimately there is much good work to be done on college

campuses but to be effective, training and prevention must begin long before the orientation. students form their habits and interpersonal norms in high school or middle school, and colleges fight an uphill battle to change those views. further many high school students will graduate or not graduate and never attend college and never have access to the protections that only apply in the higher education act. we believe they still need education and that must take place earlier. suny embraces the cost to provide the best tools and resources and services to protect our students from campus violence and support the main event that an incident occurs. in all areas described in this testimony, we in higher education and the congress are moving in the right direction but there's more work to be done. we are not afraid of taking on tough challenges. well to address these issues in ways that are proven with evidence to make a real difference in the lives of our students. so that's the next 25 years of

college student attendees will be even safer than the last 25 years with with your work was even safer than the 25 years before that. they give her the honor of addressing this committee. >> thank you very much. ms. clemons the. >> thank you, senator murray and his team numbers of help committee. i am grateful for the opportunity to share my sons story today with you with the hope you will learn from our families paying. a family that is not very different from some of your own. maybe we could even be your neighbors or your friends. i served think that we could be your voters and your constituency because everywhere i go i hear people that relate to some part of tiger's story. as a family we are like most families. we went to many hopes and dreams especially for our children. we are very private and simple and we enjoyed the simple pleasures i spend as much family time together as we could, whether at home in the beautiful

garden state of new jersey or as we traveled on vacation. our family consists of my husband joseph who's a civil engineer by education, myself, registered nurse, my oldest son james graduated from skidmore college in 2000 works full-time for the tyler clementi foundation. my middle son ryan will graduate from cornell university in 2010 and is a mechanical engineer. and my youngest son tyler who graduated ridgewood high school in june 2010. tyler was a very kind, caring and thoughtful young man. yet a great sense of humor and a cheerful easy-going disposition. he always had a great smile on his face. he always will couple with this huge smile as if to welcome the day and say that i can do anything today. today is the day that there are many great possibilities, many great opportunities. he was also very, very creative and very smart and curious.

he liked to explore and investigate. and he especially liked to travel. he was very full of life and energy and lots of ideas. highlight an interest in his short life as most children as they go through many stages, but it's one true passion was music. he was an accomplished and gifted violinist. qaeda was very special and precious to us that he was unknown to the world until september of 2010 when he made national headlines. shortly after he started his freshman year at rutgers university, tyler's roommate webcam can analyze string of him in a sexual encounter with another man. and then kind of relate tweet about the encounter inviting many others to come in and join and watch the inviting them into a very private, personal moment. i can only imagine that these bullying actions i estimate must have humiliated tyler in front of his new dorm mates.

he must do even thought maybe possibly patty sexual orientation was something to be laughed at or ashamed of. at this point time is really became very twisted and distorted. qaeda could no longer see a special and precious he was, and he could not even see or find the support and resources that he had available to them. tyler became totally consumed and only concerned about the words of people who are out there trying only to humiliate them. these actions must have cost tyler to feel isolated, alone, worthless and so very desperate. because it was at this point that hibernate a decision that we can never change or undue. on september 22, 2010, tyler died by suicide. he was 18. tyler made a decision that we can never change or correct. a decision that not only affect the tyler but also our entire family and many others who knew and loved him.

we will never, we will forever be missing a part of our family. our family will never be whole again and the simple pleasures of family time together are not simple anymore. every holiday and special family event is unbearable and incomplete because tyler is missing and a part of us is missing. as much as we like to go back and change tires actions, the reality is we can't. instead we have decided to move forward and work to change the mindset and attitudes of people who think that the actions of setting up a camera or sending out tweets that they come and join in and watch the show are acceptable, because those are not acceptable actions. this is why my husband and i started the tyler clementi foundation, to put it into all online and off-line bullying in schools, workplaces and faith community. as an organization the tyler county foundation has initiated several awareness programs based on tyler's story as well as partnerships to provide anti-bullying research

information and tools for youth, parents and youth serving professionals. our day when camping is a simple innovative research base and effective intervention designed to prevent the bullying before it happened. day when camping creates a safe inclusive atmosphere within a community where everyone is embraced, not despite their differences but because of their differences. we are also committed to turning i said into upstanders. but person who speaks up when they see someone being humiliated over debilitated. i'm not sure why tyler's story attracted so much attention, but one thing i've learned is that it is not an isolated occurrence. everywhere i go people share with me how they connected to some part of tyler's story. maybe not the exact situation but some part of the circumstances as well as the emotional toll that tyler must have experience. because research shows that over 3.2 million students report that

the been the victim of some form of bullying every year, that number is astronomical and unacceptable. this is not a rite of passage or simply kids being kids. this is a public health threat. but don't be deceived also by thinking that bullying only occurs in school age children or that it is something that is less serious than it truly is. because bullying behaviors do not magically disappear at a certain age. it can't and will continue into adulthood and less than our behavior, and bullying behaviors are serious and can sometimes rise to the level of criminal hazing, harassment, invasion of privacy and/or stocking. to my knowledge at this point in time there are no federal laws that address the full effects of bullying behaviors or promote any type of prevention measures. i do believe that every classroom and institution of higher education can and should be a safe place to learn and thrive in order for that to happen we need federal legislation to create safe

campus climates for all students in higher education across the country. it is my urge today that i would really love to ask you to include the tyler clementi higher education at the harassment act in the reauthorization of the higher education act. the tyler clementi higher education act would include initiatives to expand and improve programs to prevent harassment of students, as well as counseling for targets and perpetrators, and training for faculty, staff and students. because book knowledge is important but the wisdom of empathy and compassion is priceless. empathy is one of the best tools that we have to make the world a better place. so the time is now to create safe spaces for all young adults to learn and thrive in a higher education system, because we can't let tyler's story continue to repeat itself. action must be taken now because

we have already seen far too many tyler's already. thank you. >> well, thank you very much. and thank you to all of our witnesses today, and in the absence of our chairman i'm going to ask questions and we'le will go back and forth. we really appreciate everyone's participation. ms. clementi, i want to thank you for sharing your personal story and for all the work you are doing to stop bullying on our college campuses, especially those that affect our lgbt youth. as a mother i can only imagine what you're going through. i am very proud to lead the act innocent along with my colleague, senator baldwin. but i think we should also recognize my colleague the late senator frank lautenberg who originally wrote this and introduced it, we appreciate his tremendous lead on this. what this bill does is it requires colleges and universities to receive federal aid to establish anti-harassment policies, specifically

recognizes cyberbullying and creates a grant program to prevent bullying and provide counseling to our students. when i first -- i was surprised when there are not universal policies in place in our colleges and universities across the country, because of student should ever have to face discrimination or harassment when they are pursuing a degree. i really believe that colleges should be safe places for our students to learn and it should be all of our responsibility to create that environment. ms. clementi, through the tyler clementi foundation you have collaborated with many institutions and organizations that are engaging in this work. so i want to ask you, in your opinion what would be the single most impactful thing the federal government could do to stop bullying on our campuses? >> i'm not sure that there would be one single entry because i'm sure that one issue relates to everyone.

i certainly think the legislation that is before, that you spoke about, addresses many different issues. it talks about prevention, which is key, but also in the event that bullying does happen we want to programs in place. i think it's essential that we have policies in place that colleges and universities. many do not have any policies or they haven't been updated to fully use the proper research that is out there currently. i think this bill would give colleges a reason to reevaluate their programs and policies, and reinstitute and hopefully come up with new ideas that will address the issues. >> thank you. thank you for tremendous advocacy on this. research on the causes of bullying and hazing and sexual harassment, sexual assault and intimate partner violence

indicates that bystanders are a key piece of prevention work. as i mentioned when i began, stanford university of what happened, it really became clear to many of us on board it is to train students o anything as bystanders. if not for the two stanford graduate students who were strangers to the victim but were willing to intervene and help, the situation could've been a lot worse. i think it's essential that the federal government and schools invest in violence prevention programs to help build self-awareness and responsibility and confidence. i want to start with doctor huskey doctor alan. what are some of the promising programs and activities and practices that work to prevent violence on our campuses? and really change campus culture? >> dr. huskey? whichever one. >> i'll jump in here.

so promising programs and practices that work to prevent violence in teenage campus culture, i think we know from prevention science that it's important to have a prevention framework. it's very important to assess the climate, gather data, have data-driven approaches and to evaluate what you were doing. to have staff who are dedicated or designated to do the work so it's not all on one person's shoulders or on no one's shoulders. to have a coalition-based approach, an approach that is considered comprehensive. what we mean by that and the literature means is that it's not just one training or one type of workshop or a speaker coming int to campus, all in one week awareness week. it needs to be something where there is high dosage. so it's a comprehensive

multipronged approach that is looking at the problem, the computing factors and the protective factors of multiple levels. once and she began to hazing or bullying, sexual violence and other issues at the individual level out at the group level, at the institutional level. you are looking at policies, looking at individual behaviors and then also look at the community level as well. all these are social, ecological approach is critical we know from the research. we also know that a social norms approach as well as bystander intervention both have evidence-based to back them up in terms of effectiveness. and a social norms approach works on the positive behavior that we want to emphasize, positive attitudes and behavior. we also know that bystander intervention, then know your

power program developed a strong evidence-based platform for that bystander intervention program and there are other programs as well. of course of training, engagement of students in the planning and design of these efforts and outreach to the broader community. so in the case, i think it's all these cases it's really important to not only focus on the campus community of the students, but include many constituents to all the constituents on campus but other stakeholders as well including family, parents, caregivers, alumni, and the local community who may come into contact or see warning signs of these kind of behaviors. if they know what they're looking for and they know where to report it, they can be very helpful in terms of bystander intervention. >> dr. huskey? >> there are a couple of --

sorry. there are a couple of pretty robustly researched programs. green dot and know your power are two of those. both is really work at the cultural level by norming intervention and prosocial behavior but also by giving students very concrete skills and the opportunity to practice those skills. what we know is that students often don't have many opportunities, and some folks are naturally gifted in intervention and being an upstander. others are not an benefit from the opportunity to practice in basic skills. we require students to come to drink sos possible in the first semester and reinforce the and a variety of environments so they had many opportunities to practice. we have been fortunate our syrian government has embraced this effort, and a student leaders as we've been engaged in promoting and extending our work

around intervention. we also know that students would benefit from early and frequent conflict resolution training. it's something that i think we have all agreed, most of this work needs to start in elementary school. by the time when an 18 year-old student who is facing a major development with ant in coming to college, the ability to generate new behavior is limited just by the incredible cognitive capacity that's taken up by being at college. and so if we could introduce more broad-based conflict resolution training early to teach students to deescalate, to intervene, to think about ways of running away from files and towartowards greater problem-so, we know that would be very helpful. we do our best to provide that in the college experience and i think we do a good job, but it would be so helpful to be able to build on a strong base of bystander training and conflict resolution training that happened early and that we could

reinforce. >> very good. senator casey. >> i want to thank senator murray for her leadership today and for this roundtable, but also for her work on these issues or at long, long time your we are grateful for that leadership, and it's probably needed now more than ever. we are grateful for that. want to just make a preliminary, and then direct maybe one basic question to both dr. huskey and to mr. storch. i guess the first comment is would you consider this problem of sexual assault, sexual violence on campus, in addition to the related problem of bullying, which seems to occur all pages in a lot of different circumstances, but especially when children are very young

where it can be particularly destructive. i guess in both cases the tolerance of that activity is the ultimate betrayal. we tell children study hard, go to school and you'll succeed. they study hard and they go to school and they get bullied over and over and over again. a lot of adults don't do a damn thing about it. we tell young women to study hard so you can go to college and she will be on a college campus, you will learn a lot. you will, your life will be improved if you get that college education. and once again, people in authority from politicians to leaders of all kinds, some of them on campuses, they don't do very much. and then you had the horrific circumstances where someone who happens to be gay or lesbian or has a disability becomes the

subject of a bullying to the extent where they feel that the only way for them to do with it is to take their own life. i want to thank ms. clementi for being here. can't even imagine what you've been through, but your presence here gives us hope that we can find some answers that will lead us in the right direction. but it is a betrayal. for too long we, i think a society, that sort of shrug our shoulders. so politicians need to do more. whether it's campus or university leaders, need to do more. employers need to do more. certainly parents need to do more. i think we have to push hard enough where people get a little uncomfortable with some of the things we are proposing. because the people are not

uncomfortable, not much is going to happen. i've had the chance to work on two parts of this. one, to lead the effort to have enacted into law the campus safe act, which did a whole host of things but it's only been in practice for a year. we at first of all to get it done as part of the reauthorization of the violence against women act, and then to get the regulatory process done and then in september of 15, or i should say july of 15 it went into effect. i want to ask about what the experiences by universities. i want to thank senator murray and her leadership for the time implementing anti-harassment act, especially i'm a cosponsor of the. i'm also leading the effort on the state, the safe school improvement act which means

local school districts have to do more when comes to bullying. one question only because i know we don't have time for dr. huskey, i will start with you. entrance of campus safe, it's been a really never just a year. what steps has your institution taken to implement the campus save act? >> thanks very much for the question. because we have been fortunate enough to receive the department of justice grant we were actually in compliance with almost all elements of the campus save act before was enacted. and so we had the opportunity to extend our work here we were fortunate enough to receive an extension of that grant. we have been able to strengthen our campus community relations team to provide more education and to do that work that allowed us to be in compliance. >> that's great. i should mention of some of the

elements. we were trying to do a number of things can increase transparency is one. promoting bystander responsibility, we just talked about today. making sure they can get the help that they need, that schools have to have in place procedures and policies to help victims. clear procedures for institutional disciplinary proceedings and assistance to institutions to implement the requirements. mr. storch, maybe you can give your perspective from a major institution like yours. >> thank you, senator. as i said in my testimony, we dove into the changes in the campus save act, vawa head-first. the department of education issued its proposed regulations on june 192014. on june 25, we held the first of two trainings for all of our campuses. went over to it or 50 people

between the two trainings. i had seven of my colleagues, a total of eight attorneys and we are two very good interns. we wrote and 93 page guidance on how to comply with all aspects from exactly what you have to do to report on what the state laws are, to policies on bystander intervention, to policies on confidentiality. and took a lot of things already working and spun them up to things that would work well across the board. we wrote 93 pages in a week, written, edited, ready for attorneys. we have 250 people between those two trainings, and wanted to be sure that even though the laws would go into effect in july 2015, by july 2014 all of our suny campuses would be trained. and we met that goal. other colleges were waking up that this was a better. nothing against them. we were completing our training side because it is that much of a thing that the entire university thinks about, from

our chance to tour student affairs practitioners, title ix practitioners, and the like. we continue to build on that. in new york state we had our suny policies. the governor worked extremely well with suny. took those policies, proposed the. they passed almost unanimously in both houses, and that would way beyond the requirements of vawa, explaining confidentiality, a primitive consent definition that is a model definition. amnesty would bystander are victims, report, and a number of really important training things. because as we said can we encourage you, doubled up on prevention. everybody up here, you've heard about it. suny doesn't want to believe in responding to bullying, hating and files. we want fewer incidents to respond to. i know all my colleagues up here sure the. we really liked what the congress did with vawa come and

we hope that you continue down that path. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. >> senator baldwin. >> thank you very much, senator murray, for convening this roundtable. this is very, very helpful to all of us, and i appreciate the presence of all of our witnesses. i wanted to start with you, ms. clementi, and start but also sharing my gratitude to you and your family, all of your family. as you said, helping others learn to your families paying, but really taking serious actions so that the tragedy you experienced doesn't happen to other families. >> thank you.

>> i very much appreciate that. i know i'm not alone in being inspired by your strength and your families strength. you said in your testimony that through your efforts on this bill, that you've learned that tyler's experience is far from and i said one. in fact, you cited some research i believe that counts over 3 million instances of cyberbullying, i think he said. but it strikes me that this is probably an area that is under research, that we don't have as much information about the problems of bullying in higher education, and particularly that directed at lgbt students. however, i can imagine from your own experience that you've heard a lot anecdotally. anja begun to understand how widespread this is. i wonder if you could speak to

that? >> sure. thank you. yes, i have definitely heard everywhere i go to speak people come up to me from all ages, whether it's in the workplace that we've spoken, or in high schools or colleges, people like to share what it is that attracts into tires store and what their own experiences or. i do think that these deadly and under research area. a foundation we're working with at rutgers university, we have a tyler clementi said at rutgers university and we are working on also on research in that area. and we are also doing polling and that very because it's important to not only know that it exists but also what will work best, like what do you want to hear? do they want to hear me shared tyler story or do they want to your fiancé say women or girls don't put other girls down, or what other words that work?

we want it to work. we want something that will work. it might not be the same for everyone. mib different messages for different people. some people don't even want to call it bullying in higher education area, but it is. it's harassment, ongoing actions that are hurtful to other persons. some inner-city youth might not consider it bullying either. they may just call it a rite of passage for hazing. whatever it's called it's unwanted and we need to change it and address it. we need more research, more polling. and to survey the area. that's one of the activities i think an executive director at the tyler clementi said at rutgers plans to survey colleges and find what's being done to lgbt college students and one is working what is not working. which schools have programs in place. >> thank you.

with regard to where you left it, which schools have programs in place and policies, we have two witnesses here who's universities have taken a number of steps to address bullying, hazing and other threats to campus safety. i'd like to ask at this point, dr. huskey and mr. storch, can you each talk briefly about how your universities are specifically addressing bullying targeted lgbt students? and why it's important for your schools to have affirmative policies addressing bullying, what the positive impacts of those policies have had so far on the learning environment. why don't i start with you, dr. huskey? >> thank you. this is a matter that is very dear to my heart of the lesbian, as a parent. i really honor your capacity to

be here and to talk about this tragedy, it is astonishing to me and i have so much respect for what you are doing. washington state university has been a leader in lgbt services. we were the first university in the state to have a staffed, professionally staffed center. i was the inaugural director of the center as a matter fact and from the very beginning of that time we've had an inclusive policies which acknowledge the valley of lgbt students and their full inclusion in our institution. so we do not have policies which specifically prohibit lgbt harassment because the inclusion of lgbt students in every element of our policy and practice has been established for 20 years. we see changes over time, certain issues around trans students are much more prevalent now than they were when i first came to the institution. we are very attentive to the

changing student populations and the changing needs, but we do know the work of the safe schools coalition in washington for years documented that lgbt students are at high risk for all forms of harassment, from unkind words to physical assault. we need to be very aware that we have a special responsibility because we know that students are more at risk outreach to them. and to ensure that angle on our campuses understands that we value and include all of our students because of who they are, not in spite of it. because of who they are. >> thank you, senator. like washington state, this is something we think about a lot at the state university of new york. suny is beginning this past year conducting a survey of all incoming students with questions about, among many other things, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression with a number of different choices in

the options to fill in additional choices. because we need to know more in order, we need more data in order to be able to most of properly respond. we've done a number of trainings. when the office of civil rights issued its recent letter on transgender students, we read that in the counselor's office and said yes, we have been there for a long time. if you read some of the past resolution agreements, we were not surprised by anything we saw. in general, specific your transgender student population we've taken an approach will retire to make those students comfortable. we know that for our transgender students they been hassled at any point in the life. in elementary school, in high school. their homes, churches, everywhere they have gone. when i work with my campus clients and we have a request from a transgender student who want something different, something to change to make you more comfortable, we said is this something yes, we've been

doing this with for a long time. is this something we need to do it this way? the full name on the class roster. do we really need it that way? can which is used preferred means? let's just use preferred name. that is how our student clients look at it or i'm proud of them for the. slight shift on your question but i think it gets to the same concept. when suny is chance to put a working group together to sexual and interpersonal violence, i was one of the coordinators and i was working with the committee that was right out of from the consent definition. we had a bunch of outside experts in our committee. when one expert who is one of the cofounders of equal justice new york, a woman named to the post. she said in your from the consent definition you should say affirmatively as it were that this applies regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity expression because students don't think it applies to them. i said okay, what should this

and say? she said this definition applies to cars of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. we typed it into it was in the past all the way to the suny policies go all the way into the legislation. would into the legislation but a lot of changes, both parties let that go. when the past can when governor cuomo signed it into law in 2015, it was the first time as i'm told by another activist, the first time that any state had passed a law saying rights are going to be given equally regardless of gender identity or gender expression. we didn't know as we were going through it. it was really just come it was a no-brainer. libbey post, okay. we had no idea how historic it was but that's the kind of commitment we have at suny. when i tried to make history. it's just business as usual to try to treat students equally. >> thank you. senator warren.

>> thank you very much. thank you, ranking member. i offer my apologies. we are trying to cover multiple things at the same time so we are loaded come and go. when i was preparing for this roundtable, i was thinking about the fact of the boston pride parade which we live in boston. four years when i have gone to the pride parade i don't march. idf and the pride parade. i love it. as much as any single thing. identity as a senator. because pride shows what this nation looks like when we are at our best. celebrating who we are, and last month i danced in the pride parade and the next day we woke up to find out that the gunmen had massacred dozens out of lgbt club in orlando. and reminded us that the struggle for acceptance is far from over.

this is certainly true on college campuses. a campus pride survey found nearly a quarter of lesbian and gay and bisexual students, staff faculty and administrators were harassed on college campuses based on their sexual orientation. and over 40% of transgender respondents reported hearing for their physical safety. ms. clementi, i think about the harassment that your son experienced and about others on college campuses who live with bigotry, live with hatred and live with injustice. i refuse to believe that we cannot make our campuses safer, more welcoming places. you have tried to draw attention to the importance of collecting better data about harassment and bullying of lgbtq students. can you just tell this committee i'm a bit more about why you believe that is so important?

>> yes. thank you, senator warren. i think that it's very, very important because basically people in the power struggle, in a polling situation to be fuchsia because someone is different. unfortunately, because if some people's cultural or religious biases that they bring with them to the college campus, they like to target lgbt youth. that's what i think i found in the work i have done and in the stories i've heard from many people who have shared them with me. that's what i think we really need to work strongly in this area for the lgbtq. we need to collect this data so we have input so that we can do the assessment, and then we can implement a plan and then we can help correct those actions. >> i just want to say thank you for throwing your heart into this very difficult fight. it is courageous, selfless and impressive, all of us to do better.

i am a huge believer in data. data help us understand what's happening. if you don't count it, you are a lot less likely to be able to do anything. >> that's what i mentioned before. at writers we have the tyler clementi center and we have an executive director as one of her main goals at this point in time is to survey the 4000, 5000 higher education institutions and find out what services they have come who are providing what and what's working in those places. >> a real leader. there's another issue that i also would like to raise today. in recent years we have seen a wave of state legislative proposals that make it easier for college students to bring guns to school. despite the fact that students, faculty and campus law enforcement officials

overwhelmingly say this is a bad idea. of course, the nra doesn't care that it is a bad idea. they actively boast of efforts to eliminate some state laws, banning concealed weapons on college campuses. and it had some successes. just last year they released the report, the title is on campus carry, we have only begun to fight. so i wanted to ask, mr. amweg, you spent 35 years in campus law enforcement. in your expert opinion, will allowing more guns on college campuses increase or reduce the risk of violence on campus? >> thank you, senator warren. i think inasmuch as to highlight what you said, this is an issue that has taken a state-by-state but in some cases even institution by institution within those states. most educators would agree that introducing firearms into the

teaching and learning department of a higher education institution is counterproductive to the mission of the institution. for example, in an active shooter situation, introducing more firearms into that incident, into the already armed encounter with lead certainly to creating a less safe, not a more safe environment for that institution. there have been only a few studies that looked at that something similar to this. in other words, introducing armed citizens into an already armed encounter. and none of the studies have shown that a positive impact will come from that kind of a mix. additionally, law-enforcement responding to the scene of an active shooter, particularly on a university campus, are now faced with a mixed environment, both the good guys and bad guys have guns. so while law enforcement officers are trained to evaluate

those encounters before using or employing deadly force, it still takes time to determine if the person they're encountering it is, in fact, a good guy or a bad guy. and that's the time offices could be using to eliminate the threat and stabilize otherwise. >> thank you, mr. amweg, i think it's very powerful in a point. i appreciate that. dr. huskey, era current campus administrators could you weigh in on this? >> washington, has laws which govern that. so firearms and other dangerous weapons are currently prohibited by statute on our campus. it's not an issue that we've had to consider. my concern is jon schorle primarily with suicide prevention. we know that young people die much difficulty from suicide. it's the second leading cause of death for young people 19-25 just under accidental death, that firearms are the most lethal means available, that use

of a fire arm is about 85% legal for students attempting suicide as opposed to 5% for overdose or poison. so reducing access we believe as an important part of research prevention programs of a suicide. we will continue to consider that a very important part of our work. our goal is always to keep students safe and what of our legislative and legal department is, that will be our primary responsibility. >> thank you. i appreciate that. i would like to go there. whatever you think about the and the a's unsupported claim that some of guns, more guns can reduce campus violence, this is the aspect of this and how lethal suicide attempts are with guns is something that we've got to address. we have to address it honestly. i know, ms. clementi, that you devoted your life to the cost of

reducing bullying, harassment and suicide, which as dr. huskey noted is the second leading cause of death among college aged adults. in your opinion, if we introduce more guns on college campuses, what do you think will be the effect on suicide? >> i think it would definitely increase the number, especially completed suicides. i think it's a no-brainer, commonsense question. you don't want to give a youth whose impulsive and spontaneous a weapon that's going to cause so much self harm or even harm to other people. i think you need to eliminate as many possible weapons in their arsenal that they can have. i think that would be an easy answer for them. >> thank you very much. i appreciate all of you being here for this. the way i see this, it is up to law enforcement, teachers, campus officials, parents, kids

to demand that politicians put the safety of our children about the demands of nra lobbyists. i will keep fighting, but i want to be clear. elected officials don't answer to me. the answer to the public, and i very much hope that all of you and everyone else who hears this will be pushing back and pushing our congress to do more about gun safety. thank you. thank you for being here. >> thank you very much. i want to thank all of our colleagues and eyewitnesses who joined us today. this is really a good step in laying the groundwork we need to do to make sure we have strong reauthorizing down and higher education act i do hope we can do in a bipartisan way and move forward. this is a very critical issue. i appreciate everyone being here, participating. the hearing record for this is going to remain open for 10 days. members makes me additional information for the record, but

i can't be want to thank all of our roundtable participants today for being here and sharing of knowledge. and appreciate your working with us to get this done and get it done right. so thank you very much. with that, the hearing is closed. thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> national museum of history will commemorate the 15th anniversary of the september 11 attacks with a special one to exhibit on sunday september 11. on "washington journal" we get a preview with the curator. here's a quick look. >> the smithsonian institution, talking with cedric yeh, the curator of the national september 11 collection. thanks for talking with us. >> thank you for having me. >> what of it looking at? >> we are looking at a september 11 collection.

the collection represents all three of the attack sites. we have here pennsylvania. in the middle we have the pentagon, and on the far right we have the world trade center. >> how did you get these pieces? >> we sent curator to be 20 attack sites soon after the attacks occurred. the curators spent their time looking at three specific, collecting focal points. we looked at the attacks themselves, the recovery effort and the first responders, and choose to focus on just three elements of the september 11 because otherwise it would've been far too enormous to try to come and capture. it's very emotional to be able to separate the story from what was happening. with those three they were able

to create a representative story about what happened on that day. >> some of these pieces making the unveiling for the first time with interesting stories. from the pentagon a note. tell us about this note. >> yes. we were contacted by the donor. they had a very interesting story. so they work at the pentagon and when the attacks occurred, they both met at a prearranged site and that was their car. she got there first and left this note for her husband frank i know that everything was okay and she's going to go to a more traditional evacuation area. and it's a wonderful piece because it reminds us that in 2001, cell phones were not ubiquitous, into finest incorrectly, cell phone coverage that day was spotted because of the massive number of people trying to call emergency services, called her loved ones.

it's a good question. what would you do win come to contact your loved ones when you don't access? if something to do it so much difficult for us to understand because cell phones are everywhere. what would you do? the simple note helps us better understand. >> on the table some pieces of plane, some office affects a were looking at a jacket that came from the world trade center. was its story? >> this jacket along to the smith. she was an employee of the salvation army. i think it's significant because it tells the story about who took care of the first responders, who took care of the family members that were down at ground zero. who took care of the law enforcement officers. there are more common, the people who are at ground zero were like first responders, recovery workers, and family members.

those we know and expect but at the end of the day, someone was feeding them. the recovery workers were working 24/7, three shifts a day. somebody gave him clothing when they were called in november. most of this happening is in the late fall, winter 2001 and 2002. making sure everyone was warm, place for people to meet. there were questions we're trying to help presenters and future researchers understand that there was much more going on than just the recovery effort and we wanted to make sure that people understood that. >> you spent a lot of time putting these collections together. what do you want me to take way from looking at them and experiencing them? >> what we're hoping is that by providing this approach, it's nice that you can, and you can look at the objects just as they

are not there was not be any cases. you can interact with our staff. they will be able to talk with you. we can discuss how the objects, where they came from, how they were collected the most importantly we want you to connect with the objects yourselves by giving you this intimate look to allow you to be your own curator, to remember what happened on that day at each passing ago by we're farther and farther away from what actually happened. we are hoping this of people connect with what happened on september 11, 2001. >> what you're seeing is just a small part of the september 11 collection at the system. were talking to the curator of the national september 11 collection, cedric yeh. thanks for your time. >> coming up in about 10 minutes that values voter summit will begin the afternoon session is scheduled to start at about 205 time at easter. the features biggest republican presidential candidate donald trump is expected at 3:30 p.m.

eastern. now to get us through the start of the afghan session is a portion of this morning's "washington journal." >> host: and joining us now is congressman gregory meeks also of new york state. democrat. teacher to talk to us about the latest developer in the presidential campaign, including outreach efforts by both donald trump and hillary clinton to black voters. congressman, good morning. thank you for joining us. i want to get to the outreach efforts towards minorities. so far when i talk, just political you get to the observer recently about donald trump's efforts to reach out toh black voters. you said trump has rapidly shown itself to be a bigot whos repead repeatedly kowtows to the priorities of white supremacists and right-wing extremists. of white extremists. and you know with reference to his birth certificate, his

relationship to wipe us -- supremacists. he has shown the african-american community has no concern for our well-being clearly you do not mince words. can you expand upon that induced to believe that? >> guest: how do you judge a person? primarily to waste you judge a person to by their actions and their deeds. that's the only thing you can do. and so if you look at the actions and deeds of mr. trump, then clearly you see that he has made bigot where remarks. he has lied and, therefore, he is what i consider a con man in the worst kind of con men, a con man that out and out lies right in front of your face. and dares you to check it. when you to check them he still lies about it. that has happened over and over

in this campaign. that's how you get, i don't know, i tried to look at the best of individuals but when yol talk about selecting someone to be the next president, you do have to check out who they are. the only way i know you can do it is either words and their deeds. you go to his deeds from the very beginning, with the raciali discriminatory practices, with his father in their business, you look at what he did to the central park five. never apologizing. coming up with an ad in the local newspaper for $85,000 it was shown that they did not commit, he is never do anything about that. you look at the birth remarks that he start out with the first president of united states and of the united states and think of one african-american and since that's my african-american. you look at the words he used regards to mexican-americans and muslims. how else can you judge him??

i have been giving him, so there's no question in my mind. and the kaiser flip-flop. he's been in new york all of his professional career. he's been to a black church one time when he went to detroit and going to make us think that he's really reaching out to the african-american community? that's a con ed. >> host: he says democrats have taken african-american votes for granted. .. democrats less,ck voters do make are more prone to live in impoverished places. do you think democratic policies have failed african-americans? guest: no. th you look at unemployment, it has gone down under bush and has gone down under barack obama.

when you think about we have to deal better to eliminate disparities and we have to do better with reference to poverty in america. if you look at -- if you want to blame poverty on democrats african-american communities, you have to blame poverty in america, then you have to blame republicans for appalachia. >> it says that she has campaign with president obama at the charlotte convention center. but not long after a new report underscored the lack of enthusiasm among many young african-american voters. what do you think she needs to do to convince young voters and particularly young black voters?