crime to law enforcement that the crime is properly investigated and can ensure that an accused individual has a clear understanding of what their rights are in this process as well. we know that too many of these crimes go unreported on campus. that is why it is so critical this piece of the confidential adviser so victims know with her -- what their options are and that they know there is someone who can represent them in this process and can let them know what their options are they choose to report to law enforcement and what will happen during the administrative process. these two provisions i think are critical as you look at this bill. unfortunately, one other issue that came up during the course of bringing people together around this -- i know senator mccaskill has focused on this as

well -- we have been outraged that we found out that on some campuses, the way these crimes have been haphazardly investigated, that you had the athletic department that was investigating crimes of sexual assault and handling these matters. consistency in ensuring that practices like this never occur again will ensure the fairness to the accused but also the victims of sexual assault. you can imagine if you are a victim and the athletic department is investigating an athlete accused of these crimes that you will not feel you will get justice in those circumstances. this bill would end practices like this and ensure that there is consistency and there's fairness not only for victims of sexual assault to ensure that a confidential adviser will be given to victims but that the accused has a fair and clear process to investigate these crimes. i thank you so much for your leadership, both the chair and

ranking member, on this issue and for my colleagues and their incredible work today, thank you. thank you very: much. i want to thank all four of our colleagues for coming to testify today and for your outstanding leadership on this issue. i know you have busy schedules so at this point, you are free to go home we will bring forth the second panel. i am pleased to welcome our next panel of four witnesses today. our first witness president janet napolitano, the president of the university of california. i had the pleasure of working with president napolitano when she was secretary of homeland security. i served as ranking member of the senate homeland security committee. it is a pleasure to welcome her back to washington today. president napolitano leads the university system with 10 campuses, five medical centers, three associated national labs

and a statewide agricultural and natural resource program. previously, she served as governor and attorney general , but not at the same time of arizona. our second witness, dana folger, is the cofounder of know you're 9.know your she leads a national survivor and youth led campaign to end campus sexual and dating violence. she is also a columnist and a 2014 graduate of amherst college. we thank you for being here as well. next we will hear from dolores stafford who is the executive director of the national officerson of cleary

and professionals, and responsible for managing cleary at compliance and serves as the president and ceo ofdee stamford and associates , a financial services firm specializing in safety and security related issues on college campuses. it is also interesting to note that she served as chief of police at george washington university for several years right here in washington. finally, we will hear from molly floanlacher, who is the associate vice president for federal relations at the association of american universities where she has worked for some 14 years. she is responsible for higher education policy. and funding issues. governor napolitano, we will begin with you.

napolitano: thank you, senator collins and senator murray and members of the committee for holding this hearing and for the statements of your colleagues earlier this morning as well. i am pleased to see the bipartisan support on this issue. campus sexual assault and sexual violence is a criminal issue. it is a public health issue, it is a cultural issue. at the university of california which is the nations's largest public research university, we have no tolerance for it. the question is, what do you do about it? i'm here today to briefly describe what we have done and make a few brief comments on the legislation. in june of 2014, we established a systemwide task force to develop and implement a model for prevention, response, and reporting of incidents of sexual violence and sexual assault. we broadened the definition to include things like dating violence, domestic violence, and

stalking which previously had not been clearly included. we also adopted an affirmative consent standard meaning consent must be knowing, intentional, and revocable in our cases. the task force which is very broad identified eight key recommendations. i am pleased to see that the recommendations of the task force are really mirrored in the legislation that you are considering now. a consistent response team, systemwide investigation and adjudication standards including sanctions, comprehensive training, education for the entire uc community, communications and public awareness, a confidential advocacy and advocate for each survivor, systemwide website for information, standard data

collection and increased accountability and reporting and then appropriate support services for survivors based on their circumstances. those are the eight key pillars of what we are doing. 4 have already been completely enacted. the remaining 4 will be implemented no later than january of 2016. the most important i think is we have established the independent confidential advocate on every campus of the university of california. we have funded it and supported it and trained it. we have also set up systemwide education. every person, every freshman reporting this fall will receive the same training throughout the system and that training will then include all other students, faculty, and staff. when you add those numbers together, that's over 400,000

people who will be receiving the training. we have worked with the california attorney general on a template and a toolkit for the linkage between the campuses and district attorneys and law enforcement. the websites are up and running. in my written testimony, i have given you the website and if you have extra time, you could go on the website. a couple of brief comments on the legislation -- it has to be flexible enough to allow for institutional differences. there's a big difference between a big public university like berkeley or ucla and a very small college. we need to take some of that into account. second, it existing rules and regulations within the department of education need to

be better allocated and coordinated. there is a lot of redundancy and duplication and delay their. -- there. this is something i know the department is working on but it is something that should be taken into account. third, any new laws should not undo any research-based best practices already implemented at campuses across the country. in other wars, campuses are -- in other words, campuses are moving even while the legislative process is underway. as i've mentioned, i think we are very close to voluntary compliance with the key elements of casa. one thing, last point, on the mou's, the legislation should recognize that many large campuses have their own sworn police departments. how that works in the mou world

needs to be taken into account legislatively. again, i think the importance of this hearing and the importance of the support shown in the senate for this legislation cannot be overstated. on behalf of the university of california, we are grateful for your efforts. senator collins: thank you very much for your excellent testimony. ms. bolger, welcome. >> thank you and good morning. i am very grateful to be here to testify at this committee hearing on campus sexual assault. during my time at amherst college where i graduated in 2014, i benefited from decades of activism and legislation to promote gender equality and campus. i also inherited a history of administrative under enforcement in the shadow of which gender violence was rampant, schools mistreated young survivors with impunity and a few students new -- knew title ix was about

anything more than women's sports. on my campus alone, students who experience sexual or dating violence were discouraged from reporting, denied counseling, and academic accommodations, and pressured to take time off. when i reported my own abuse to my school, i was urged to drop out and go home and return after my rapist had graduated. nearly every day, we hear from students who have had similar experiences. the hardest hit are often the most marginalized -- students of color, lgbtq students, low income students, and students with disabilities. these inadequate school responses have not only frustrated their efforts to learn and graduate but have also come with staggering financial burdens. the cost of violence are real. between the expense of health services that colleges have refused to provide an tuition loss when victims feel like cannot safely remain on campus

with their assailant without administrative support. these costs impact survivors educational opportunities and continue long after graduation. many survivors grades when they are forced to study in libraries or they suffer from depression and ptsd without administrative support, often leading to diminished wages down the road. this intolerable status quo demands a strong federal response. due in large part to the important recent guidance from the department of education, schools are finally beginning to take their responsibilities more seriously. things like housing changes in mental health services may seem trivial to the outside observer , but to student survivors across the country, they are making the difference between staying in school and dropping out. title ix is a powerful to keep the one in five women who will suffer gender violence during college in school and learning. reauthorizing the highridge

occasion act, congress should build on previous evers to continue to fight to end. violence and dissemination in higher education i outlined a number of solutions in my written testimony but i will focus on two of them. mandating campus transparency and promoting effective enforcement of title ix through finding authority and funding for the office of civil rights. first, transparency -- there are strong and perverse incentives for campuses to sweep violence under the rug. the school that provides pathways to reporting may seem -- see an increase in the number of people disclosing assault and hence a spike in assault numbers under the cleary act. this could make the school seem unsafe compared to a school that discourages reporting. to counteract these potential negative reputational consequences, congress and mandate that all schools conduct yearly campus climate surveys and publish the results. it matters how these surveys are instituted. infrequent climate surveys or

surveys where the results for each campus are not made public or released as aggregate data from numerous schools will hinder our efforts to create safer campuses. each school should also be required to publish aggregate statistics on how and how promptly investigations are being handled. together, this information will help students and families assess how each school handles these cases in practice and will give policymakers the data they need to continue shaping legislative solutions. second, congress should act to strengthen federal enforcement efforts. the office for civil rights currently relies upon the empty threat of revoking all financial support from a college or university to motivate schools to comply with the law. this is a nuclear option which is to disastrous to be in fomented. providing the office for civil rights with explicit authority to levy fines against schools that violate the law would give

the agency the increased leverage necessary to hold schools accountable without devastating programming and aid for students in the process. this authority must be made available for the department to enforce all relevant civil rights laws to ensure that students are free from all forms of discrimination including those based on race and disability. i also want to point out the efforts to combat violence our -- on our campuses will require increased appropriations for the office for civil rights as more survivors come forward in the number of complaints grow dramatically. ocr remains grossly underfunded and understaffed and they could provide additional technical assistance to schools on how to comply with title ix to better inform students about the rights and to improve campus safety by ensuring timely investigations. over the last five years, we have seen a remarkable transformation with conversations about gender violence that were confined to whispers today survivors and advocates like may have the -- like me have the opportunity to discuss these urgent issues before this committee.

thank you for your time and your commitment to building a future where students can learn and thrive free from violence. >> thank you so much for your testimony. it is so important that we put a human face on this problem. that is what you have done today. i so admire that you turned your her in this experience into advocacy so that others don't go through what you did. thank you for being here today. we appreciate it. ms. stafford. ms. stafford: good morning. i appreciate the opportunity to join you to briefly discuss the requirements of the cleary act including the newest requirement s added by amendments in addition to what institutions are doing to make campuses safer. i have a unique perspective as i had the opportunity at george

washington university to serve as the chief of police where i sexual and supervised a assault response team for 20 years. it is not a common model for a chief of police to also supervise a sexual assault advocacy group. this model worked at gw because of my passion for wanting to ensure survivors of sexual assault were not re-victimized by our response, processes, or actions in dealing with what i consider to be one of the most personal violations a human being can suffer. we dealt with over 250 cases during my tenure at gw. i know firsthand that campuses expend significant effort and resources for campus safety from physical security systems to developing operational policies and procedures to plan for emergencies and crisis scenarios and providing a bunch of educational programs to enhance knowledge and awareness regarding crimes on campus. campuses forms committees, teams, task forces, and physical security systems to developing operational policies

town down organizations to resolve missing issues related to campus safety and they consider best practices and research in formulating effective prevention and response strategies. a cornerstone of campus safety efforts involves compliance with the cleary act. it requires all eligible institutions to comply with a constellation of annual ongoing and immediate requirements. some of these requirements include identifying all campus security authority or what i like to call mandatory reporters of crime, developing a system to gather crime statistics from all of those people on campus, csa's.ied as this is a significant task. a small residential college would typically have between 300-500 csa's who have to be trained in their responsibilities as mandatory reporters of the crimes they become aware of.

publishing and distributing an annual security report -- these reports must currently include 111 separate policies, statement disclosures and three years worth of crime statistics for the 15 cleary reportable crimes. 300-500 csa's who have to be campuses have to alert the campus community with a timely warning notice of reporting crimes that may pose a serious or continuing threat to the community. they have to immediately alert the campus community with an emergency notification of any reported her potential incidents that pose an immediate threat to health and safety of the community. they have to create and maintain and make available a written daily crime log to name a few of the requirements. the department of education has published a 300 page handbook as a resource for institutions to comply with this incredibly complex law. the handbook contains many rules and many exceptions to those rules. to cleary compliance officers, the handbook is as clear as the u.s. tax code. in 2013, amendments to the cleary act added 47 new policy statement disclosures to the

law. there were previously 64 disclosures effectively doubling its requirements. the new policy statements largly will require institution

prevention and awareness of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. these programs for current and new students and employees must address a significant amount of required content, the educational programs are now prescriptive which i elaborate on in my written testimony. the title ix indelible influence can be seen throughout the amendments. title ix's influence can be seen throughout the amendment. specific examples of overlap between the laws may also be found in my written testimony. campuses honestly want to comply with a query out and many see it as a basement, not a feeling of campus safety efforts. many new programs have potential to enhance existing safety on campus. each of these proposals will require thoughtful implication of adoption, especially from a practitioner's perspective.

we welcome the opportunity to be involved in any effort, to help consider the practical implications of the proposed new legislation, and any of the department of education's efforts to provide much-needed guidance and resources to institutions as they endeavor to comply with this law. i appreciate the opportunity to address the committee today and i welcome any questions you may have. sen. collins: thank you very much. ms. flounlacker: good morning. thank you for inviting me to testify today. i am the associate vice president for federal relations at the association of american universities. i am also the project manager for the sexual assault climate survey. i've also been a college student and am now a mother.

i care deeply professionally and personally about this issue and am proud to be a part of this effort to confront it. in my remarks, i will outline 6 points for you on this very important subject. number one, presidents and chancellors of universities have long identified sexual assault on their campuses as an extremely important issue that they need to face head-on. it is the issue that is keeping them awake at night. i have spent more time talking with our members about this issue than any other issue over the last 18 months. the university presidents make it very clear one sexual assault on their college campus is too many. one of the most important goals of our universities is to make their campuses safe for students to learn and succeed. number two, individual sexual assault cases can be complex. schools take very seriously their responsibility to educate students about awareness and prevention, to encourage students to report sexual assault, to respond compassionately and seriously to the needs of survivors, and

ensure all students have access to campus disciplinary processes. number three, in keeping with this mission as an association of research universities, we decided to take a research-based approach to help our members understand the attitudes and experiences of their students with effect to sexual assault. accordingly, aau implemented a sexual assault and misconduct climate survey and consultation with the leading outside social science research firm. their survey was developed in a multi disciplinary team across the country. nearly half of the membership has administered the survey this spring. aau will publicly release these results in the fall and hopes it proves helpful to schools but also to policymakers in the legislative arena.

the data will also be made to the research community, which we expect will be a significant resource to better understanding this issue. having spent the last 15 months on this project, i can say it is an extremely complicated process. moving forward, we want our experts to be a resource for congress as they work through this issue and the campus accountability and safety act in particular. we want to get this right because we strongly support the use of climate surveys on college campuses. number four, a legislative and regulatory landscape around campus sexual assault is incredibly messy because of the number of different federal laws and state laws, regulations. overall, we believe schools need a framework of clear and consistent standards with flexibility when appropriate so that they have the necessary tools to better protect students

and support survivors. number five, we strongly support the goal of the bill to better inform and protect students, including core elements of promoting the climate survey. we support and appreciate many of the changes incorporated into the current version. there are still some areas where we have remaining concerns. primarily, because of unanticipated effects on students as outlined in my written testimony. for example, we strongly support giving survivors of sexual assault access to a trained, confidential advisor whose sole responsibility is to counsel the survivor. this is in the best interest of the survivor. any requirements the advisor acts could come from as confidentiality and increase the likelihood of the advisor being subpoenaed for legal proceedings. new duties will be assigned to the individual by the department of education as they implement the law. we are concerned about potential conflict with the advisor's responsibility and schools current title ix reporting requirements. the sole responsibility of the advisor should be to counsel the survivor. lastly, sexual assault is a societal problem.

as important as it is for colleges to confront it directly, it does not exist in isolation on college campuses. we believe there is a role for the entire education community to play in producing cultural changes that reduce the incidence of sexual assault. aau and the higher education community look forward to continuing to work with congress and the administration to make students safer. thank you again for the opportunity to testify. we believe there is a role for the entire education community to play in producing cultural changes that reduce the incidence of sexual assault. aau and the higher education community look forward to continuing to work with congress and the administration to make students safer. thank you again for the opportunity to testify.

and happy to answer questions. sen. collins: thank you very much for your testimony. we have just been notified that votes have started. we will have two votes and we will have a recess while we do vote but we will be able to continue for now and get through some questions before people have to leave to vote. we will limit senators to five minutes on this round. i do also want to announce that senator alexander will be returning and after the votes, he will take over as chairman. it has been a great experience and i would have liked to continue but i will turn over the gavel reluctantly to the legitimate chairman of the

committee. ms. flounlacker, i want to pick up on a point you commented on about the confidential advisers. i am a strong supporter of the confidential advisers. i have been surprised when i spoke to the university of maine and others that it turns out this is not as straightforward as i thought it would be. on the one hand, confidentiality really focuses on the victim and that is what we should do and it may encourage students to report violations and seek the help they need. on the other hand, the requirements of title ix and the cleary act require various forms of reporting when crimes occur on campus and indeed, the department of educations 2014 guidance says that "there are situations in which a school must override a students request for confidentiality in order to meet its own title ix obligations." it seems to me we're putting the school between a rock and a hard

place unless we get some clarity. how can colleges and universities provide the confidential services and advising that many of us think are vital to students while balancing and meeting the requirements of both federal and in some cases state law and the desire to respond effectively? ms. flounlacker: i think you identified a very important issue. we want to get the confidential advisor right. it is an essential service offered to students. as i mentioned in my opening comments, we have concern that as currently drafted, the advisor would be tasked with responsibilities that go outside

of what we think should be the responsibility of counseling a student and as you mentioned, in addition to our issues with fact-finding, potential conflict with title ix is a real concern and one that will have to address in the legislature to get this right. part of the issue in the legislation -- and if i'm getting too technical, please stop me -- part of the issue is in the legislation, the advisor can make accommodations, changes in a dorm room or classroom and it says explicitly it shall not trigger an investigation or the school and clearly, schools are committed to providing accommodations and maintaining confidentiality. the problem is many schools

typically believe that if they're making accommodations for a student, it is sufficient to warrant an investigation by an institution. moreover, institutions are required under title ix to track and report accommodations provided in response to sexual assault. there is a clear conflict here. i think there are some solutions and we very much love to be a part of that conversation. for example, it would be better for the advisor to let the survivor know where to go, who to talk to about making accommodations rather than that advisor actually carrying through the process themselves. i think there are solutions here and we just have to keep focusing on the core responsibility of the advisor, which is to counsel and make sure the guidance is very clear so schools know what they are doing and survivors understand

what the advisor can do to help them. sen. collins: thank you. i will ask the rest of you to respond for the records to that issue because i think there's a clear conflict between the rules and the regulations. but i want to get quickly to a second topic in my remaining time. ms. bolger, we have climate surveys that our military academies do and they have a very high response rate because the students know that they are expected to fill out those climate surveys. that is not necessarily the case for private colleges and public universities. what suggestions would you have to encourage students to participate in the climate survey so there are meaningful? ms. bolger: thank you for that question. i think that in thinking through climate surveys, we have to remember that this is just one piece of a larger effort to change the culture of sexual

violence on campus. that means doing education work and outreach and training to students that helps them understand how important it is. i think we have seen a lot of change on campuses over the last couple years as student peers who are survivors are coming forward and telling their stories. i suppose i am more optimistic that students will want to be part of the process to complete these surveys. i do think that we should certainly build on existing structures on campuses. we have fraternities, sports teams, sororities. these are groups of people who

already come together around shared values and if we can create by and among people in those communities, we will see much higher response rates to the survey. sen. collins: thank you. senator murray. sen. murray: i admire you and your courage and the work you have done to empower other students and survivors and creating the organization is just really valuable. thank you for that. given the fact that sexual assault is such an underreported crime, what do you think is the most important step for universities to create to get a survivor-focused approach? ms. bolger: thank you. first off, survivors need to know what they can expect to receive out of the reporting process and schools need to ensure that the existence of accommodations and how to access them is clear, well publicized, and well understood on campus and need to follow-up and actually issue those accommodations and protections to students who request them. i know a number of survivors on

my campus simply did not report because they did not understand that the school could be useful in helping them change a dorm they shared with the perpetrator or switch out of a class they shared with their abuser. the second point i would make is transparency. we have spoken a little bit about climate surveys and i think it is incredibly important that schools release aggregate data about the results of disciplinary hearings on how quickly they are proceeding. this should not be identifying information. i think that'll help survivors feel confidence in the system and trust that the schools are there for them and want to help them. sen. murray: sexual violence is a significant problem in our country. according to the cdc, one in five women is sexually assaulted in college and often by someone known to the victim. it is a former partner, a friend, acquaintance. i know you see students and

faculty who are taking the issue of addressing this head-on. they have a task force to improve the community and make campuses safer. how have you focused your efforts in response to sexual assault and violence and working toward a culture of prevention? ms. napolitano: the first day student starts, they will be given specific training. ms. napolitano: the first day student starts, they will be given specific training. they will also be made aware of what resources are available to them if something were to occur. where to go, who are the independent advocates, what they can do. we see the independent advocates

as acting as gatekeepers, not reporters. in terms of do you go to the campus police, should you go to your department chair, and to be there to do appropriate follow-up. it begins with creating that culture from the day they begin on campus and consistency and persistency throughout the college experience. sen. murray: in fall 2014, california became the first state to enact a yes means yes law in defining sexual consent. can you speak about how these affirmative consent laws are empowering students and faculty? ms. napolitano: we actually changed our policy before the law changed. we have had a year's worth of experience with it. it really, in a way, shifts the

burden so that the survivor is not the one always trying to explain what happened. it means that consent has to be knowing and intentional. if it is not, it is not valid anymore. that is incorporated in the training materials. sen. murray: can you share with us how a concept like this might help with sexual assault? ms. bolger: it is a strong policy that reflects students values already on how they want to engage in relationships with people in the community. i think that affirmative consent will only be successful if there's education for students about what expectations are, how to obtain consent. students enter college with a wide array of understanding of

what consent is and i think that orientation programming and continuing ongoing training for students as well as for the people who will be hearing these cases and investigating these cases is necessary to make sure that this becomes common and expected on campus. sen. cassidy: senator gillibrand circled some statistics suggesting that 41% of campuses -- and i cannot verify this - 41% of colleges and universities have not conducted a single investigation of sexual violence on their campus in the last five years. wow. that seems like there is a problem with the university in communicating to their students that this is reportable. do you follow what i am saying? and i cannot independently verify that but i have a daughter on a campus. that seems like a problem with the university. is that a fair statement?

ms. flounlacker: i am not an expert in that arena. i would say the schools are taking this very seriously to explain the process, how students can report, and explain what happens in a disciplinary -- sen. cassidy: 41% have not investigated a single incident, that tells me they are not taking it seriously. because that which is measured is addressed. it tells me they are not measuring it or if they are, they choose not to address. you cannot speak for all 41% but it still seems like we met the enemy and he is us. ms. napolitano: clearly, is the system perfect? no. are mistakes made?

yes. every system can be improved. i don't think there is a president or a chancellor who would disagree with that statement. i'm not justifying the statistic. there may be truth to it, there may not be. i know there are a lot of reasons why cases don't go forward. sometimes, the context is really important. there are cases where survivors don't necessarily want to go forward, there are not enough facts for the case to go forward. but i cannot speak to those specific statistics. speaking from the association, presidents recognize most importantly the need for better data, which is where our climate surveys come in. it is important we understand how students -- sen cassidy: can i stop you because i am out of time. as you can tell -- everybody has left me. tonto, -- ms.

napolitano, you have so many titles, i don't know which one to call you as. but you mentioned this should be between the systems. could you elaborate on that difference in approach? ms. napolitano: big systems like mine, we have our own police departments. they are sworn officers. small colleges may not have any sworn officers on their staff. should we be required to have separate mou's or do we start with our own departments? these are the kinds of things that are different. sen. cassidy: there has been high-profile stuff recently about the accused who felt they were wrongly accused and did not receive due process. i cannot attest to that. do you have thoughts or do others on how do we for those

who might be accused wrongly? i know a woman being accused and she said she is accused wrongly and her entire career is in jeopardy because of this and she feels as if she has not been accorded rights. talk about how we address that issue. ms. napolitano: we are actually looking into that right now. we have to make sure the system is fair to both sides. when i look at the litigation that has been filed against the university of california, about half of the cases have been filed by survivors and half by respondents who say they were not treated fairly. there is a lot of controversy in this area. one of the issues we are looking at is do we provide or what kind of support do we provide to a respondent in addition to a complaintant? right now, we provide support to

the complaintant. sen. cassidy: it has been said it should leave the university system and go to a civil court because that is the only way you ensure you get fair treatment for both parties as i understand. i am looking at 41% -- if that is true, it tells me that for a sizable minority, the universities, there is inadequacy of approach whether it is for either party. any thoughts about that? ms. napolitano: if you made it mandatory that these cases go into civil or criminal court, that would be a deterrent to complaintants coming forward and i would be cautious about any sort of mandatory referral process. sen. cassidy: we will resume shortly after votes have ended. thank you for your testimony. i cannot thank you enough.

sen. collins: the committee will come back to order. contrary to my expectations, although the chairman has returned, he has very graciously agreed to allow me to continue wielding the gavel. i am feeling extremely powerful. until such time as i have to leave and he will resume his rightful place. as chairman of the committee. but i thank senator alexander for his courtesy on an issue that matters a great deal to me. senator bennett, we have left with your being next. sen. bennet: thank you, madam chair. and thank you, mr. chairman, for allowing these senator from maine to continue sharing this hearing and thank you to the witnesses for being here. ms. bolger, thank you for your testimony.

i wonder if you would touch on -- we have touched on your written testimony, but not, i think, in your oral testimony, your views on the mandatory referral laws and how we should think about that. ms. bolger: thank you for the question. are you speaking about mandatory referral laws to the police? sen. bennet: yes. ms. bolger: that is a wonderful question. i get asked all the time how campuses are dealing with this in the first place. why don't we send reports to the police? i think that is an intuitive question, but the reality on the ground is that survivors tell us again and again that were their were their reports forced to go to the police that they would report to no one at all. nine in 10 survivors told us that if the reports were turned to the police without their consent, they expect fewer victims to report.

if we are serious about reducing violence on our campuses, perhaps counterintuitively, the best thing to do is empower survivors with the right to decide who receives their reports. sen. bennet: you used such a great turn of phrase. reality on the ground. are there other things we should be thinking about that might be counterintuitive or not, but in terms of the reality on the ground as we act in a well-intentioned way, but in a way that could be counterproductive? ms. bolger: also a wonderful question. the first thing that comes to mind as we are hearing a lot on college campuses about sexual assault and how schools need to take it seriously and that is true and i think that is starting to happen. i think there is a real gap between responding to sexual

assault and responding to other forms of gender-based violence. i'm talking about dating violence, intimate partner violence, stalking. the new components of the cleary act will allow schools to report incidents of domestic violence and stalking. it is important that schools address these issues in their policies. policies for dating violence survivors can look different than for sexual assault survivors. things like transportation to a local court to obtain a restraining order, not penalizing survivors from the same class in order to get a restraining order, things like that. sen. bennet: are you or anybody else aware -- is very -- is there a designation somewhere of universities that have set the gold standard for dealing with sexual assault and sexual violence on campus? is there some standard that students have established or community groups -- i'm just want to think about where we

would find the best practices if we were looking. probably the university of california, i am sure but where else? ms. napolitano: we aspire to be the gold standard but we know we have more work to do. every campus in the u.s. recognizes that. i think we certainly have taken this on as a major issue for our students and for our campus community. ms. flounlacker: you raise a really important question and it speaks to the section of the cost of legislation for a grant program, which we think is really important particularly focused on more research on better awareness and prevention, which i think our schools are engaged in but we need more of it so we can identify better best practices. everyone can agree with that point. in an ideal world with the grant program and the legislation, we would go on a dedicated funding stream for this kind of research

rather than using funding from the fines to go into the grant program. we would prefer a dedicated funding stream for this kind of research. ms. bolger: from where i sit as a recent graduate and a survivor and an advocate, we don't know any school is getting it right perfectly. there are schools with strong policies, but until we have more information and more data like what we could obtain from standardized climate surveys, i don't think we will have a good sense of what policies are necessarily working best until students tell us. ms. napolitano: it goes to the point of flexibility and legislation because evidence-based best practices will change over time and i

think what the law wants is for us to use data-driven best practices and to be able to demonstrate that is what we are doing. sen. warren: thank you for holding this hearing. it is very important and i appreciate both of you for doing this. we talk about the numbers according to the cdc. an estimated 19% of women will experience sexual assault while in campus. one in five women means something is very wrong. all students should be safe on campus. ms. bolger highlights the importance of climate surveys, surearticularly, making making the data that comes from them public. i strongly support this effort. good data can be an important foundation for change and as you

said, if no one knows what is going on, there will not be any change. we have also talked about how colleges respond to reported incidences of sexual assault and i think that is very important. a school's response should be timely, appropriate, respectful. i want to ask about work to prevent sexual assault in the first place and how the federal government can help. chief stafford, in your near 30 years of serving and law -- in law enforcement, what did the administration do that proved effective in preventing sexual assault on campus? ms. stafford: we often focus the education efforts on women because we assume generally, women are more frequently the victim of a sexual assault of than men, but i think we have to focus our education efforts on men. we need to do that when they are in high school. we should be sending men to campuses who understand respecting a woman understanding

-- respecting woman, understand what consent is. i have huge concerns about the level of understanding and i have friends with teenage boys and i talked to them about their level of understanding on consent and they don't understand consent. i think the education efforts really need to be focused not only on women and not becoming the victim of a sexual offense , but on men and not victimizing women. i think needs to go both ways. sen. warren: ms. bolger, would you like to weigh in? focusing just a bit more on the prevention part of this. ms. bolger: the most important thing about prevention education is that it starts early and keeps going. when he consent education in middle school, high school, college. it needs to start the week first years get to campus and it needs to continue. i have no recollection of any orientation or education programming i received around this because as a first-year in

your first week, you are bombarded with so many messages and information so it needs to be ongoing. i see a lot of schools trying to slide by by doing online prevention education. online education is not education. it needs to be in person and it also needs to be looked at as a -- from a skills level, telling people what are the rights, what consent is, and it also needs to be looked at as a cultural norms and values base level, talking about sexism and violence more broadly. warren: president napolitano, can you tell us what you have found was effective or

not in terms of prevention? ms. napolitano: it is an evolving area. in person education, online supplements, complements. those things can happen together. experimenting with peer-to-peer education programs. bystander education so that the overall campus community is more aware of what it should do if they are a witness to one event. those are the kinds of things i think improve the overall climate. sen. warren: let me ask this question because of where we are today. where is it the federal government can be helpful in this part of the making campuses safer? what is it we should be talking about and thinking about at the federal level? i open this to anyone who would like to respond. don't all jump in at once. ms. stafford: i would like to talk about the issue of the mou 's.

i think the reason sexual assaults survivors have been unwilling to report sex offense is because they're uncertain of what they will face and what they're going to deal with when they make the report. will they be believed, challenged, made to feel a -- irrelevant? having or not having an mou will change whether the survivor reports. but most safety leaders i know have requested mou's of the local police, and if they have one, it is because the local police were willing, and if they don't, it is because the local police were not willing. there is no teeth behind it that forces them to engage in getting into an mou. i would like to see something that actually forces the hand of the local and state police agencies to actually engage with the campus police agencies. , every i know in d.c. time there was a new chief of police, i went and asked for an mou.

every time i was refused. sen. warren: a very good point. does anyone else want to say anything, because i am out of time now? ms. bolger: the thing that is important to me is mandated transparency in schools and that students and families know what to expect and enforcement in the department of education. students have really felt alone on their campuses and trying to deal with this end of the office -- trying to deal with this. if the office for civil rights can continue to step up, i'm confident things will change. sen. warren: thank you all very much. since i am out of time, i will add this as questions for the record. we have to do everything we can to keep everyone safe on campus and i appreciate you being here. it is our job to do what we can to help. thank you. thank you, madam chair. collins: thank you. senator baldwin. sen. baldwin: thank you very much and i very much appreciate the scheduling of this hearing.

i really want to thank our witnesses today both for your time and testimony but also for your life's work and energy devoted to advocating for others and improving the climate on our campuses across the united states. i wanted to start with a question about the climate survey. we just had a question before our break about bolstering participation rates. and in addition to that, i wanted to recognize that the association of american universities has been active in developing and beginning to implement sexual assault campus climate surveys. i am proud that one of the campuses in wisconsin is a part of this effort and as i understand it, the results of this survey are due in the fall but i would hope that you could , perhaps share some of the lessons that aau has learned in

its implementation and especially if we are to look at including a climate survey as we reauthorize the higher education act. we want to garner the best and latest information. and then i went to ask the president, i think the first point you made in her testimony was the flexibility recognizing differences in campuses and how that might inform the content of a climate survey, and i wonder if you could be more specific about how you would alter the climate survey from campus to campus are what we should be thinking about. let me start with you.

ms. flounlacker: thank you for a very important question. this is a top priority. our presidents and chancellors asked for better data and we are delivering through the surveys. we will produce the aggregate result in the fall. we encouraged all schools and i'm confident all will produce their own results as well. i will buy to offer some specific comments. the first would like to offer some specific comments. i think colleges with any survey want to ensure as high a response rate as possible, particularly with a survey of this nature. schools have no legal authority to force to compel students to participate. having said that, there are a number of strategies that schools can employ if the survey is locally administered. if the school itself administers the survey versus the department of education administering the survey. that is one of our concerns. if the school administers it, they have control over a host of

issues -- who promotes it, how it is promoted, when, how long, whether incentives are used or not. and there is a solid research-based group of evidence that talks about strategies that really can bolster response rates. so that is an area that we know a lot more about now and aau can be a great resource moving forward. if i have another minute -- i will stop there. ms. napolitano: her answer illustrates the point i was making about flexibility. a survey administered from a federal department is different than what administered on your own campus. and how the campus administers it and the incentives it uses and what it does to increase the response rate can be very specific as to a campus. i think the same thing can be

said to content as well as long as certain subject matter areas are covered. the third thing is that you can get campus climate through a variety of measurement mechanisms. we were talking during the break about focus groups to supplement surveys that give students a greater opportunity to discuss. and we know this from politics were a poll just tells you x, a focus group gives you the opportunity for a longer discussion. so the result is for national policy makers to know what is happening, parents to know what is happening, students. but also campus leadership to know what is happening on their campus so they can take immediate action. senator baldwin: i would ask you to follow up to make your point

and let me note that the other question i intended to ask but won't have time relates to the fact that we are looking at flat funding the office of civil rights in the department of education, which is tragic to me in terms of how important you have articulated in your testimony adequate resources are there, and i would love to hear from all of you on what impact it will have on institutions as well as students. senator collins: senator casey. senator casey: thank you, senator collins. i appreciate what you have done on this issue. i appreciate all of our witnesses who have labored and

been here a long time. it's an issue that i guess for far too long we have not been willing to confront as a country even though it is one of the most profound betrayals you can imagine. it is a betrayal when you send a daughter to a college -- and i sent two and i have two more. but when you send a daughter to a college and you tell them to study hard and they are going to have a wonderful experience, one of the best experiences of their life in most cases, and then the system betrays them. the school lets them down, the government lets them down. when i say betrayal, a lot of us share in that. i think we have to be very insistent on following rules and demanding a lot more of our

schools than we have demanded until now. i think it is a matter of basic justice. in the bible, they talk about people hungering and thirsting for justice. in this case, they have not been satisfied. victims have not been satisfied, families and communities. we have a long, long way to go, and i am very proud of the work that i and others did to get the recent changes through the regulatory process and have them, not just law, but law that is being of limited by way of regulation. i know there is some discord about the result of that. we will get to that in a moment. the last thing i will say, this has to be a priority for men. men have been on the sidelines too long. too many young college students

standing at parties, knowing something will happen or having a sense that it might happen, having a sense of what their friends could do and just walking away or not doing anything. in some ways, as much system has betrayed women on campuses, a lot of guys have betrayed them as well, sometimes their best friends. so, ms. bolger, when you testified -- we are grateful you did that. i cannot even begin to imagine how difficult it is to have lived through what you have lived through and then to come before a public audience like this, and it may not be the first time, but it is a great value and benefit. we to learn from you, but be inspired and try to move

forward in a way that's commesurate to the spirit you brought to it. i want to ask you a question about your experience working with survivors. one of the challenges is reporting and if you could walk through in your experience why victims sometimes have a great difficulty of reporting. ms. bolger: thank you for that question and for all your work on this issue made so much to survivors and students. there are a host of reasons why it is challenging for survivors to report. the person who assaulted them is likely someone they know, a friend, a partner. it is incredibly difficult to take a person you love and trust have this happen to you and then report them. many survivors fear reporting to the police for any number of reasons. they may be undocumented, they may come from overcriminalized communities. for some survivors, reporting will not do anything for them

because their states don't even recognize what happened to them as violence. i think it is incredibly important at the campus level that schools are open and transparent about the kinds of protections students can expect to receive by reporting. it is hard to report if you don't know what could come of it. senator casey: we appreciate that. one of the things we try to do is take that into consideration, and i appreciate the input. secretary napolitano, we are grateful you are here today and grateful for your service in the field of education as you did

for the country and your home state. in trying to deal with the problem and the complexity of the changes that you hope to make. ms. napolitano: one lesson is how do you take a university system and a major issue that is cultural, health, criminal. and organize it in such a fashion that you can take implementable steps on each one and work your way through a program and evaluate it as you go along as to whether you are really doing what survivors need and what justice commands. at one point, i wanted to add that with respect to what students have told me on the reluctance to report, it is the issue of confidentiality. is the confidential advocate

truly confidential and having to be -- and the law needing to be clear about when we have someone we brand as the confidential independent advocate, does that person also have reporting responsibilities? if they do, that undercuts the nature of confidentiality. and i think there is a lot of confusion in that area in the law right now. senator casey: thank you very much. senator alexander: i had expected to be in nashville today and was told the vote might be close on the highway bill, so that is the way the senate works. i came back, but i thank senator collins preparing herself and using her usual diligence

. i thank you very much for taking time to do this. we will wrap up the hearing now as you go, and we look forward to your advice as we continue with this issue. as you can tell from the comments of the senators, there is a good deal of concern and a surprising amount of humility here in the sense that we are not sure we know what we can do to help you, and we certainly don't want to interfere with your efforts. i think senator warren's question was a good one -- what we can do to help and we will be

working with our working groups on the reauthorization of the higher education act this fall, and we hope to complete that before thanksgiving and i have more to say about asking for your advice so thank you, senator collins. senator collins: thank you very much, mr. chairman. it was an honor to substitute for you today. senator murray, do you have additional questions? senator murray: i would like to ask consent to include a statement from the education fund, and i will submit the questions i have but i want to thank all of our panelists for their expert testimony. this is an extremely important topic, and i think every parent who is sending a daughter or son off to college once to know that -- wants to know that we are doing everything we can to make sure they are protected and you have given us great insight into how to do this correctly. i look forward to working with you on this. senator alexander: this has been

a priority of senator murray's and she will continue to focus on campus safety. we're thinking about a hearing coming up soon on that. i have three questions i would like to ask the panel, and the answers can come later. question number one goes back to what i said earlier. the government has a way of expressing its concern in laws, rules, and regulations that aren't as efficient as the concern is real. in other words, we sometimes duplicate and cause campuses to spend more time filling out forms and working with students to, for example, have a session of informing incoming freshmen about their responsibilities are. would each of you be willing to

give a specific suggestions about how you see title ix and its rules and regulations, how they could be improved, where they conflict, how they could be made clearer so that campuses would have the flexibility that you talk about? president napolitano, would you be willing to do that and give it to us in a specific form? do you have any comments you would like to make? ms. napolitano: i welcome the opportunity to do that. senator alexander: it is such a good system you are bound to have plenty of people wading through the federal rules, and regulations and say we don't know what this means and this duplicates this.

you have been in so many different positions that you know exactly what i'm talking about. particularly on behalf of the colleges, we need that by around september in order to include it in the reauthorization act. ms. flounlacker: chairman, we would welcome the opportunity, and if i could go a step further, i think we should also pay close attention to the department of education and make sure as the reauthorization process goes forward, they do not issue any additional guidance without the comment which is very standard rulemaking process to allow stakeholders the time to ask questions to clarify as well as provide important expertise to ultimately shape the outcome we all want. senator alexander: that is a reasonable request. several of us asked a distinguished group to look at

generally simplifying our education rules and regulations and making them more effective. one of their findings was that every one of our 6000 colleges and universities gets on average every workday one new guidance rule. so i will ask the department not to do that, especially while we are in the midst of the the reauthorization. the other observation to make is that only 15% of the colleges or -- are private universities. we often think about those. there is a difference between nashville auto diesel college and ucla. we need to keep that diversity in mind. another question i would ask,

one college president said when i asked her what we should do about the issue, said, you should focus on helping campuses better coordinate with law enforcement agencies, but do not turn colleges into law enforcement agencies. do you have any comment on that? ms. stafford: i absolutely agree. i think there is a reason for a campus process, and i think campuses certainly have a place in the process. i don't want to see them become law enforcement agencies. i think students have the right to choose whether or not they want to move forward with pressing charges and if they do, law-enforcement is there for that. the campuses provide an alternative for students as far as the disciplinary process, and we have continued to strengthen that process.

so i fully support not making campuses try to take the place of law enforcement. law enforcement has a specific place, and they will do their job if called upon to do it. ms. napolitano: i would concur and say the goal of the student disciplinary process is different than the criminal process. i think, however, there can be greater linkage between campuses and law enforcement in appropriate cases and there are ways to do that. senator alexander: the last question i have is this -- what can we do or not do to make sure that colleges establish procedures dealing with sexual assault that are fair and protect the due process rights of both the accused and the accuser? what should we keep in mind as

we work on that issue? ms. napolitano: senator, that is something we are looking into right now, what should be the rights of the accused. it illustrates the difference between a student proceeding and a criminal proceeding. i think they should be different. we are working our way through that right now. it is a difficult issue, as you might imagine. ms. bolger: the only point i would add is that title ix already requires schools to be fair and equitable in their processes. we sent a letter to university presidents asking for fairness

and that they follow the law. i think it is critically important that is the case and at the end of the day, we are all really on the same page here. there is a way in which we like to pick people who care about survivors against those to care about accused students, but this is about access to education and title ix clearly demands that all parties be treated fairly. senator alexander: thank you. we need to make sure that any new training departments for the confidential advisor -- for example -- does not contradict what is currently in law with respect to fair and partial process. so i think training requirement is an area we need to pay particular attention to. senatoralexander: whitehouse has slipped in under the wire, and i will call on him and we will conclude the hearing.

senator whitehouse? thank youitehouse: for the hearing, and thank you for all the witnesses who have been wonderful. given the late stage in the hearing, what i might do is offer a few thoughts and ask each of you if you would respond to them for the record. rather than extend this and run over by time. my first thought is that there is not good enough coordination andeen the title ix process the ordinary and proper course of a law enforcement investigation and that we need to find a way to disentangle wo processes so they are not working at cross purposes to us.

too often we have heard about cases in which evidence is uncessarily lost because law enforcement was not brought in at a suitable time. we have heard about instances in processe university creates opportunities that are prejudicial to the victim in a later criminal justice process by opening avenues of cross-examination, for instance, and i think thoughts you have on how we better accommodate the law enforcement process in this, the violent felony that this actually is, i think we need to bring law enforcement at an earlier time, which briefly to my second point, which is that in my view the sooner we get law enforcement engaged in the process the better. the counterargument is in the

past there have been times and circumstances when law forcing have done a lousy job of participating in these investigations. lawink the fact that enforcement has done a lousy job on occasion is not a recent gate law enforcement out. it is a reason to improve law enforcement in this area. i think we have a model with domestic violence. it was not too long ago when law enforcement is not helpful in domestic violence cases, drive around, as the woman what she did to provoke him, and the community has done a lot due to just about the integration of integrator and advisers and law enforcement and the process. the third point i would ask you to respond to is that the primary concern i on the half of

victims -- on behalf of victims is if law enforcement get involved right off the back, there is a risk that the victim will lose control over the time whens at a victims are already feeling to have lost a loved control or are feeling very vulnerable. this can be a considerable threat. victims are often poorly informed about the reality of a law enforcement intervention. secretary napolitano and i were both u.s. attorneys and andrneys general together, you really do not have much of a case if you did not have a cooperating victim. the likelihood of a criminal case being a vehicle for running away with an unwilling victim is very small, and i think it probably the addressed. the concept -- and i will close mulling isthat i am stage in very early

the report of an alleged wouldt, law-enforcement be involved, the police department would be involved. , unless therere was some kind of immediate public safety emergency -- there are times you need to react and you should not prevent that from happening -- absent that, that there could be a conversation in what for want of a better term you might call a law enforcement vestibule, where the law enforcement comes out from his pure law enforcement role, into the vestibule, sits with a confidential advisor, whoever is piec andthe cleary they can walk through the victime, with what the likelihood is being run away goneby law enforcement

berserk, and what the real risks timely,not reporting whether real risks are of using electronic and biological figuree if time goes by, out a way to make that happen. i'm worried that we are going to be in a situation in which the fears that have been justly untrained, clumsy, unexperienced law enforcement arerventions in these cases becoming an obstacle for a process where we could create experienced trauma-informed, sensitive, effective law enforcement intervention and a very early stage. i have run out my tongue, but i hope those are useful thoughts, and i hope they are useful enough to provoke a response from you under our questions for the record rule in the committee, and, president

napolitano, you are too busy to do it yourself, so i would be ieve responserece from the university of california system you are respond before. thank you very much. you have known me too long to get away for that. good to see here. i would likender: to ask consent to insert statements from records and organizations. we have received a number of comments on that including from the a judge at harvard law school, april has her harvard law school and others. the record will remain open for 10 days. ember's basement and visual information within the time if they would like. hold nexttee plans to hearing on wednesday, august 5, to discuss status of students' success at american colleges and universities and how to improve it. they did to the witnesses for coming. we appreciate it very much.

some of you have coming along way and we know you other things to do, and this has been a big help to us. i think my colleagues, and the committee stands adjourned -- >> my attorney general at home has convened a group of folks victimsestic violence organizations, and rhode island has a rich hire at community that is all participating in a very good way, and i want to commend attorney general kilmartin and higher ed community in rhode island for the traffic work they are doing to help inform what i'm doing here. they for the courtesy. senator alexander: thank you. the committee is adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

announcer: before the august

recess, that senate pension committee took up the issue of campus sexual assault to look over a bill. heroes event, we have shown you the hearing. now we want the here from you about the issue of campus sexual assaults and what congress can do. as college courses begin, here is how to join the conversation. announcer: you can also post and wemment on facebook, will try to show those comments as well. that bill under consideration, one of the sponsors is claire mccaskill of missouri. her bill -- and this is a press

release -- would do specific things on the issue. it would establish new campus resources and support services for students. it would ensure minimum training standards for on-campus personnel. it would include transparency permits, and also increased accountability and coordination with police. it would also step up enforcement and penalties under title ix. some of what the campus accountability and safety actually do. let's get your thoughts. congress, what can they do about campus sexual assaults? al in new york. welcome. i believe that ms. theskill, she has one of points right. it should be turned over to the police department. he had been playing around with

these assaults for years on campuses, and they should follow the state laws and whatever they are and turn it over to the keep police, and let's not making it nice and easy for these students who want to be back. you mean before there is an investigation, that the local police or state police should be involved? caller: right away. just as it happened in the street, it should be the same thing in college, and what congress can do is cut off whichg to those colleges, is in the millions of dollars for a lot of stuff that goes on, that we fund. just like we have direct these little guys up and make nice with them. that way.not be they committed a crime on the street, they would be arrested and put in jail, and if you are a college student, you may be even smarter, but maybe you are not, maybe you do not have control over your brain. college you are a

student, we would love to hear from you. indianapolis is next, bruce. go ahead. assaulted infe was the early 1970's, and i have not common sense of improvements since. it is just that women are itting assaulted so often, often affects the rest of their life. i know it certainly affected my wife's life. case, wasour wife's that handled by a campus disciplinary board or local police? caller: it was covered up by the campus. host: did you have any legal recourse? caller: i do not need y y for

another three years after that -- i did not meet my wife for another three years after that, and now she is so scared of anything that i can hardly touch her. and this is almost 42 years later. host: it still affects her very much? caller: yes. host: we appreciate you sharing your story this afternoon. i want to share some support that senator mccaskill's bill is getting. "the wall street journal" group is supporting this. a supporter of the house bill, but the writing about the national prosecutors group, hacking a book was all that would say universities need to consult police for adjudicating

and punishing potential criminal offenses. the national district attorneys association says it supports the safe campus act. this is the house version. this would require investigation of assault claims before schools begin proceedings. the reporting requirement would be a seachange from the current practice as schools commonly handle allegations of assault independently. no word from the house or senate when either of those pieces of legislation may make that floor. with a limited schedule coming up in september, housing returning on september 8. jose.go to massachusetts, you are on the air. crazy thatt is just all these girls are getting raped and nothing is being done about it because the colleges act like their own little mini

principality, and they just clean everything out. if they caught that other guy in congress for murder, what is his name? skakel? got him for murder, they should be able to catch somebody for rate. i do not want my girls to be scared of a dude in a ski mask. host: you have daughters in college right now? caller: not right now, but when i said that the college i want that to be already dealt with so they can be heard and listen to and it can be taken up seriously instead of having somebody kid with it. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was impressed with the speakers. i think one of the areas that is a very big difficulty is that the fraternities and sororities

have a good did of responsibility in this, especially the fraternities. i have a granddaughter who is going to be starting college next year, but i have had daughters who have been in college. issue that especially the -- someone had brought up a couple times about the use of authority, butus law enforcement, they absolutely have to be involved, but need to be educated on how to do this rather than putting the girls down as because of their clothing or whatever. pee other is that the rat rape weather for a college or assault, have been sitting in some building for a long time, and they are not always used right away when they would be more recently available to get

information. impressed with the number of people that are on this. i think it is going to take a turn for the best. thanks for having us. host: you mentioned having a granddaughter going to college next year. have you heard her raise the issue or concern about or her parents about the issue of campus sexual assault? caller: we're not talked about it, and she and her brother both were like from beginning of school, elementary school, right on through, advanced students. i was impressed when she went to her prom this past year, her of herprom, with four friends who dressed up and with themselves. i have not talked to her about how she managed this thing, but they wanted to get away from the whole issue somebody comes in a car and have that flowers and this whole thing to go out and

play this little game. she is a pretty sharp kid, and i wish i had written it down, but there's a little book in my my bookstore here county for getting ready for going away to college. one section in this has a whole chapter on if you are not a drinker already, the aware that this is -- be aware that this is something that can be an issue, and it really describes a lot of things that a young woman who is getting ready to go on to college. the boys, a lot of them feel they have to keep up a certain why i think the fraternity issue is really strong. host: we appreciate showing the perspective of a grandmother. i want to let you know that the bill under consideration sponsored by four senators, hell

photo,evada tweets a saying proud to work alongside for ther senators campus accountability and safety act. we will show you another hearing a thatat committee, happened late in july as well. this one looking at the higher education act, the renewal, and graduation rates, tamara 3:00 eastern, and we will follow that with your phone calls as well at about 4:30 eastern. row from new jersey, we here from a student. caller: i go to rutgers. it is appalling to hear this mycussion takes into account student or my daughter but takes away the first person of these actual victims.

they are talking about the law enforcement action when with this issue has to be a personal issue, personal health of these people affected. one of the good points with this video we are talking about was that it is the responsibility first person as far as getting an education and schools reevaluating that, but coordinate teaching males at an earlier age, high school, middle age, how to conduct themselves in a not for criminal activity, or for personal health. it is not healthy for not only your victims, but also people that are afflicting. it is more of a health concern that a criminal concern. host: do you think records gets gers gets itt right? caller: they have done a good job of educating people. it has taken a lot of the headlines as far as our school

to get it across. in reaction, it is helping, but maybe preemptively, no, and that is true for other universities, not just my. host: this is another student in michigan. what school do you go to? caller: western michigan university. studied gender studies in college, my second major, and one reason a lot of women do not report being sexually assaults, they feel like it is therefore, people need to stop asking what people were wearing, how much they had to drink, if they are going to be assaulted because the possibility of falsely accusing somebody is so low everybody thinks maybe she's faking. is not necessarily fair. i have heard a lot of people at my school who do not cannot with it because they think

everybody's going to blame them, they drank too much, they wore something too revealing. thatis not fair, in somebody is at fault for hurting another person. host: in terms of what western michigan is doing in terms of preparing men and women for the issue, how do you think they rate? think they do as best as they can, on par with other universities. i think our whole country as a whole needs to do a lot of work when it comes to sexual assault and rape. about 2% of the assaulters are convicted. job, but decent enough not good enough for my personal taste. host: i appreciate you joining our conversation. thank you for all your calls.

from facebook, this one from michael, which article and section of the constitution makes this a federal concern? warren says that parents could make a difference. says i do not understand why all these cases wind up in congress to ask questions. you do realize that every single item -- time they start a little hearing and do nothing we get charged way too high a price for them to talk. we will have more tomorrow from willenate committee who hear from educators and others beginning at 3:00 eastern. we will look into the issue of federal policies and how they can improve higher education asduation rates, and this the senate committee considers the reauthorization of the higher education act, which expired in 2013. that on c-span at 3:00 p.m. eastern, following with your

phone calls at 4:30. today, the c-span cities tour. we're into peter, kansas, today, to pick that we are in kansas, today, and that begins at 6:00. also tonight, the manhattan ale oil on sheil production at 8:00. next, we will hear from a number of college and high school skins talking about their experiences, although the democratic process, and the incentive for voting in the upcoming 2016 election. this is a discussion hosted by the birmingham civil rights institute. >> good evening, everyone.

the the coordinator with birmingham civil rights institute, and on behalf of our ceo, staff, and board of directors, we would like to cordially welcome you all to our , our voting rights series, and tonight we will discuss why you folks tha matter. one of my responsibilities is to talk to students about the history that we display here at the birmingham civil rights institute, and i can think of no other more important component of our history and that in the from theoting, beginning of this country, when voting was always the discussion, whether slaves could read, women, and then with the signing of the 1965 voting rights act. voting is a pivotal part of this

country's action and mobility. tonight we will discuss a key component of that, command is used involvement in voting. the news you all watch daisy, the tragedies experience yesterday in south carolina. our hearts go out to the families and the church as well as the community in charleston, south carolina, but it is a stark reminder of how important it is to purchase a paid in our government -- to participate in our government, and there's no more important way to participate and in voting. tonight we will turn the program over to someone who is not only a member of our family here at the birmingham civil rights, but somebody who has grown to be a friend of mine. she will be the moderator for our discussion tonight.

nounsa graduate of college. one -- mounds college. one thing he is more concerned about is being a graduate of which he is an educator. it is this country's oldest and at one point the largest negro high school in the world. he served here as education assistant as well as handling our outreach program, which i do now. he did not want me to read this bio. youold it before i go up, know me, so just talk about me. is the best way to describe him as an encyclopedia of history here in birmingham, so i can think of no other person to lead this discussion. he is the program coordinator of our legacy youth program, a

program in which we are proud of. in which weram train students how to represent our institution, not only inside the store; outside these doors. i would like to turn the program mcnealy.r. [applause] >> thank you, sam. asked sam not to read off my bio, because you have a long one when you get old. this evening i want to dovetail on something sand just said in terms of what took place last with in our nation and that in mind i would like to have a moment of silence.

mcnealy: thank you. this evening we are talking about voting rights, and in terms of talking about voting rights, i thought it was fitting if we took a step back before we took a step ahead and look at how we got to where we are today in this democracy. when we started this country, after the revolutionary war, voting was a privilege. a strong vein of the

story we tell as the history of the united states is an idea of the expansion of the vote. 1/4efer to the -- less than of its citizens could legally vote. there were barriers, in terms of religion, in terms of wealth, withers associated property ownership. try toove forward, we get rid of some of these barriers and increased this idea of voting, and you have to ask yourself, if we are a democracy, why in the world is there a terrier to voting -- a barrier to voting? aristotleo go back to andto the romans, greeks, when we look at their

understanding of governments, aristotle taught us there were three forms of government. one, was government by there was government by a few, and then there was government by many. the problem with this is it is was front -- the idea of many was frowned upon. purer form and a corrupt form. the single form in its pure nature would have been a monarchy. the divinee person, right of kings. the corrupted form of the single government would have been something that we still deal with today -- tyrants, dictators. under aristotle, you have what

we call the aristocracy, and this is government by those people who are considered to be the best among us, the leading citizens. of democracye idea many was frowned upon. manypeople felt that the would subjugate the few. and let's be honest about it. it was all about power, thation, and the few felt the many would use their political power to take away the things that they had. and so you have barriers to voting, barriers that do not vote in thisto

country until 1924, you have barriers that do not allow women to vote until the passing of the 19th amendm you have barriers that do not allowent, african-americans to vote, you have barriers that allow many people not to vote because of this idea of power. and we talk about power, we talk about frederick douglass who said power concedes nothing absent of a struggle. it never has. and it never will. and so many struggles have brought us to where we are tonight. about their to talk perception of voting and where we are going to take this in the future, we have four outstanding young people here. , we have -- wee

gerald, a rising senior at the university of alabama at birmingham. jared is involved in different organizations. uabd is a member of the leadership and serves in his council. ntor in thea male excellent network. last week he is also a member of sigma how fun lambda national leadership and honors organization. the first time he voted was in

2012, a primary election. jared we have micah, currently a senior at hoover high school in birmingham, alabama. ♪ [indiscernible] mr. mcnealy: micah is a member of the finance academy and eight 2016 candidate for international baccalaureate diploma. she has served her high school as an ambassador as well as a and a docent at

the birmingham civil right institute. although she has done that, she has also been selected by from a public television pool of applicants to serve as a journalist for project c, lessons from the civil rights movement, and electronic field trip series. as a journalist, she has an opportunity to interview senator hank sanders and representative john lewis, among others. she is the winner of the 2015 mcdonald celebration for creativity in the community art contest. 2015s a delicate for the cultural justice leadership

and is an art intern for the chance project and also 2016 aidsthe 2015 -- in alabama youth council. in 2060.st-time voter sitting next to her is jordan. jordan, 23 years old, a civil rights enthusiast and graduate of the legacy you leadership program, class of 2009. jordan returns to the institute to support the legacy program and provide government and performance skills for offense. first voting experience was on the local level in 2010. last, but certainly not the a 16-year-old

rising high school senior, a jumper, guitarist, and a music producer from birmingham. he is also a participant in the legacy use leadership your civil rights institute. of stark.cofounder state medalist for the birmingham polk school -- homeschool. and a participant in the after freedom event here at the birmingham civil rights institute on june 27. he will be eligito