The U.S. Department of Education ruled in July against a Georgetown University policy that restricted sexual assault victims' access to information about their attackers.
Georgetown required sexual assault victims to sign a confidentiality agreement in order to learn the outcome of the disciplinary process against their attackers. The agreement restricted the victim's ability to disclose any information about the incident, including the name of the accused, and restricted information about judicial proceedings and their outcome.
But in a July ruling, the Department of Education ruled that this policy violated the federal Jeanne Clery Act, which requires colleges to disclose information about campus crime policies and statistics. The Clery Act, passed in 1990, is named after a Lehigh University student who was murdered in her residence hall room in 1986.
The ruling was filed by the nonprofit Security on Campus Inc. on behalf of Georgetown student Kate Dieringer, who was assaulted in September 2001 at the start of her freshman year, according to Women's eNews. Dieringer was unavailable for comment.
Georgetown defended the disclosure agreements, citing the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. This law says student disciplinary records are considered "educational records" and cannot be disclosed without the student's consent.
However, David Bergeron, of the Education Department's Office of Secondary Education, said the Clery Act's specific structures overrule the more general FERPA requirements.
Under the Clery Act, schools are required to make timely reports - within approximately one day after the incident was reported - to the campus community regarding crimes that are considered to be a threat to the students and employees of the school, according to the Student Press Law Center. Some crimes on the list include robbery, arson and sex offenses. If a university ignores this requirement, it could be fined $25,000 per violation.
Georgetown has changed its policy regarding the agreements and will "look for continued guidance from the Department of Education to balance the considerations of the FERPA and the Clery Act," Georgetown spokeswoman Laura Cavender said last week.
Georgetown's old policy is similar to AU's current procedures.
If an AU student assaults another AU student, the victim can file charges through Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services, independent of charges filed through the public court system.
JAMS Director Katsura Kurita Beltz said the respondent, or the student against whom charges are filed, would most likely face adjudication in a hearing with a conduct council. The council would include students, faculty and staff who can administer the full range of disciplinary actions.
Like other schools, AU requires a confidentiality agreement that prevents victims from revealing any information associated with the incident or the ensuing judiciary proceedings, Beltz said. While the agreement is verbal rather than written, she said it is binding.
"AU's policy is different from Georgetown University's confidentiality policy since we do not require the individuals to sign confidentiality statements," Beltz said in an e-mail.
A student who violated this agreement would be subject to disciplinary action determined on a case-by-case basis, depending mostly on how the information was disclosed and to whom, Beltz said. The policy is intended to protect the University from action on the part of the respondent, should his or her records be exposed.
Beltz also referred to the AU Student Handbook, which says the University can disclose the final results of hearings if a student has been found guilty of "crimes of violence or non-forcible sex offenses."
"In these cases, the University will disclose the name of the student, the violation committed, and any sanction imposed by the University when ... such disclosure is necessary to protect the safety and well-being of the campus community," the handbook reads. "Disclosure may include the name of any other student, such as a victim or witness, only with the written consent of the student."
Beltz said, "We will notify the accuser of the outcome of any campus disciplinary proceeding brought alleging a sexual assault. However, we do not require the accuser to sign a confidentiality statement."
Some say that protecting the privacy of the accused is as important as the victim's privacy.
Georgetown spokeswoman Julie Green Bataille told Women's eNews the campus disciplinary system is meant to play an educational role.
"It's not a criminal proceeding," she said.
However, Dieringer said the process should be different.
"What's educational is to disclose what happens," Dieringer told Women's eNews. "It might be a deterrent. You can't deter a crime in secret."
Daniel Carter, vice president of Security on Campus, Inc., said the issue was also one of personal recovery.
"Kate's primary concern had nothing to do with publicly identifying her assailant. It had to do with the process ... how she was treated, and the fact that she couldn't address that directly," Carter said. "[The decision] will ensure that sexual assault victims are able to talk to the people they need to in order to heal."
Carter's group suggests that the ruling is a significant step in treating victims more fairly by providing the opportunity for better public oversight of otherwise secret campus judicial systems, which might encourage more victims of sexual assault on college campuses to come forward without intimidation from their schools.
"It takes so much strength, support and courage for a victim just to come forward," Dieringer said in an essay. "To silence him/her after they entrust you with their most guarded possession - trust, which has already been broken - is to re-victimize the victim, abuse them and deter them from healing."
According to a 2000 study by the Justice Department, only about five percent of sexual assault cases involving college women are reported to police. With estimates of one in four women experiencing rape or attempted rape at some point in college, this is the lowest percentage of cases reported of any group of women studied, Carter said.
Eagle Staff Writer Rebecca Bellville contributed to this report.
