On this episode, our guest is Michelle Carroll, Director of Campus Projects at the NYS Coalition Against Sexual Assault. In May 2017, Governor Cuomo signed into law New York’s groundbreaking “Enough Is Enough” Law, NY Education Law Title 129-B, and the guidance the law offers, which requires that all colleges and universities in New York adopt a set of comprehensive procedures and guidelines related to domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and sexual assault, to ensure the safety of all students attending colleges in the state.
Michelle speaks about her work implementing the law in college campuses across New York State, responses from advocates and its impact on students so far. In our conversation, Michelle also addresses about Title IX, implications on its enforcement given Department of Education’s interim guidelines under Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, and responses from parents of accused sexual assault assailants. Here is the “Dear Colleague Letter” that the Department of Education issued in September 2017, withdrew previous Obama-era issued guidance, effectively lowering the evidentiary standard for campus sexual assault investigations and rescinding the sixty day time limit to complete investigations. Our conversation also included reflecting upon rape and sexual assault in general, student protests of case mishandlings, #MeToo and the post by a woman who wrote about her date gone wrong with Aziz Ansari.
During our conversation, we referenced some information and resources I am sharing with you below, including:
- Myths and actual rates of false reporting in sexual violence cases and the original research paper from a 10-year study by David Lisak et al.
- CUNY’s Sexual Violence Campus Climate Survey, including rates at which intimate partner violence negatively impacts student persistence and success
- Finding your local NYS community rape crisis center, the NYS Office of Campus Safety, and the full audit result from the audit of 440 NYS universities (Note: You can search by school name to see if your school was compliant)
- The NYS Trooper Campus Sexual Assault Unit Hotline: (844) 845-7269
- For immediate help in NYS, call the NYS Hotline for Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence at: (800) 942-6906
- Outside of NYS, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is: (800) 656-4673
If you are experiencing an emergency, you should call 9-1-1, for immediate assistance.
Also, if you are a college student (or graduate student!) in New York State and are interested in sharing the work that you are doing on campus or in your community, please join the New York State Campus Consent Consortium’s Student ONLY working group! Or, if you are interested in learning more about the working being done by the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the New York State Campus Consent Consortium, please join their free listserv! If you want to get in touch with Michelle, you can find her on her blog, here.
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