Attorney General Madigan Stands Up Against Sexual Assaults On Campuses
By Selena Fragassi in News on Mar 23, 2015 7:30PM
One in five female undergraduate college students is sexually assaulted over the course of their schooling—and that is a statistic that Attorney General Lisa Madigan wants to change. Madigan was a central figure at a summit held Monday at the University of Illinois at Chicago that put a spotlight on administrative policies to handle such crimes when they occur on college or university property.
The forum focused largely on the “Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act,” legislation, which was originally put forth by Illinois House Rep. Michelle Mussman and Senator Toi Hutchinson and is supported by Madigan. It would lawfully require Illinois-based schools to develop comprehensive plans for incidents of sexual assault including creating and enforcing formal structures for response and reporting, such as providing victims with advisors and notifying them of their rights. It would also enable campuses to better work with law enforcement to establish official measures like filing orders of protection.
Madigan’s speech at the day-long event was enriched with panel discussions offered by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights and personal testimony from those like Julia Dixon, a University of Akron in Ohio graduate who talked about her experience with rape while enrolled at the school.
The location of the event was interesting, considering a UIC student was recently the focus of sexual assault charges after attempting to re-enact scenes from “50 Shades of Grey.” The student in that case has been released from jail after a judge determined prosecutors had "failed to meet their burden of proof." However other Chicago schools, namely the University of Chicago, are among those under Title IX investigations by the U.S. Department of Education based on how they handled prior complaints at their campuses. It’s the result of a task force set up by the Obama administration last May to better tackle the issues.
Although sexual assaults on campus have become a heated national issue, this is not the first time Madigan (the first female Attorney General in the state) has advocated for women’s rights and safety. A whole section of her website lists the programs and services her administration has founded through local government during her tenure, including grant funding through the Violent Crime Victims Assistance Act to help victims recover; trainings and seminars for law enforcement and first responders to prevent crimes against women and prosecute their offenders; and a large directory of services for women in need. More information on sexual assault and domestic violence and official forms and resources are available at the Attorney General website.