The White House released guidelines yesterday that will push universities to take a more aggressive approach to handling sexual assaults on college campuses.
The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault produced a 23-page report with procedures for colleges to better deal with sexual assault. These include administring anonymous surveys about sexual assault cases, ensuring that reports of sexual assaults stay confidential and adopting policies that have been successful at other schools, according to The New York Times.
The government will also create a website, NotAlone.gov, that will provide information for “anyone interested in finding resources on how to respond to and prevent sexual assault on college and university campuses and in our schools.”
“Colleges and universities need to face the facts about sexual assault,” says Vice President Joe Biden. “No more turning a blind eye or pretending it doesn’t exist. We need to give victims the support they need, like a confidential place to go, and we need to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
President Barack Obama created the task force in light of the many recent publicized rapes on college campuses. According to the report, as many as one in five female college students have been assaulted, but only 12 percent of attacks are reported.Â