WASHINGTON – Convening stakeholders from across the country, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill  has held the first of three roundtable discussions focusing on The Clery Act, Campus SaVE Act, and new policies to combat rape and sexual assaults on college and university campuses.

“I’m a former prosecutor with years of prosecuting sex crimes in Missouri, and that obviously informs my approach to this problem,” McCaskill said. “I want to know that survivors are getting the services they need and that the perpetrators of sexual violence are held criminally accountable. But I know that’s not all that’s required. And I want to make sure that whatever steps we take going forward are the right ones.”

Topics covered in today’s roundtable included data on college sex crimes that is publicly available, whether that data is sufficient and accurate, accountability and enforcement of current federal laws, possible administrative changes, prevention training, as well as various definitions of “consent.” Ideas floated at the discussion included providing schools a model policy-possibly in conjunction with publishing a “best practices” based on Department of Education audits. Responding to the resources available at the Department for audits, McCaskill responded: “I’m a former auditor and 13 auditors doesn’t sound like enough.”

On a separate topic, McCaskill expressed surprise at the number of states where the definition of consent was strictly “force or threat of force,” calling such definitions “incomplete.”

And stakeholders found near-unanimous agreement that the financial penalties against schools failing to meet obligations under current federal law are ineffective. McCaskill said fines set at $35,000 don’t “make much sense,” especially when leveled against multi-billion dollar institutions. Executive Director of the organization SurvJustice Laura Dunn-herself a survivor of sexual assault-called such penalties “arbitrary,” and also added that the current requirement that there be voluntary agreements before fines are levied undermines accountability.

Concerns were raised by Holly Rider-Milkovich, Director of The Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center at the University of Michigan, about new federal penalties serving as “more sticks with no new carrots… [without] complementing those penalties with innovative solutions,” and detailed such innovative approaches currently underway in Michigan. McCaskill agreed, and challenged colleges and universities, saying: “One of the things that’s disappointing about this-we depend on college campuses for innovation in so many areas… you have a law school, you have a medical school, you’re training psychiatrists and psychologists and social workers… and you have endowments, you have alumni… if this problem is causing such stress to universities-and I think it is… what I don’t understand is why we’re not getting more innovation from college campuses…”

Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, a cosponsor of the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act, participated in the discussion: “Senator McCaskill, you and your colleagues on the Armed Services Committee have done such an incredible job of elevating the issue of sexual violence we see in our military… one issue where I see overlap here is ROTCs on campuses across America.”

The roundtable ended with a discussion focused on whether reporting to law enforcement should be required, with opinions and ideas on all sides of the question. McCaskill noted the importance of that question as a matter of public safety, saying, “very few [predators] do this once.”

Participants at today’s roundtable discussion included:

• Laura Dunn – Executive Director of SurvJustice
• Caroline Fultz-Carver – Associate Compliance Officer at the University of South Florida
• Eric Heath – Chief of Police at the George Mason University Police Department
• Alison Kiss – Executive Director at The Clery Center for Security on Campus
• Lynn Mahaffie – Director of Policy, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education
• Holly Rider-Milkovich – Director of The Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center at the University of Michigan
• Tracey Vitchers – Communications Coordinator at Students Active for Ending Rape

The next two roundtable discussions will also be open to the press and will focus on Title IX (Monday, June 2, 2:30-4:30 pm) and the Administrative Process and the Criminal Justice System (TBD). McCaskill is surveying colleges and universities to learn exactly how schools handle rapes and sexual assaults on campuses-specifically focusing on how such crimes are reported and investigated and how students are notified about available services. The survey will gauge the effectiveness of federal oversight and enforcement under Title IX federal civil rights law and the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, commonly known as the Clery Act. Click HERE to view a sample survey.