With college women at a higher risk of sexual assault than their non-college-bound peers, New York state has implemented new legislation aimed at combatting the disparity.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recently passed sexual assault prevention legislation, “Enough is Enough,” aims to further protect more than a million college students in the state of New York from sexual assault with comprehensive and uniform procedures and guidelines, according to the official website of New York state.

The law provides a statewide definition of affirmative consent — “Yes Means Yes” —and defines consent as “a clear, unambiguous and voluntary agreement between the participants to engage in specific sexual activity.”

“For too long, the definition of assault centered around someone saying ‘no.’ That puts the expectation to prevent assault on the victim and lends itself to ‘blame the victim’ culture that has long existed,” said Cory Wallack, director of the Counseling Center, in an email. “Affirmative consent laws make it clearer and more obvious what is wanted and/or desired in any situation.”

Nineteen percent of women in college and 6 percent of men in college will be victims of attempted or completed sexual assault in the course of their undergraduate careers, according to a 2007 study funded by the National Institute of Justice.

“Enough is Enough” was signed into law in July, applying the sexual assault prevention and response policy previously adopted in December 2014 by the State University of New York to all colleges and universities — both public and private — in New York state. The policy consists of four major requirements that campuses must adopt as part of their sexual assault resources and policies.

Amnesty for drugs and alcohol is also required for campus sexual assault resource centers. According to the legislation, the statewide amnesty policy ensures that “students reporting incidents of sexual assault or other sexual violence are granted immunity for certain campus policy violations, such as drug and alcohol use.”

Another requirement of “Enough is Enough” is a Sexual Violence Victim/Survivor Bill of Rights, which must be distributed to all students in order to specifically inform sexual violence victims of their legal rights and how they may access appropriate resources. In the bills, students are given the right to know they can report sexual assaults to outside law enforcement, including the state police.

The fourth and final requirement outlined in the legislation is comprehensive training for administrators, staff and students, including at new student orientations.

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud was the first private college chancellor or president in New York to endorse Cuomo’s “Enough is Enough” legislation, said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, in an email.

“We are very pleased that it was passed by the Legislature and will become law,” Quinn said. “Although we believe that many of the university’s polices actually exceed the ‘Enough is Enough’ standards, we are very carefully reviewing the new law to ensure consistency with our polices.”

Katelyn Cowen, director of the Office of Health Promotion, also supported the “Enough is Enough” legislation, saying that it provides consistency to college campuses.

“Enough is Enough has changed expectations,” Cowen said. “The policies are now the same across campuses in New York so no matter what college or university (students) attend, they can expect the same thing.”

Sexual assault resources on the Syracuse University campus include the Counseling Center, the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, the Office of Student Assistance, the Department of Public Safety and the Office of Health Promotion. Students also have the option to seek assistance through off-campus resources, such as the Vera House or the Syracuse Police Department.

For many sexual assault and relationship violence resource centers on the SU campus, the legislation simply reinforced and added to the policies already in practice.

In addition, New York State now requires both public and private universities to note on official transcripts if a student was expelled for sexual assault. This is to inform other schools of why the student left SU, said Pam Peter, director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

New York and Virginia are the only two states that have laws requiring the disclosure of sexual assault expulsions on transcripts.

Over the past year, Peter said she believes there’s been an increased usage of sexual assault resources on campus.

She said students have not only become more aware of the resources on and off the SU campus, but there has also been more advertisement of resources, including stickers with sexual assault resource and advocacy information inside every bathroom stall on the SU campus.

SU is continuing to advance and implement further improvements in sexual violence prevention, education and advocacy services on campus. This effort, Quinn said, is being supported and advanced by the work of the chancellor’s standing Task Force on Sexual and Relationship Violence, which Syverud appointed in April.

Currently, New York and California are the only states with affirmative consent or “Yes Means Yes” laws. However, many SU officials are confident that other states will soon follow suit.

“My guess is that other states will follow and adopt the ‘Yes Means Yes’ legislation,” said Wallack, the director of the Counseling Center. “These other states may not include all of the elements of the New York or California law, but the requirement for affirmative consent will likely keep gaining pace.”

Published on August 30, 2015 at 11:10 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann