Hawaii-2014-SCR7-Introduced

WHEREAS, Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in the administration of any education program receiving federal financial assistance and bans sexual harassment, discrimination against pregnant and parenting students, and the use of stereotypes and other barriers to limit a person’s access to a particular educational field; and

WHEREAS, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is aimed at ending violence against women and girls and remedying laws and social practices that, in the past, have fostered and justified violence against women and girls; and

WHEREAS, Title IX protects all people regardless of their gender or gender identity from sexual harassment and violence, which are forms of discrimination; and

WHEREAS, since its inception over 40 years ago, Title IX has been instrumental in increasing educational opportunities for women and girls and fostering equality between men and women; and

WHEREAS, Title IX has made progress in fostering equality between women and men in both educational and workplace settings; and

WHEREAS, Title IX has been renamed the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in recognition of the late United States Representative Patsy Mink’s tireless efforts to develop and pass Title IX; and

WHEREAS, sexual violence is prevalent on college campuses with statistics showing that one in five college women will be raped before graduation; survivors of these sexual assaults are often full-time students; and approximately one-third of these sexual assaults are perpetrated on women who are first year students between the ages of 17 and 19; and

WHEREAS, in the last five years, there has been increasing media attention surrounding allegations of sexual misconduct on college campuses focusing on universities’ perceived "deliberate indifference" and lack of institutional response to a growing number of incidents and allegations of sexual violence and sexual harassment; and

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, the administrative office enforcing Title IX, published a document providing guidance concerning sexual harassment in 2001 ("Revised Sexual Harassment Guidance: Harassment of Students by School Employees, Other Students, or Third Parties") and more recently provided guidance concerning sexual harassment in an April 4, 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter focused on sexual violence; and

WHEREAS, as a result of growing concern by students and parents across the country and recent guidance from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, many universities have made organizational and policy changes to better address student allegations and safety; and

WHEREAS, college campuses should not tolerate sexual violence or any form of sex discrimination, but instead seek to foster a culture that rejects sexual violence and educates community members about how best to prevent and respond to a sexual assault; and

WHEREAS, the provisions of VAWA have been carefully crafted with the input and assistance of more than 2,000 advocates and experts from around the country; and

WHEREAS, VAWA ensures that survivors of sexual assault have access to necessary services; improves institutional responses to violence; provides access to services for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender survivors who frequently are excluded from services; and ensures that survivors of sexual assault in Native American communities and in the United States Territories have access to justice; and

WHEREAS, violence against women is a continuing problem that must be addressed; and

WHEREAS, stereotypes, discrimination, and barriers still exist for women and girls in the fields of science, mathematics, technology, and engineering; and

WHEREAS, educators and students are often not aware of Title IX protections against sex discrimination and sexual harassment; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i, Regular Session of 2014, the House of Representatives concurring, that the University of Hawai‘i is requested to:

(1) Affirm the University’s commitment to following the tenets of Title IX and VAWA and to preventing all forms of violence against women and girls;

(2) Ensure that the University is committed to increasing resources and strengthening the institutional infrastructure of all its campuses to more effectively address and prevent sexual violence and other forms of gender violence and discrimination;

(3) Meet the mandates of Title IX by:

(A) Publishing and widely disseminating notice of nondiscrimination on the basis of sex;

(B) Designating an employee to coordinate Title IX compliance;

(D) Implementing education and victim resource programs;

(E) Providing training to the campus community on how to identify and report harassment; and

(F) Providing training to appropriate employees about how to investigate allegations of sexual discrimination, including harassment and violence;

(4) Formulate plans to address and prevent gender discrimination and gender violence given the unique aspects of each campus and strengthen the institutional response of the University of Hawai‘i campuses to ensure compliance with Title IX and VAWA, particularly at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and disseminate information regarding the steps, if any, that have been taken to revise relevant University of Hawai‘i policies and procedures to comply with Title IX and VAWA, and to develop best practices to respond to victims of sexual violence; and

(5) Conduct a study on the prevalence of sexual violence on all campuses of the University of Hawai‘i system and disseminate copies of this study to appropriate parties; and

(6) Identify critical stakeholders and offices to handle complaints of sex-based violence, harassment, and discrimination and develop streamlined policies and procedures to ensure that complainants are able to find information, make formal complaints, and access University resources with ease and to ensure that the University is able to respond to complaints in a timely and effective manner; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the University of Hawai‘i is requested to submit a report of its guidelines and the status of their Title IX and VAWA policies, procedures, staffing and statistics, including any proposed legislation to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2015; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents and the Office of the President of the University of Hawai‘i.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

REQUESTING THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII’S COMMITMENT TO UPHOLDING THE TENETS OF TITLE IX AND THE 2013 VAWA.

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	7
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII