University leaders and campus representatives from all of Iowa’s public universities gathered at Iowa State last week to discuss campus safety policies and services at the first-ever Board of Regents Safety and Security Subcommittee meeting.

While the conversation was open to all subjects related to campus security and the services the universities offered, much of the meeting focused on sexual misconduct. More specifically, administrators and public safety officials spoke of being pulled in two different directions — helping the survivor or adhering to state and federal laws.

It is deeply concerning that administrators and safety officials at our universities feel as though they cannot fully dedicate themselves to helping survivors of sexual misconduct because their hands are bound by red tape. Why are the governments that are meant to serve us just making it more difficult for those students in need to get help from administrators?

These officials specifically struggle with abiding by both the Clery Act and Title IX, and they say the laws can at times feel contradictory or at least do not work to benefit students. The Clery Act requires public colleges and universities to report crime statistics for its campus each year. Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in colleges and universities that receive federal funding.

While these both sound like positives meant to help survivors of sexual misconduct, Title IX requires universities to immediately take steps to end harassment and prevent it from happening again. Georgina Dodge, chief diversity officer and Title IX coordinator for the University of Iowa, said in the meeting that this may require schools to investigate a sexual misconduct incident without the consent of a survivor.

Title IX also requires universities to inform a student if they are the subject of a sexual assault or sexual harassment investigation, called a complainant. This can often lead to retaliation by the complainant and pose a risk to survivors who decide to report the incident.

In addition to the mixed messages sent by these two laws, officials also voiced concerns that the reporting process for sexual misconduct survivors is complicated, and university students may not understand it.

We often talk about the culture on college campuses that allows for sexual assaults and harassment in relation to irresponsible drinking or partying. Whether we intend it to or not, this kind of conversation can often lead to victim blaming.

So let’s flip the conversation. Let’s start talking about what can be done to improve the lives of sexual assault and harassment survivors or how to make the reporting process easier just like these officials were doing at the subcommittee meeting.

The editorial board is making a committment to discuss the problems and solutions that surround sexual misconduct on college campuses and to keep the subject at the forefront of our coverage. We hope this will be an ongoing conversation throughout the year, not only among the ISD Editorial Board but among the students as well.

The editorial board wants the public discourse on this important issue to go beyond the opinion page of the Iowa State Daily. If you have ideas, comments or questions, write us, email us, tweet at us or write on our Facebook page. Let’s talk about it.