State and federal sexual misconduct laws are confusing for universities, too, said administrators at the first ever Board of Regents Campus Safety and Security Subcommittee meeting Monday.

The subcommittee met at the Iowa State Alumni Center Monday with representatives from the University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa, Iowa State and Iowa School for the Deaf. While attendees spoke about differing policies and safety services each university offered, much of the conversation centered on sexual misconduct.

Georgina Dodge, the University of Iowa’s chief diversity officer, said she had heard discussion on possibly conflicting policies between Title IX and the Clery Act. Title IX is the legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education institutions receiving federal financial support. The Clery Act is the act which requires public colleges and universities to disclose their crime statistics and safety policies each year in a safety report.

Dodge summarized Title IX into three requirements:

• Prompt and effective action by the university to stop harassment
• Remedy the effects
• Prevent recurrence of harassment

Dodge said the policies do not conflict each other, the requirements may contradict what is best for students. Dodge said though the Title IX policy is requiring universities to empower sexual assault or harassment survivors, the university may also have to investigate an incident without the consent of a survivor.

“It’s relying on us to move quickly to ensure survivors have a voice in what happens and whether or not their case proceeds through what we deem to be appropriate channels. The OCR also indicated in cases where there’s a threat of further harm, the institution has to proceed with an investigation even if a victim does not wish that to happen,” Dodge said.

The Clery Act also requires campus security authorities to report all sexual assaults that occur within “Clery geography,” university-owned property whether on campus or off-campus, even if it is across the state.

Dodge said these policies make it hard to empower students because they also are required to meet federal policies, in addition to state policies.

“You want people to come forward and the way you get them to come forward is to make sure their situation is going to be held in confidence,” Dodge said. “There are those who say we must have laws because that’s the only way we’re going to report this so everyone must be a mandatory reporter.”

Faculty and staff at all three universities are mandatory reporters of sexual assault or misconduct.

Universities are also required to share with the complainant, or person who has a report filed against them, that they are involved in an investigation. This requirement means survivors who report can risk retaliation by a complainant.

Rebecca Stout, legal services director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, attended the meeting and said fear of retaliation is the most common issue with which students are concerned. Stout said in all of the students’ cases she has helped with, each student has experienced retaliation whether it be threats from complainants or complainants’ friends, to being followed and harassed by a complainant.

Stout said students do not understand the process, making it daunting to endure.

“Most of them [students] get caught up in ‘how many different departments do I have to talk to? Who do I make my report to? Who is going to contact me next?’ Stout said. “Sometimes they’ll get different information from different departments, and it very much can feel like that’s slowing down the process because they feel like there isn’t a central point of contact.”

Jerry Stewart, director of public safety at Iowa State, said the ISU Police Department has also had to sift through policies to find the middle ground between helping students and following federal and state laws. Stewart said he could remember a time when the Department of Education did not know how to guide universities through the gray area.

Stewart said the legislation is continuously changing, leading universities to have to change policy continuously. The change to geographical locations where campus safety officials must report crime statistics changes makes it difficult for them to obtain information, especially if the location is across the state or nation, Stewart said.

Stout said students are confused, but said she does believe universities face a difficult task.

“It’s a very difficult process for the schools. They really are in a tight bind because they have to be in compliance with the federal laws but there are also state laws they have to be in compliance with as well. Of course they want to do right, but they also have to do right by the responding students,” Stout said.

The key, she said, is involving survivors who went through the process in the conversation on policy change to see what did or did not work.