State Leads Resistance to Sexual Assault with New SUNY Policy

GENESEO — The State University of New York put into place a new policy on how to handle and prevent sexual assault on college and university campuses.

According to the State University of New York website and our news partner 13WHAM, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a resolution and the SUNY Board of Trustees passed it. All of which were revised many times over by the SUNY community, outside advocacy groups, Working Group coordinators, and many other experts.

“Today, SUNY is taking a critical step toward combating the epidemic of sexual violence and misconduct on our college campuses,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo. “By implementing a uniform sexual assault prevention policy, we are better protecting our students and our communities and setting an example for other states and schools to follow.”

Under the new policy, SUNY must adopt several uniform protocols and procedures for all of its colleges and universities. This includes a system-wide Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights, a uniform definition of consent, a uniform sexual assault student reporting amnesty policy, a uniform best practice guide for freshman, a uniform confidentiality and reporting protocol, and a uniform campus climate assessment to gauge the prevalence of sexual assaults on each campus.

According to news partner, 13WHAM, in addition to announcing the new policy, state officials also launched a new website which provides information on the prevention of sexual assault and the ways in which to respond to the situation. The site also provides access data, which is reported to the United States Department of Education, on all sexual assault and violent crimes reported on all college campuses in the State of New York.

The website provides resources for students to learn how they can protect themselves and seek help when necessary, and access data regarding all sexual assault and violent crimes reported on all college campuses that operate in the New York State. The data is also reported to the United States Department of Education.

PHOTO CAPTION: SUNY Geneseo campus. File photo.