| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| ||||||
| 2 | WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice | ||||||
| 3 | Statistics found that, on average, 20.5 percent of college | ||||||
| 4 | women have experienced sexual assault since entering college; | ||||||
| 5 | and
| ||||||
| 6 | WHEREAS, Moreover, the National Sexual Violence Resource | ||||||
| 7 | Center estimates that more than 60 percent of sexual assaults | ||||||
| 8 | are never even reported to police; and
| ||||||
| 9 | WHEREAS, To address these issues, the U.S. Department of | ||||||
| 10 | Education's Office for Civil Rights under the Obama | ||||||
| 11 | administration issued guidelines that instructed universities | ||||||
| 12 | that they were obligated to combat sexual assault and | ||||||
| 13 | harassment under Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting sex | ||||||
| 14 | discrimination in federally-funded educational programs; and
| ||||||
| 15 | WHEREAS, The guidelines also established a requirement | ||||||
| 16 | that college disciplinary proceedings rely on a preponderance | ||||||
| 17 | of evidence when adjudicating cases of sexual assault; and
| ||||||
| 18 | WHEREAS, In 2017, the Trump administration rescinded these | ||||||
| 19 | guidelines and announced its intention to engage the federal | ||||||
| 20 | rulemaking process to establish new rules governing the | ||||||
| 21 | schools' responsibilities concerning sexual harassment and | ||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | assault complaints; and
| ||||||
| 2 | WHEREAS, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a | ||||||
| 3 | proposed rule in November 2018 that would narrow the scope of | ||||||
| 4 | allegations schools will be responsible for investigating and | ||||||
| 5 | would enable schools to choose a higher legal standard for | ||||||
| 6 | considering evidence; and
| ||||||
| 7 | WHEREAS, The Education Department received more than | ||||||
| 8 | 100,000 public comments on the proposed rulemaking, which the | ||||||
| 9 | Department is now reviewing in preparation for issuing a final | ||||||
| 10 | rule; and
| ||||||
| 11 | WHEREAS, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined a | ||||||
| 12 | coalition of 19 attorneys general in submitting a comment | ||||||
| 13 | letter urging federal officials to withdraw the proposed rule, | ||||||
| 14 | as it undermines the anti-discrimination protections of Title | ||||||
| 15 | IX and weakens protections against sexual harassment and | ||||||
| 16 | violence for students; and
| ||||||
| 17 | WHEREAS, After passing the Preventing Sexual Violence in | ||||||
| 18 | Higher Education Act in 2015, Illinois now has one of the | ||||||
| 19 | strongest state laws to protect student survivors of sexual | ||||||
| 20 | assault on campus; therefore, be it
| ||||||
| 21 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 2 | we urge Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Department of | ||||||
| 3 | Education to withdraw the proposed rule and instead pursue | ||||||
| 4 | policies that reflect the concerns raised by law enforcement, | ||||||
| 5 | create a safe environment for victims to report instances, | ||||||
| 6 | aggressively address the problem of campus sexual assault and | ||||||
| 7 | harassment, and broadly address all instances of sexual | ||||||
| 8 | harassment affecting college students; and be it further
| ||||||
| 9 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 10 | delivered to Secretary DeVos.
| ||||||