Resources for Covering Sexual Assault on Campus

Amid explosive news about campus sexual assault accusations at Cornell University and Louisiana State University – covered extensively and even led by student journalists at college newspapers – the country is once again reckoning with the prevalence and investigatory handling of sexual violence on campus, with students pushing for change. This fierce spotlight aside, there are tragically perennial underlying issues for higher education around student safety, permissive campus culture, and questionable policies and practices by administrators.

Education journalists need to be ready to navigate complex legal issues and know how to find records and data to inform reporting amid ongoing public criticism of and investigations at colleges. Below are resources to help reporters on campus and off understand related federal laws and mandates. This reporting resource also includes a freedom of information expert’s top tools on utilizing records requests to access institutional data.   

Laws to Know and Legal Resources

• The Clery Act is a federal law requiring public and private colleges and universities that participate in federal student aid funding to publicly report campus crimes and statistics. 

The Student Press Law Center’s materials on How to Use the Clery Act to Cover Campus Crime are aimed at supporting college journalists but are useful across the professional spectrum. 

The Campus SaVE Act (Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act) amended the Clery Act to strengthen responses to and prevention of sexual violence in higher education.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Campus Security page includes information on the Clery Act, campus crime statistics, and resources postsecondary institutions may use to inform their campus sexual assault training and prevention efforts.

• Title IX is the federal law prohibiting discrimination in public education (elementary through higher ed) based on gender. Since its passage in 1972, Title IX is also supposed to protect students from campus-based harassment and abuse, and investigations into such allegations can run parallel to a criminal investigation. This fall, the U.S. Department of Education reversed provisions implemented by the Biden administration, stripping Title IX protections from LGBTQ+ students. Legal experts have warned that the reversal could weaken protections against sexual harassment. 

• State laws: It’s important to remember that state laws also factor into allegations and cases of sexual assault on campus, and they can have a direct impact on when, how, and if alleged perpetrators are charged with a crime. In New York, among other states, “voluntary intoxication laws” can mitigate charges. (The 19th explains these state laws and their impact on sexual assault prosecutions.)

Public Records, FOIA and Data 

While federal and state laws require colleges and universities to collect and disseminate some records related to campus crime – including sexual assault – getting access to extensive records can be difficult. 

In recent years, journalism students at Western Washington University successfully sued for access to campus sexual assault records. After winning in court, the university was forced to pay $111,780 in penalties. (The students donated $42,000 of the funds to the school’s journalism program to support investigative reporting.) 

There are plenty of avenues to explore and exhaust before turning to the courts. 

David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida, encouraged education reporters to keep these resources at hand: 

• The Student Press Law Center is the go-to organization on access to university records, with legal experts to help student journalists. Resources include tip sheets for getting records, a request letter template, awards students can apply for (previous winners have included reporting on sexual assaults), a primer on FOI law and more.
• Find relevant records among 185,000 requests submitted through the nonprofit MuckRock since 2010; many of them pertain to universities and sexual assault records. See what was requested, and see the records provided. Similarly, get ideas from MuckRock’s FOIA Log Explorer – digitized FOIA logs that are keyword searchable. The U.S. Department of Justice has provided something similar – its FOIA Wizard.
• The dean of students at public universities collects data about violations in residence halls, Greek houses and other parts of campus. You can request the past five to 10 years of that data (with names redacted) to identify trends and trouble spots.