Revisit the entire series!

What You Need to Know

Analysis: Today we kicked off the final two days of the negotiated rulemaking for the VAWA Amendments to the Clery Act, also called Campus SaVE, and are watching closely to see what rules colleges and universities will have to follow to implement the law. Overall, the tone was cordial and consensus seemed (possibly) attainable. But that doesn’t mean the day wasn’t without fireworks over draft language on reporting, compliance, and definitions.

The good:

• Most negotiators seemed to want to find compromise. No one played the “I can’t agree to consensus with this in there” card… yet.
• The group has found agreement around a definition of stalking that I think works for everyone. In the first sessions the negotiators talked about stalking a lot, so the agreement indicates good work by the committee. But we haven’t gotten to the section about counting stalking reports – which might raise some issues.
• Although negotiators failed to avoid the same conversation from the February session around dating violence – again highlighting that most negotiators do not agree on what is a dating relationship – there was actually loose agreement around a definition of the term this time.

The bad:

• There is a clear divide on some topics between a compliance-focused approach and a transparency-focused approach (doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive). Case in point: schools will be disclosing information about the sanctions they levy and the protective measures they use following disciplinary proceedings around dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Under the draft language, schools should list all sanctions and protective measures they use. Negotiators representing schools worried whether schools would be firmly held to that list and even, somewhat unbelievably, worried whether they would be punished for adding a sanction or protection not on the original list. The moment of levity on this came from the Department of Education, which pointed out that going above and beyond is not a problem. The Department said the goals here are to help students know what options they have and to find the schools who are bad actors. The compliance focus really has the group struggling to see the forest for the trees.

Still waiting on:

• Tomorrow negotiators will finish conversation around the term “advisor of their choice” and that the accuser and accused can bring one to proceedings. In addition, they’ll need to finish disciplinary proceedings, get to counting crimes, and approve all of the language changes proposed today. Ultimately, negotiators will be asked if they have achieved consensus on the draft language. You can learn more about what that means and where we go next, here: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html. As always, follow along with our live blog tomorrow.

Read the live blog below.