BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 967
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
967 (Williams)
As Amended June 1, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Higher |13-0 |Medina, Baker, | |
|Education | |Bloom, Chávez, | |
| | |Harper, Irwin, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Jones-Sawyer, | |
| | |Levine, Linder, Low, | |
| | |Santiago, Weber, | |
| | |Williams | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |14-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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AB 967
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SUMMARY: Establishes minimum disciplinary standards and reporting
requirements for sexual assault complaints received by California
Community College districts (CCD), California State University
(CSU), the University of California (UC) and independent
postsecondary educational institutions. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires, in order to receive state funds for student financial
assistance, the governing board of a CCD, the Trustees of the
CSU, the Regents of the UC, and the governing board of each
independent postsecondary institution to adopt and carry out a
uniform process, applicable to each campus, for disciplinary
proceedings related to claims of sexual assault.
2)Requires the policies to conform to the following:
a) The institution shall not carry out a different
disciplinary process on the same campus for a matter of
sexual violence, or alter the uniform process based on the
status or characteristics of a student who will be involved
in that disciplinary proceeding, including characteristics
such as a student's membership on an athletic team, a
student's academic major, or any other characteristic or
status of a student.
b) The institution shall develop and implement a minimum
standard of discipline of at least two years suspension, up
to expulsion, for students found responsible for rape, forced
sodomy, forced oral copulation, or rape by a foreign object.
c) Requires minimum standards to provide for specific forms
of discipline, to include expulsion, suspension, loss of
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financial aid or scholarships, loss of activity privileges,
and removal from student housing.
3)Requires, in order to receive state funds for student financial
assistance, the governing board of a CCD, the Trustees of the
CSU, the Regents of the UC, and the governing board of each
independent postsecondary institution to report, by April 1,
2017, and each year thereafter, all of the following from the
prior calendar year:
a) The number of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating
violence, and stalking complaints that were received by the
institution.
b) The number of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating
violence, and stalking complaints that were investigated by
the institution.
c) The number of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating
violence, and stalking complaints that were not investigated
by the institution.
d) The number of investigations conducted pursuant to 2)
above, in which the respondents were found responsible at the
disciplinary proceedings of the institution.
e) The number of investigations conducted pursuant to 2)
above, in which the respondents were not found responsible at
the disciplinary proceedings of the institution.
f) The number of disciplinary sanctions imposed on
respondents who were found responsible, disaggregated by the
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type of discipline imposed in, at minimum, the categories of
expulsion, suspension of at least two years, suspension of
fewer than two years, and probation.
4)Requires the information to be reported in a manner that
provides appropriate protections for the privacy of those
involved, including, but not necessarily limited to, protection
of the confidentiality of the alleged victim and of the alleged
perpetrator; and, sunsets the aforementioned reporting
requirements on December 31, 2021.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires, under the Kristen Smart Campus Safety Act, UC Regents,
CSU Trustees, CCD governing boards, and independent colleges
that meet specified conditions to enter into specific written
agreements with local law enforcement agencies regarding the
coordination and responsibilities for investigating Part 1
violent crimes which occur on campus. (Education Code (EDC)
Section 67381)
2)Requires public and independent postsecondary institutions, as a
condition of receipt of student aid funds, to adopt a policy
concerning campus sexual violence, domestic violence, dating
violence, and stalking that includes specified components and
standards, including an "affirmative consent" standard for
determining whether consent was given by both parties to sexual
activity. Establishes a preponderance of evidence as the
evidentiary standard for determining if sexual
violence/harassment occurred. (EDC Section 67386)
3)Requires, under the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus
Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act),
public and private postsecondary educational institutions that
participate in the federal financial aid program to disclose
information about crimes on and around campuses. (20 United
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States Code (U.S.C.) Section 1092(f))
4)Requires, under federal Title IX (20 U.S.C. Sections 1681 to
1688), public and private postsecondary educational institutions
that participate in the federal financial aid program to
establish certain rights for victims of sexual assault.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, assuming average costs of around $3,000 per community
college district, statewide potential reimbursable state mandated
costs would be $216,000 (General Fund-Proposition 98 (1988))
annually. Any costs to UC and CSU will be absorbable.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "the state of California has
an obligation to provide a safe and secure learning environment at
our college and university campuses. Students, families, and the
general public need assurance that colleges and universities take
campus sexual assault seriously. The Washington Post obtained
data from approximately 100 institutions surveyed in 2012 and
2013; in regards to campus sanctions in sexual assault cases they
discovered that out of 478 sanctions for sexual assault, only 12%
resulted in expulsion and 28% resulted in suspensions."
The author believes that in order to address rape culture on
college campuses, there needs to be meaningful sanctions that
truly serve as a deterrent. This bill is intended to provide
clear and consistent direction to colleges and universities on
imposing sanctions for sexual assault, and will require reporting
of adjudication outcome data to ensure compliance with these
standards.
Analysis Prepared by:
AB 967
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Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960 FN:
0000736