UPDATED: Friday, April 29, 2016 at 3:28 p.m.

Even after Syracuse University adopted in 2015 sexual assault prevention legislation that required it to make changes to its sexual assault policy, it is still unclear as to how many reports of sexual assault have been made by SU students due to the university’s status as a private institution.

In July 2015, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the “Enough is Enough” legislation to combat sexual assault on college campuses. Chancellor Kent Syverud adopted the “Enough is Enough” legislation in summer 2015, making him the first private college chancellor or president to do so.

In accordance with the law, SU has had to adapt its sexual assault policy to include a statewide definition of affirmative consent, among other requirements.

The Title IX coordinator at SU received 143 reports from students impacted by sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking and harassment during the 2014-15 academic year, according to an April 25 SU News release.

But only one incident of rape on the SU campus was notated through the Clery Act in SU’s 2015 safety and security report for 2014. One in five women and one in 16 men will be sexually assaulted during their college careers, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Sheila Johnson-Willis, interim chief, equal opportunity and Title IX officer at SU, said the reason for the drastic difference in numbers between the Clery Act report and national statistics about campus sexual assault is because not every student chooses to report sexual assault.

The student drives the process when filing a Title IX complaint, Johnson-Willis said, so if a student decides not to disclose their situation to the institution, they wouldn’t have information about that report. But a student can choose to report confidentially, she added.

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There are multiple ways a student can report an incident of sexual assault, Johnson-Willis said, adding that reporting sexual assault can have a different meaning to different people.

A student can choose to report to local law enforcement, such as the Department of Public Safety at SU or the Syracuse Police Department, or through the Title IX Office at SU, she said. If a student wishes to report an incident of sexual assault confidentially, that student can go to SU’s Counseling Center or Vera House in Syracuse.

In addition to the Counseling Center and Vera House, students can also report confidentially to chaplains in Hendricks Chapel or physicians at SU Health Services. All other faculty and staff at SU are considered “responsible employees,” which means they are obligated to report incidents of sexual harassment and/or misconduct upon learning of them.

Johnson-Willis said the number of students who go to the Counseling Center is higher than the number of students who report through Title IX or go through the conduct process, which could be another explanation for why so few cases of sexual assault at the university are noted through the Clery Act.

When choosing to report, students can also decide to only disclose a situation and not proceed with the formal reporting process, she added.

Members of the SU community are not provided with a list of students who commit sexual assault on the university’s campus, Johnson-Willis said, nor are they made aware of these students’ names in any way.

Under “Enough is Enough,” SU is obligated to notate on the student’s transcript if the student is found responsible for committing sexual assault.

Conversely, public institutions, such as those in the State University of New York system, have a slightly different policy. When it comes to disclosing information about cases of sexual violence — which includes rape, sexual assault and sexual coercion — SUNY schools can provide certain information to people other than the parties involved if the accused person was found responsible per New York state law.

Joe Storch, associate counsel at the SUNY Office of General Counsel and chair of the SUNY Student Affairs Practice Group, said in an email that he would consider SUNY’s policies on sexual assault to be transparent because they were developed by a working group of about three dozen SUNY professionals. That working group, he said, includes presidents, Title IX coordinators, law enforcement, counselors, prevention specialists, Trustees, faculty, students and other outside advocates and experts.

In addition, all language used in the policies was vetted in focus groups and town hall meetings with participation from SUNY students, Storch said. This language was made available to the SUNY community, and community members were able to comment on it. Storch added that all the comments were addressed by the workgroup.

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“Per the direction of (SUNY) Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, we proceeded throughout the process with transparency a key factor in the charge,” Storch said. “At every stage we sought response and guidance from insiders and outsiders, and that transparency led to better policies and stronger legislation.”

Johnson-Willis said she does not think it would be beneficial to other students to know the names of SU students who have committed sexual assault while at the university.

“I think that when it comes to sexual and relationship violence it’s a very sensitive subject and we wouldn’t want to do anything that would result in deterring people from filing a complaint in the future,” Johnson-Willis said.

She added that there are a lot of factors that people consider when deciding whether they should move forward in the reporting process.

Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, senior vice president and dean of student affairs at SU, said in the past, the university has expelled and suspended students and put students on probation for sexual misconduct.

“We don’t want students to have this list of students, ‘Well what is this person still doing here?’” Kantrowitz said. “If a person shouldn’t be here because they are harmful to this community, they won’t be here.”

Now that SU is a New York state institution under the “Enough is Enough” legislation, Johnson-Willis said the university does have some new obligations.

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“This year we are actually going to be required to provide some of those statistics around some of the formal complaints filed and the outcome,” Johnson-Willis said. “And so those kinds of materials can be informative without disclosing the name of the accused.”

She added that she thinks the university will be able to achieve the same result without disclosing the name of the student impacted in that way.

As far as this new obligation goes, Johnson-Willis said the university has not had much guidance yet, but it has been told that there is an expectation to make public the number of formal complaints, the outcome and the disciplinary action that was taken. This information would not include any of the parties’ names, she said.

The SU News release published Monday detailed the university’s sexual assault resources and included some information about how many students are seeking support and advocacy for sexual assault. The Sexual and Relationship Violence Response (SRVR) Team provided in-person support, advocacy and discussion of reporting options to 144 students at SU within its first year. The SRVR Team also helped an additional 38 students via phone in its first year.

In the release, Cory Wallack, director of the Counseling Center, said it is difficult to know the exact number of students who have been impacted by sexual and relationship violence. But the university can figure out some numbers based off data from the SRVR Team, he said.

The Office of Student Assistance at SU provided case management services to 114 students impacted by sexual and relationship violence in the 2014-15 academic year, according to the release.

Kantrowitz said the university thinks it is “really important” to be transparent about sexual assault.

Johnson-Willis said it would benefit SU as an institution to have students empowering and providing support to other students who decide to share information about their sexual assault with them. She said there is often some uncertainty among students as to how these traumatic events will affect them socially, and that’s not something a university can necessarily handle.

“I think it’s really on the student population to establish a culture where a student feels comfortable reporting without fear of any sort of retaliation,” Johnson-Willis said.

She added that while SU has policies that prohibit retaliation, it is important for other students to be supportive and “understand that it’s that reporting student’s or survivor’s intentions that should be honored.”

At SU there is no statute of limitations on when a student can report a sexual assault, Johnson-Willis said. As long as the accused student is still at the university, SU officials will investigate the case. If the accused student has graduated, then the university would collaborate with local law enforcement.

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Wallack said in an interview with The Daily Orange that the United States currently has a culture where reporting is not necessarily encouraged, and he added that this is true for sexual assault on college campuses and off.

“The Clery Act numbers don’t match the one-in-five numbers, yeah they don’t, but we have a society that is set up to tell people not to come forward,” Wallack said.

On whether the Clery Act numbers do more harm than help, Wallack said it depends on the individual. Some people will see the low reporting numbers and think there isn’t a reason to report. Others will look at the low reporting numbers and decide to report.

Changing the culture around reporting sexual assault, Wallack said, would require the involvement of both university administrators and students.

“Students do at times send the message to other students: ‘I don’t believe you.’ They may socially shun them for making reports. They may ostracize them,” Wallack said. “So that’s not something that an administration can legislate. We have retaliation policies, but I can’t force you to talk to somebody.

“Students also have to simultaneously say, ‘We’re not OK with this anymore.’”

Published on April 27, 2016 at 11:16 pm

Contact Sara: [email protected] | @saramswann