Every college in Vermont handles sexual assaults on campus differently — and with a different level of resources. Advocates and survivors say this uneven system isn’t serving Vermont students well and are now pushing legislation that would tackle these disparities.
It’s a critical issue — most research shows that between one in four and one in five female students are sexually assaulted in college.
At better-endowed schools, such as at UVM or Middlebury, full-time, campus-based advocates are typically available for survivors, as well as a full-time office of Title IX staff. At smaller, poorer schools, there is often just one part-time Title IX officer to help students.
“The options for survivors of sexual assault vary widely based on where the survivor is enrolled,” said Sarah Robinson, deputy director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
A bill this session, H.183, would form a task force on campus sexual harm that would allow schools to share resources, information and best practices to create more consistency across Vermont’s campuses in the way schools respond to sexual violence.
But it’s not the first time such a task force has existed. In 2019, a task force of the same name was established by the Legislature — though the group had only six funded meetings, after which it produced a report on its initial findings. Chief among those findings: The group should be made permanent because its work was just beginning.
That’s what the new task force aims to do.
With other major issues that the group considered, they found no consensus — namely, requiring that instances of sexual harm be listed on perpetrators’ transcripts when they’re suspended or expelled from school because of the offense.
“We ended up being split right down the middle on that at the end of the day,” said Rep. Selene Colburn, P-Burlington, though she supported the measure.
However, with most of the issues the group discussed, there was easy consensus. One of the biggest issues then and now, Colburn said, is the need for better pathways to restorative justice for survivors of sexual assault in Vermont.
The restorative justice process would allow perpetrators and survivors to sit with a mediator, outside of a more formal legal process, and talk about what happened. That way, perpetrators can understand and apologize for the harm they caused.
However, just as the 2019 task force was finalizing its recommendations on that issue, the Trump administration rolled out new rules that did the exact opposite. The Trump rules made Title IX cases look even more like criminal proceedings, including cross-examination of survivors in court.
Sexual assault is already one of the least reported crimes, and Colburn said one of the things the task force routinely talked about was how to make it easier for survivors to seek justice. She said it’s her hope that, under the Biden administration, that might be possible.
“We don’t know how those rules are going to change under the new administration,” she said, “but there was a real sense then that it was going to be even harder for survivors to have positive outcomes in their cases through the campus process.”
Colburn said a formal, criminal proceeding is extremely important for some survivors, but it often means perpetrators will never acknowledge or apologize for what they’ve done. She said that’s the opposite of what a lot of survivors are looking for.
“Everything in these systems is set up for people to be like, ‘No, I didn’t do it,’ because they’re trying to avoid penalties and consequences,’’ she said. “But now, a lot of campuses are starting to really look at restorative models, and survivors are feeling more supported by those processes.”
The bill currently in the Legislature has several components not relating to campus sexual harm in particular. Advocates said the prevalence of sexual harm on campuses makes it clear that more than just one-time legislation will be needed to address the scope of the problem.
A very informal intercollegiate group of Title IX officers exists, but it has no resources and no specific assignment, and Colburn said members of that group have told her that makes it hard to get much done.
“Women who are college-aged are at the highest risk in terms of experiencing sexual assault. And campuses are small communities,” Robinson said. “That’s something Vermonters know quite well — how difficult it can be to be a victim of a crime in a small community in which you are likely to interact with the person who caused you harm in some way, shape or form.”
Colburn said because of the nature of campuses, it’s especially important to target this issue in the college setting.
But it’s not just college, she said: People in the same age group as traditional college students, but who aren’t in college, actually have even higher rates of sexual assault.
“I think it’s a very dynamic moment right now in looking at issues related to sexual violence on campus,” Robinson said. “It’s the right time to have attention and an ongoing dialogue about this issue in Vermont.”
