Dive Brief:
- Kansas State University is requiring a new online course about alcohol safety and sexual assault prevention.
- The course must be taken by all new students, including part-time and distance learners, and the sexual assault prevention portion will be required for returning students on an annual basis.
- The online course is expected to take students about two hours to complete and will have to be done before they are eligible to register for classes.
Dive Insight:
Kansas State University was placed under investigation by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in August of 2014 based on a complaint about its handling of a sexual assault case. In announcing its new sexual assault prevention course, Kansas State said returning students would be required to take the training annually to satisfy federal regulations. The announcement didn't mention the OCR investigation.
Colleges and universities across the country have instituted new policies and programs in recent years, either prompted by OCR reviews or in recognition of the prevalence of sexual assault on campus and the responsibility of campus administrators to address it. A survey of college presidents, however, found most think sexual assault is a bigger problem on campuses other than their own.