U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, met with members from the University of Wisconsin System Sexual Assault and Violence Task Force Friday to discuss federal and campus wide efforts to stop campus sexual assaults.
Baldwin said the task force suggested possible federal provisions she may introduce in the senate, and discussed the effects of increased sexual assault reporting.
Baldwin said she felt sickened by the current sexual assault statistics for UW.
Report: More than one in four women sexually assaulted at UW
Baldwin is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pension, which works with health and education agencies.
Baldwin said the meeting gave her a better understanding of the issue of increasing sexual assault visibility, which has strained resources. She said current human resources and laws are strained by the increasing number of sexual assault reports.
“There’s concern about conflict in the law, for example state versus federal law or even on federal versus another that both apply to same measure,” Baldwin said.
Rejecting silence: Student survivors take control, speak out on sexual violence
Baldwin said she got feedback from the task force on several of the proposals she hopes to bring back to Washington.
One such proposal would be the creation of confidential advisers for sexual assault survivors when deciding on whether or not to report the assault and where to find resources.
Baldwin said she believes the UW System task force is working diligently to address the ongoing issue of campus sexual assaults at UW and hopes some of UW’s more successful policies will be emulated at other institutions.
Still, Baldwin said it was important for decision makers to have the right information when creating and deciding sexual assault policies. To this end, she said she hopes Congress will federally mandate campus sexual assault climate surveys.
“These can’t be fly by night, they need to be well-researched, they need to be reliable, they need to be credible,” Baldwin said. “This needs to be done right.”
