With a daughter in a STEM major heading into grad school, I’d sure like to see this pass.
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/09/jackie-speier-proposes-bill-to-stop-sexual-abuse-in-stem.html
Does the EEOC regulations not apply to universities? I’m trying to understand why an additional bill or regulation is necessary with EEOC reporting responsibilities and compliance.
Apparently not – there have been quite a few cases in the news lately where profs who have harassed grad students have had several cases of harassment internally reported to the university, but the university has not taken substantial action. The students probably could file Title IX cases in some cases, but that does not necessarily end up punishing the prof. Plus, grad students are much more dependent than undergrads on the relationship with the prof they are doing research with – filing a Title IX lawsuit is pretty much the end of their academic careers. This legislation requires the college to report internal harassment cases to the federal funding organizations – and that hits the professors where it hurts. Colleges are notoriously poor at reporting any kind of incident on campus that reflects badly on the college (as are many institutions, like churches) – they have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to report assaults and crimes on campus.
The EEOC Relate to employment. The laws under which it operates don’t cover students. I don’t want reporting any more than I want to worry about employers reporting. I want a basis for a civil suit.
The EEOC has nothing to do with a student who has complaints about being harassed by a professor. The EEOC deals with issues relating to the terms of one’s employment and enforces Title VII which prohibits discrimination in the workplace (including universities.) A university employee, not a student, would look to the EEOC or the OCR (for sexual harassment) for relief from alleged discrimination in the workplace.
The reporting under the proposed bill only appears to cover cases where the allegations by the student against the professor have been “substantiated” either by a university grievance procedure or a judicial proceeding. It also covers cases that have been left unresolved for more than 6 months.
I agree that the bill appears to be focused on hitting universities where the pain will be felt – jeopardizing the funding of grants.
double post deleted