Update... according to the University of Wisconsin, the requirements will be eliminated because they are redundant and will not interfere with standard procedure. Jezebel has since updated their story.
As you're probably aware, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's budget proposal would cut $300 million from higher education, but it would also remove the requirement that schools report sexual assaults.
Delete the requirement that any person employed at an institution who witnesses a sexual assault on campus or receives a report from a student enrolled in the institution that the student has been sexually assaulted report the assault to the dean of students. Delete the requirement that each institution report annually to the Department of Justice (DOJ) statistics on sexual assaults and on sexual assaults committed by acquaintances of the victims that occurred on the campus of that institution in the previous years, and that DOJ include those statistics in appropriate crime reports.
Even if Walker's budget passes with this language intact, schools would still be required to report sexual assaults to the federal government or else they could lose federal funding.
But that's the catch. Schools would still have to report assaults, but doing so would be financially discretionary at a time when Walker's budget cuts $300 million from higher education.
Walker's budget would also eliminate the requirement that schools instruct new students how to report an assault.
Delete the requirement that the Board direct each institution and college campus to incorporate oral and written or electronic information on sexual assault in its orientation program for newly entering students and to supply all students enrolled in the institution or college campus with the same information in either printed or electronic form.
Eliminating measures for preventing and reporting sexual assaults just to save a few dollars is despicable.