According to spokesman Dell Rae Ciaravola "Colorado State University is dedicated to addressing sexual misconduct and interpersonal violence on our campuses," the officials will continue to aggressively investigate accusations of sexual assault on campus and severely punish those found guilty of sexual violence, despite new interim federal guidelines that could make it tougher for sex assault victims to pursue justice from their attackers.
"This commitment is not driven by federal administrative positions or shifts in those positions over time. We are confident our approach strikes the balance balance, ensures compliance, and protects the rights of all parties." Eric Butler, who leads the University of Denver's office that investigates sexual abuse and violence, said his team has grown over the past two years based on his caseload and the increased emphasis by administrators to investigate accusations of sexual violence.
Sexual assault victims, accusers and those who counsel them worry a decision by the Department of Education to scrap previous guidelines on investigating campus sex assaults, will leave students too fearful and vulnerable to report attacks.
The guidelines, issued in 2011 and supported by President Barack Obama, were viewed as more friendly to alleged victims because they instructed schools to use a simple-to-meet "Preponderance of the evidence" standard when evaluating and investigating a claim of sexual assault.
The topic of sexual assaults and harassment has gained greater attention this month amid the "#MeToo" movement, which has prompted women on campus, workplaces and elsewhere to step forward and discuss their experiences.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in September the Obama-era guidelines were skewed against those accused of assault and had "Weaponized" the Education Department to "Work against schools and against students." Her interim guidelines, issued in September, allow college to choose between the standard "Preponderance of the evidence" and a "clear and convincing evidence", which is harder to meet.
University of Colorado spokesman Ken McConnellogist said the CU system, the largest in the state, will continue to use the "Preponderance of the evidence" standard in its sex assault cases, but said "The ruling did give us a little more flexibility in how we address these cases. " "It gives us an opportunity to have a measured conversation about how we want to proceed," he said.
"Obviously, we need some careful standards in place and to see what's going to work best for us." Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, along with seven members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, told DeVos this month that the interim guidelines could result in fewer sex assault survivors coming forward.
Local advocates for sexual assault victims agree, saying dumping the 2011 guidance on investigating campus sex assault is disheartening and dangerous.
"We have concerns that instead of emboldening victims, there will be a lot more victim blaming and it will be harder for them to come forward," said Medha Gudavalli, policy specialist with the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a group that advocates for victims of sexual assault.
"But we attribute that to increased awareness campaigns, training and communication rather than a general increase in incidents." The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in 2011 issued a "Dear Colleague" letter, a 19-page document addressing Title IX as it applies to campus sex assault.
The new guidance denies a complainant the right to appeal and introduce mediation as an acceptable form of resolving a complaint of sexual assault.
"We are now left with the question, 'How do we protect the victims?' I think we are reverting back to the old system of blaming the victim while decreasing a school's responsibility for keeping students safe. " Education officials said they were responding to "Deeply troubling" statistics about the prevalence of sexual assaults when issuing the 2011 guidelines.
Currently, the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights is investigating 360 sex violence cases at 258 post-secondary institutions in the United States.
Once sanctioned by a college panel, a man's academic career could be ruined, critics said, since information about his expulsion due to a sex assault complaint would be on his transcripts.
One sex assault is one too many and is "Horrible and sad," DeVos said in September.
"But the current failed system did not work for students It did not work for anyone.It did not work because anlected and unaccountable political appoints pushed the guidance through without any period of comment from those who walked side by side with students every day. The time of ineffective and inefficient mandates is over. " Sexual assault prevention groups and others, including members of the Colorado's Congressional delegation, said DeVos was relying on anecdotal evidence the system had become skewed against men.
About 2 percent to 8 percent of rape accusations are false, according to the Denver Sexual Assault Interagency Council's Title IX Working Group.
"This exploits the misconception that false accusations are common." New York attorney Andrew Miltenberg, who specializes in defending charged students throughout the country, believes most college and universities will ratch up sexual assault investigations and punishments because officials do not want to be seen as lenient towards sex crimes on campus.
The most prominent participated in Grant Neal, a Colorado State University-Pueblo athlete who was suspended in connection with a sexual encounter with a female team trainer that a witness believed was non-consensual.
Gudavalli of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault stressed that assaults deemed "not violent" are still assaults.
"Extreme physical violence is not prerequisite to assault and asserting that it is set a dangerous precedence," she said.
Gudavalli said the recent case of former University of Colorado Denver student John D. Kennedy is exactly the type of sexual assault that Miltenberg claims rarely happens on college campuses.
"The image of a man jumping out of an alleyway to rape a woman does not capture the reality of sexual violence on college campuses - sexual assault is perpetrated in many different ways," said Gudavalli.
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