In the aftermath of a July ruling that Georgetown must unconditionally release results of campus disciplinary hearings to sexual assault victims, the University of Virginia said it is revising its Sexual Assault Board policies.
\nThe Department of Education said Georgetown violated the rights of student Kate Dieringer when they required her to sign a confidentiality agreement in order to receive the results of the campus disciplinary board’s hearing of her complaint.
Dean of Students Penny Rue said Virginia’s revisions are part of a routine review.
Previously, the university asked victims to verbally agree to keep the results of hearings private. Rue said a decision is “under review” on whether to require that hearing results must be disclosed unconditionally.
Daniel Carter, vice president of Security on Campus, a campus security watchdog group, said so far he has not heard of other schools revising their judiciary proceedings policies in response to the Georgetown decision. However, he said, in light of the Department of Education’s ruling, such changes are inevitable.
“The change in the disclosure policy has been a major impetus for the change in the other policies,” Carter said, “because the folks who are involved in the process are being allowed to speak out, whereas before, they couldn’t.”