Sexual assault awareness and bystander intervention programs at universities are often met with groans and eye rolls from students.
The mandatory annual trainings are required by the state, per the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, signed in 2015 and amended in 2025. It requires universities to develop a "comprehensive policy" concerning sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.
"I think their goal is to get people comfortable with being uncomfortable," said Senior Attorney at Romanucci & Blandin Maura White. "But I think the big question that I have, and I'm sure others have right now, is: Are these programs actually doing enough?"
White has years of experience as a federal prosecutor of sex crimes. She said amid this wave of sexual assault allegations on college campuses, including two just this month at the University of Chicago, we need to change the way we address allegations of sexual assault.
"I think we need to turn our attention to help solve the problem rather than to react to these types of cases when they happen," she said.
In the United States, an estimated 1 in 5 (21%) of undergrads experience rape or sexual assault involving “physical force or inability to consent” when they attend college for four years or more.
White said changes need to be made in many different areas, including in the legal community.
"I think we need to make sure, whether it's from a legislative perspective or from our budgets on a local level, to fund investigators and prosecutors to really work on these cases," she said. "We should see ... more trauma-informed investigations, meaning that a survivor should not have to tell her story over and over and over again."
And as for the school community...
"What additional safeguards should there be? What can else can we do to keep students safe? I think universities and colleges need to look at that on an individualized level," she said. "We may not be able to prevent sexual misconduct from happening, but we can certainly change our reaction to it, and that's imperative for students and parents to have confidence in the universities and colleges that they send their kids to."
