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Quick Hit: Scott Walker Eliminates Support for Rape Survivors from Budget

Update: Jezebel has now added a update and apology to their piece, noting that a university spokesperson has clarified that the university requested that Walker delete the requirements because they were redundant with their compliance of the Clery Act.

With a swipe of the “delete” key, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) has eliminated efforts to combat campus rape from the state budget.

His budget proposal deletes key provisions that obligate universities to incorporate information on sexual and dating violence into new-student orientation programming — provisions that are federally mandated under the Clery Act.

And, as Natasha Vargas-Cooper at Jezebel reports:

Under Walker’s budget, universities would no longer have to report the number of sexual assaults that take place on a campus to the Department of Justice. Under Walker’s plan, university employees who witness a sexual assault would no longer have to report it.

There are no policy recommendations in Walker’s budget how or what would replace these reporting mechanisms. The Governor simply instructs that they should be deleted.

The budget also eliminates recruitment and support programs for low-income students and students of color, as well as shared governance, the principle that gives faculty and students a voice in campus politics and policy-making.

You can check out the whole sad thing here.

New Haven, CT

Dana Bolger is a Senior Editor at Feministing and the co-founder of Know Your IX, the national youth-led organization working to end gender violence in schools. She's testified before Congress on Title IX policy and legislative reform, and her writing has appeared in a number of outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. She's also a student at Yale Law School, and you can find her on Twitter at @danabolger.

Dana Bolger is a Senior Editor at Feministing and a student at Yale Law School.

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