Breaking the Silence with a Permanent Mark: Preventing and Punishing Serial Rapists on College Campuses

(Excerpt) Part I of this Note discusses the historical evolution of how Title IX came to incorporate sexual violent crimes on colleges and universities. Moreover, Part I defends the existence of Title IX. Specifically, it evaluates the value of the “Dear Colleague” letter (“the Letter”), which outlines the procedures and responsibilities of educational institutions to protect students and enforce a discrimination-free (specifically sexual violence free) environment on campuses. Part I concludes by discussing sanctions imposed on schools for non-compliance of Title IX procedures and thus, the limited success of Title IX on campuses. Part II briefly discusses critiques of Title IX but focuses on two major flaws: the nonexistent information sharing among schools and the lenient or nonexistent punishment imposed on perpetrators. Further, Part III advocates marking students’ transcripts with permanent notations. This section looks at new Virginia and New York legislation and proposes a similar federal law to require colleges and universities to create a permanent record on student transcripts of sexual violent crimes. This federal measure will enable communication and notice between schools and deter serial rapists on and between college campuses. The transcript notation itself will also act as a punishment because it has inescapable future consequences. Further, this Part will then recommend a legislative framework for all states across America to follow. Part III concludes by addressing the possible concerns that have been raised in relation to transcript notations and argues that these concerns are misplaced. The silence must finally be broken; there is no excuse for other tragedies like Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington