The role of student development professionals in reducing the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses in accordance with Section 485(f) of Title IV Higher Education Reauthorization Amendments of 1992

In 1992 the federal government chose to become involved in the effort to eliminate or reduce the number of sexual assaults occurring on college and university campuses by the enactment of Section 485(f) of Title IV Higher Education Reauthorization Amendments of 1992. This is the first federal legislation that requires colleges and universities to develop a sexual assault policy for their campuses. Absent from the literature is research that examines the response of student development professionals to the Act. This study was designed to examine how student development professionals have responded to the Act in practice (i.e., compliance with the law) and to describe what they believe to be the mandates of the Act. The study examines what they do in practice and what they believe to be the mandates in terms of: (a) sexual assault policy, (b) direct response to sexual assault, and (c) educational programming for the prevention of sexual assaults and reporting of sexual assaults