NYS Enough is Enough & Education/Training Materials

NYS Education Law, Article 129-B

In July 2015, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed New York State’s Enough is Enough law. This is the country’s strongest legislation that condemns and sanctions sexual assault on college campuses. Sexual assault includes sexual misconduct such as dating violence, domestic violence, stalking and is criminal under this law. Governor Cuomo has sent a strong message that Five Towns College supports and joins in and says, “Enough is Enough”!

Five Towns College has incorporated this statute into its institutional policies and governing documents. Further, in an effort to assist all students and the FTC community as a whole to understand and become aware about this law, a new Campus Guide to NYS Education Law, Article 129-B, Enough is Enough: What You Need To Know is posted below.

FOR IMMEDIATE HELP:

To report a sexual assault on a New York college campus to the State Police, call the dedicated 24-hour hotline at 1-844-845-7269. In an emergency, call 911. For confidential support resources, call the New York State Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline at 1-800-942-6906. In New York City, call 1-800-621-HOPE (4673) or dial 311.

The statute has definitions of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, confidentiality, privacy, and affirmative consent; bystander and drug and alcohol amnesty policies, Students’ Bill of Rights, differences between confidentiality and privacy and reporting options, the institution’s obligation to investigate, interim measures and accommodations, risk assessment and reduction, roles of Title IX Coordinator and other FTC personnel, and other institutional reporting requirements.

Five Towns College is committed to full implementation of this important statute. For more information about the statute, visit this page. Further, Five Towns College institutional policies set forth the provisions of the law here.

Click here for the Sexual Misconduct Policies and Procedures.

One interesting lesson about Consent has been presented to the FTC community in the form of a YouTube presentation produced by blueseatstudios.com. This is just a preliminary lesson that addresses some of the issues integral to understanding “Affirmative Consent” under the Enough is Enough law: Here it is for your edification:

VIDEO: Tea Consent

Here is another video that was presented to the Title IX Team on the topic of Bystander Intervention. This is a serious topic that the institution believes everyone should become aware of and, hopefully, this video posted by www.whoareyou.co.nz will help to bring attention to this important concern. Here it is for your education:

VIDEO: Who Are You

Ongoing Education and Training under NYS Article 129-B, Enough is Enough and Title IX

Five Towns College has sought to integrate education and training under this law since its effective date. Through new student and transfer orientations, professional development, targeted student leadership and student athlete training sessions, and mid-year onboarding, the institution has conducted ongoing educational student programs as well as for faculty and staff under Article 129-B, Section 6447. The comprehensive range of student onboarding and ongoing education is articulated here.

In addition to online education and training, in-person education and training is provided to all employees, including the Title IX team and deputies, from our institutional partners-Crime Victims Center and Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk (VIBS). Further, Five Towns College is a participating campus in the SUNY Student Conduct Institute. As such, our institution has other and vast education and training opportunities available to it and has attended extensive training recently. The link to the materials used to train Title IX Coordinators, investigators, decision-makers, and any person who facilitates an informal resolution process is available here.

Additional education/training materials for faculty and staff as well as acknowledgement of completion of online Compliance Certification related to both NYS Art. 129-B and Title IX is available here.

Set forth herein below are the results of the Campus Climate Assessment, Section 6445, for the past academic years, including other important related information.

For the Academic Year 2022-23, the results of the Campus Climate Assessment, Section 6445, are below:

The Campus Climate Assessment/Survey was emailed to the College’s constituents several times from the Fall 2022 through May 2023. There were a total of 177 responses. This was a remarkable response rate considering the post-pandemic climate and a lower overall enrollment phase. Nonetheless, the survey consisted of 11 questions and the highlights include the following data points:

92.09% are aware of the availability of resources on and off campus; 91.48% are aware of the impact that bystander attitude and behavior can have on reporting; 89.27% are aware of the definition of affirmative consent; 87.57% are aware of campus policies & procedures about sexual assault; 87.01% are aware of how/where to report a sexual assault and aware of the prevalence on all college campuses, generally of this. In addition, 68.36% are aware of the difference between institutional policies and the penal law; and, the college will strive to improve and educate students/staff about this. 78.29% are aware of the role of the Title IX Coordinator and though not a poor result, the college will work to improve education about this, too.

Finally, the college reports that the survey showed a lack of clarity in the structure of its inquiries about the awareness of individuals who either may have disclosed or reported and, thus, the results cannot be reasonably interpreted. As a result, these questions will be revisited and reworked to improve what information it seeks during the next Campus Climate Assessment Reporting period.

Overall, though, the College continues to be proud and the data supports that its constituents are educated about the NYS Enough is Enough law and that the ongoing training and onboarding is very effective. The College is proud of its educational partners in this regard and thanks everyone who participated in this assessment.

For the Academic Year 2021-21, the results of the Campus Climate Assessment, Section 6445 are below:

The Campus Climate Assessment/Survey was emailed to the College’s constituents several times from October through December 3, 2021. As of December 3, 2021, there were 269 results submitted. This was a significant increase from the 207 submitted in 2019 and the 86 submitted in 2017. Undoubtedly, the importance and awareness of the subject matter and concomitant education has been recognized on campus.

For this academic year, the survey consisted of nine (9) questions. Based on the results, the highlights include that 75.84% are aware of the role of the Title IX Coordinator. 89.22% are aware of campus policies and procedures addressing sexual assault. 86.62% are aware of how and where to report domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault as a victim, survivor or witness. 90.67% are aware of the availability of resources on and off campus, such as counseling, health, and academic assistance. 93.26% are aware of the impact that bystander attitudes and behavior can have on reporting and ultimate outcomes after reports are made. 83.90% are aware of the difference between institutional policies and the penal law. 95.51% are aware of the definition of affirmative consent.

The response to question #7 (63.91%) indicates a need to improve the inquiry since despite an improvement in the response rate from 2019, this question still had the lowest score. Therefore, since the response rates to the other questions were higher, it is believed that the structure of the question should be improved upon for the next survey. Question #7 addressed awareness about incidents that may or may not have occurred and tried to gauge an understanding of whether institutional members understood institutional processes.

In summary, the institution proudly acknowledges an active education and training calendar that has helped to create an increase in responses that exemplifies a high rate of campus awareness of the NYS Enough is Enough law.

The results of the Campus Climate Assessment, Section 6445, for the 2018-19 academic year are below:

The Campus Climate Assessment/Survey was emailed to the College’s constituents several times in November through December 2019. As of December 16, 2019, the results of the survey showed that the total number of responses more than doubled from the last survey (for the academic year 2016-17) from 86 to 207, so both the importance of the survey and the method of delivery of the survey has been recognized and improved on campus.

The survey consisted of nine questions. Based on the results, the highlights include that 94.69% are generally aware of the definition of affirmative consent. Also, 92.75% are aware of campus policies and procedures addressing sexual assault; 92.72% are aware of the impact that bystander attitudes and behavior can have on reporting and ultimate outcomes after reports are made; 91.79% are aware of both the availability of resources on and off campus, i.e. counseling, health and academic assistance and of the prevalence of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking or sexual assault on college campuses.

Next, 89.86% are aware of how and where to report domestic violence, dating violence, stalking or sexual assault as a victim, survivor or witness. 78.64% are aware of the role of the Title IX Coordinator. The responses to question #7 (53.62%) and #8 (66.67%) indicate a need to improve the inquiry since they appear unclear as well as improve education on the topic of clarifying the differences between institutional policy and the penal law.

Overall, the institution is proud to see the marked increase in responses, the high percentage rate of awareness of the NYS Enough is Enough law, and that the ongoing education/training is effective.

Here are the results of the Campus Climate Assessment, Section 6445, for the 2016-17 academic year, and other important information related to the implementation of this important statute:

The Campus Climate Assessment/Survey was emailed to the College’s constituents several times in June 2017 until early July 2017. As of July 13, 2017, the results of the survey showed that of the total responses (N=86), a majority answered and indicated a general knowledge and awareness of the Enough is Enough law. Further, the responses to #7 and #8 indicated a need to improve the inquiry, as they may be unclear. Finally, 84.8% indicated an awareness and knowledge of the definition of affirmative consent. Also, positive is that 79% indicated that they were aware of campus policies and procedures addressing sexual assault and were aware of how and where to report domestic violence, dating violence, stalking or sexual assault as a victim, survivor or witness.