Cites ‘Epidemic’ on State Campuses : Hayden Bill Targets Rising Number of College Rapes

SACRAMENTO —  Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) has unveiled legislation aimed at quelling what he called “an epidemic” of rape on California’s college campuses.

Hayden said Tuesday that University of California and California State University campus administrations have been slow to respond to an increasing number of rapes on their campuses and have been especially insensitive to “acquaintance rape,” cases in which the victim and assailant know each other.

Hayden’s legislation, which he said he will amend into another bill he introduced earlier this month, would require California colleges to have and enforce sexual assault policies, to have internal judicial procedures for addressing such crimes, to investigate reported rapes even before a victim files a formal complaint, and to provide special counseling for rape victims.

The legislation also would require schools to discipline students or school employees who committed rape and to use freshman orientation and seminars to educate students about rape, its definition and the penalties for committing the crime.

Hayden presented statistics showing that the number of reported rapes at UC campuses climbed to 16 in 1986 from 8 in 1985. The number of rapes at CSU campuses climbed to 20 from 16 during the same time period.

Six of the 20 rapes reported at CSU campuses in 1986 were at San Diego State University, where 29 men were disciplined last year in connection with a fraternity party and alleged rape of an 18-year-old Delta Gamma sorority pledge.

San Diego police said last week that an SDSU student was the “prime suspect” in the alleged rape of a 19-year-old woman attending a campus fraternity party March 6. It was the seventh such incident reported at or near the SDSU campus in the last six months, campus officials said.

The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, which held the party, was suspended Wednesday by its national headquarters pending the outcome of investigations of alleged violations of fraternity and university regulations.

The woman told San Diego police investigators that she met a man at the party who later raped her in a nearby apartment garage.

University officials claim the party violated several regulations, including holding an unregistered activity, failing to obtain a noise variance and advertising an activity as open to the public. The five-member Interfraternity Council Judicial Board will meet Friday to determine if there were any violations.

The fraternity’s national headquarters is also conducting its own investigation of the chapter for violation of its “risk avoidance policy.”

At his Capitol news conference Tuesday, Hayden said universities have been slow to respond to increased reports of acquaintance rape on campus. He cited a Kent State University psychologist’s study that determined that one out of eight college women nationally are raped. He said 90% of such victims do not report the rapes to police.

“I think it’s clear the time has come to acknowledge the seriousness of this problem and put into place those educational mechanisms and procedural mechanisms that will prevent this epidemic from expanding in the future,” Hayden said.

SDSU spokesman Rick Moore said many of Hayden’s recommendations are already in place on that campus. Moore said the school’s freshman and fraternity and sorority orientation sessions include units on rape, and that SDSU has judicial procedures for disciplining students who are found to have committed sexual assaults.

Moore said SDSU’s policies for student conduct prohibit physical assault but do not specifically mention sexual assault.

Times staff writer Hilliard Harper in San Diego contributed to this story.