New sexual violence policy emphasizes education for all
Rule does not completely ban athletes with history of assault, but advocates encouraged
NCAA member schools will be required to provide yearly sexual violence education for all college athletes, coaches and athletics administrators under a policy announced Thursday by the organization’s board of governors.
Campus leaders such as athletic directors, school presidents and Title IX coordinators will be required to attest that athletes, coaches and administrators have been educated on sexual violence.
The policy was adopted from a recommendation made by the Commission to Combat Campus Sexual Violence, which was created by the board last year in response to several highprofile cases involving sexual assaults and athletic departments, including the scandal at Baylor.
The policy also requires campus leaders to declare that athletic departments are knowledgeable and compliant with school policies on sexual violence prevention, adjudication and resolution.
Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor and activist who speaks to college teams across the country about sexual violence, is a member of the commission. She has called for the NCAA to ban athletes with a history of sexual violence. While this policy falls far short of that, Tracy said she was encouraged.
“It’s not banning violent athletes, but it’s a positive policy that’s going to have a big impact on our campuses,” Tracy said in a phone interview from Amherst, Mass., where she was spending the day speaking to the UMass football and basketball teams.
The announcement from the NCAA came just one day after Youngstown State decided a football player who served jail time for a rape committed while he was in high school will not be allowed to play in games this season. Ma’Lik Richmond, who served about 10 months in a juvenile lockup after
being convicted with another Steubenville High School football player of raping a 16-year-old girl in 2012, walked on at Youngstown State earlier this year. He will be allowed to practice and participate in other team activities.
Tracy has promoted a petition urging Youngstown State to not allow Richmond to play.
A move toward an NCAA policy on sexual violence was given momentum by numerous issues involving athletes and athletic departments in recent years. Perhaps the most high-profile example is Baylor, where an investigation found that allegations of sexual assault, some against football players, were mishandled by school leaders.
Indiana announced in April that it would no longer accept any prospective student-athlete who has been convicted of or pleaded guilty or no contest to a felony involving sexual violence. In July, the athletic director at the University of Illinois said the school was working on a similar policy.
Tracy said the NCAA has not ruled out implementing a policy like Indiana’s.
“The fact that’s still on the table, we’re still having discussions about that, we’re still going to keep working moving forward, gives me a lot of hope,” she said.