For Study-Abroad Offices, Sexual-Assault Cases May Be Unfamiliar Territory

Complying with federal law governing sexual assault on campuses can be a complicated business. But the recent expulsion of a Middlebury College student accused of assaulting a fellow student on an overseas program — and the expelled student’s subsequent lawsuit — raises questions that stretch beyond the usual boundaries of campus rape: What if an alleged incident occurs while a student is studying abroad?

The two primary federal statutes that cover sexual assault on campuses — Title IX, the gender-equity law; and the Clery Act, the campus-safety law — do not directly apply to colleges and universities in foreign countries or to third-party providers that offer international programs, because none of those entities receive federal funding. Neither the foreign institutions nor the companies are required to report such incidents publicly, to have Title IX coordinators, or to follow the same investigative process that American colleges use.

But when American students participate in those programs, their own colleges’ obligations can come into play. Some colleges with robust study-abroad programs have planned for responding to such incidents, and a growing number of large institutions have created dedicated positions to deal with overseas health and safety.

For others, however, the intersection of study abroad, sexual assault, and federal law is an unexplored area. There is no national standard for how colleges should handle such cases. “Colleges are nervous,” says Ann Olivarius, a senior partner at McAllister Olivarius, a law firm that advises colleges on Title IX and other issues.

The lawsuit involving Middlebury has called attention to that lack of clarity. A female student, who attended a different university, reported to the School for International Training, a third-party provider, that a Middlebury student on her study-abroad program had assaulted her. The provider looked into the allegations and did not find the accused student responsible. Middlebury officials then did their own investigation, found the student responsible, and expelled him.

The male student sued Middlebury in August, arguing that its investigation was both unnecessary and biased against him. Several weeks later a federal judge ordered Middlebury to re-enroll him while the case made its way through the courts. Middlebury and the student agreed to drop the college’s appeal of the judge’s order last week. (The underlying lawsuit continues.)

Was Middlebury simply upholding its legal obligations? That’s how the college sees it. In a statement, it said that “a Middlebury student’s off-campus conduct may be subject to Middlebury’s disciplinary processes when, among other things, such conduct may represent a threat to the safety of the Middlebury community or any of its members.”

College officials added that “we believe we properly applied our policies in this case.” A Middlebury spokesman declined to comment further, citing the continuing lawsuit. John Lucas, provost at the School for International Training, also declined to comment on the case.

Responding to Complaints

The Clery Act governs safety from a geographical standpoint. It applies to a campus, adjacent areas, and any other property owned by the college. Many overseas incidents don’t need to be reported; host-family arrangements, for instance, are not considered off-campus locations under the law. However, a 2011 update of the Clery Act made clear that if colleges own or lease facilities abroad, such property is covered by the law’s reporting requirements.

Title IX applies to the person participating in the educational activity. An institution’s Title IX obligations depend on how a student is going abroad, says Gary Rhodes, director of the Center for Global Education, a clearinghouse for resources on international health and safety issues.

When students are going overseas on trips led by college faculty members, “there is a clear line of Title IX responsibility,” says Denise Cope, director of the Office of International Education at the University of Denver. And even if a student is studying with an outside provider, Mr. Rhodes says, “if it is approved by the campus and the campus is helping you take your financial aid abroad, then its responsibility goes up.”

That means officials should be conducting investigations into reports, especially if the alleged perpetrator is also a student at that college, says Rhasheda S. Douglas, Title IX manager at Rowan University and a former lawyer in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Colleges, she says, also have “the obligation to assess whether the off-campus conduct trickled back to the on-campus setting.”

Some colleges go above and beyond that obligation in responding to complaints. Heather A. Salko, a senior claims counsel at United Educators, a risk-management and insurance firm, recalls that when one Massachusetts college received a student’s report of a sexual assault, administrators immediately decided that “we’re putting our Title IX coordinator on a plane,” Ms. Salko says. “They did not hesitate.”

Although colleges are already legally required to educate students about Title IX, many find it helpful as well to have a separate training for study abroad, says Joseph C. Storch, an associate counsel in the State University of New York system. “You want to talk to students differently who are going overseas than first-semester freshmen at orientation,” he says.

‘They’re Still Our Students’

While independent study-abroad providers are not bound by the government regulations, many of them have come to take a proactive approach toward dealing with sexual assault.

The School for International Training has a designated a Title IX coordinator and procedures for handling sexual-misconduct cases, says Mr. Lucas, the provost. Faculty and staff members employed by the program are also regularly trained on Title IX and other regulations related to sexual assault, he says.

That means, however, that it is not always clear whether the college or the program should take the lead on responding to and investigating a sexual-assault report.

Several years ago officials at American University, in Washington, did not learn until “quite late in the process” that an outside provider was dealing with a case involving one of their students, says Sara E. Dumont, executive director of AU Abroad.

American is renegotiating its contracts with outside providers of study-abroad programs, to require that they immediately notify the university if any sexual assault or harassment occurs. All but one or two providers have agreed to those terms for American University students, Ms. Dumont says.

“They may be abroad,” she says, “but they’re still our students.”

The University of Denver has developed a protocol for communicating with partners — foreign universities and outside providers — about serious incidents, like sexual assaults, and for handling such reports, says Ms. Cope, the international-education director. “They’re not going to be experts at Title IX or Clery,” she says of the partners. But they can help with “creating a safe environment for the complainant,” such as moving a student to a new dormitory or apartment.

Data-protection laws in some countries, particularly Britain, have been an obstacle to information-sharing agreements, Ms. Cope notes. Students at Denver now sign waivers authorizing their foreign colleges or program providers to release information about them in an emergency.

Still, plenty of American colleges are not up to speed on those nuances. Part of the problem, says Julie Friend, director of global safety and security at Northwestern University, is that many colleges continue to wrestle with putting policies into effect on their home campuses, nevermind abroad.

Perceptions that “education abroad is behind the eight ball on sexual assault aren’t fair,” she says. “If you’re struggling with these issues on campus, it’s almost impossible to be clear about the international process.”

Greater Transparency

Conversations on those issues are taking shape at many colleges in the midst of a broader push for greater transparency and oversight of students’ safety overseas. Congress as well as several states have considered legislation to require the reporting of additional safety statistics.

The Forum on Education Abroad, an association of American and overseas colleges and outside programs, has appointed a committee to examine best practices on responding to and reporting on sexual assaults overseas. The panel expects to release a report next year giving study-abroad offices and providers general guidance — for example, a list of questions they might raise when working with campus Title IX committees.

Natalie A. Mello, the forum’s vice president for member service and training, hardly welcomes litigation, but she says the Middlebury lawsuit could help clarify the roles and responsibilities of colleges and provider organizations. If the court decides that the School for International Training’s investigation was sufficient, then colleges would have to vet partners to make certain that they had a system in place for responding to assaults, and that the college officials were comfortable with that process.

Still, dealing with sexual assault in study abroad is likely to continue to be complicated. What about home stays? asks Ms. Dumont, of American University. Those arrangements, in which students live with foreign host families, have grown in popularity, as students seek a more-immersive experience. But responding to allegations of assault in a private home raises additional cultural and due-process complications.

Such a scenario also presupposes that students report sexual misconduct while they are abroad. Some students, says Ms. Friend, of Northwestern, don’t disclose such incidents until they return to the United States. Belated reporting further complicates the investigation and handling of allegations.

The most crucial step colleges can take is to plan ahead, says Ms. Salko, of United Educators. “If you got that call from the victim, you don’t want that to be the first time that you’re thinking, What resources can we offer abroad?”

Karin Fischer writes about international education, colleges and the economy, and other issues. She’s on Twitter @karinfischer, and her email address is karin.fischer@chronicle.com. Sarah Brown is an editorial intern.