This fall, the country has been horrified by the story of a former Cornell University student who reported being drugged and sexually assaulted by seven fraternity members in 2024. In a recent lawsuit, the student alleges the university allowed some of the accused to write essays as a way to mitigate discipline in the case.
Now, nearly two years later and after national outrage, New York’s governor has appointed a special prosecutor to review the case. While the facts are still being investigated, the questions it raises are not unique to New York.
Earlier this month, a 21-year-old woman reported being sexually assaulted at a fraternity house at the University of Chicago. The Chicago Police Department is investigating, but to date, no one has been charged.
As University of Chicago professor Jens Ludwig recently noted, 29.7% of female students at the University of Chicago will be sexually assaulted by the time they graduate.
When a survivor of sexual violence finds the courage to come forward, two things should happen: Their school should protect them, and, if it doesn’t, the law should hold that school accountable.
In Illinois today, neither is guaranteed. That’s why we are sponsoring HB4990, which passed the Illinois Senate on a bipartisan vote and is currently pending in the Illinois House, to help change that.
Illinois first passed the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act a decade ago, and it was a real step forward. But the law currently lags behind our knowledge of how sexual violence occurs, and it lacks meaningful accountability and enforcement measures to ensure our colleges and universities are following the law and protecting student survivors.
HB4990 fixes the gaps that exist in current law. It finally includes protections against digital sexual harassment, including the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images that can follow a student on the internet. It extends confidentiality protections to survivors of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, not just sexual assault. It lets a student bring both a support person and a complaint adviser into a campus proceeding, because no 19-year-old should have to sit alone across from the student who harmed them, their attorney and a college decision-maker.
It also makes clear that supportive measures last as long as a survivor needs them and that a student’s major cannot be used as a reason to deny their supportive measures. These supportive measures can mean the difference between a survivor staying in school or facing career and financial repercussions such as the survivor in the Cornell case, who left school without financial reimbursement or redress even after reporting. Survivors shouldn’t have to choose between staying in school and reporting, but the research tells a sobering story about what reporting actually costs students. Among survivors who reported to their schools, 39% experienced substantial disruption to their education.
Most importantly, HB4990 gives the law teeth. Current law requires schools to report their comprehensive policies and number of reports and investigations to the attorney general’s office. However, in 2024, out of the more than 170 institutions to submit, only 72 submitted all components as required.
The enforcement mechanism in these changes to the law is about ensuring survivors have individual recourse when an institution fails them, and it ultimately shifts the power imbalance to ensure survivors reporting to their institution means something. A survivor should not have to wait two years and go viral before anyone in authority takes a second look at how their school treated them. HB4990 creates a civil cause of action against institutions that show deliberate indifference to a survivor’s safety, and it gives the attorney general authority to enforce the law, so that holding a school accountable never depends on a news cycle.
Every college in Illinois tells students it takes sexual violence seriously. HB4990 would ensure they live up to this commitment. We urge our colleagues in the General Assembly to pass the bill and make sure that when a student in our state comes forward, they are met with protection and support.
State Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, represents the 54th District, and state Sen. Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, represents the 20th District.
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