 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2018) |
| Council overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | January 22, 2014 |
| Jurisdiction | United States |
| Headquarters | White House |
| Employees | 9+ |
| Council executives |
|
| Parent Council | Office of the Vice President of the United States andWhite House Council on Women and Girls |
TheWhite House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault was formed on January 22, 2014, after PresidentBarack Obama directed theOffice of the Vice President of the United States and theWhite House Council on Women and Girls to "strengthen and address compliance issues and provide institutions with additional tools to respond to and address rape and sexual assault".[1][2][3] The Task Force is part of a wider federal move to bring awareness to sexual violence on American campuses, which also included theOffice for Civil Rights release of a list of American higher education institutions with open Title IX sexual violence investigations and theIt's On Us public awareness campaign. The co-chairs of the Task Force are Vice PresidentJoe Biden andSenior Advisor to the PresidentValerie Jarrett.[1][failed verification]
While formed through an official government memorandum on January 22, 2014, the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault exists as part of a lineage of government interventions against sexual violence, notably theWhite House Council on Women and Girls formed in 2009 and theViolence Against Women Act first drafted by Biden when he was a senator in 1994.[4] Simultaneously, activists withinThe New Campus Anti-Rape Movement have pushed for legislative changes in the ways the U.S. government enforces regulations, as demonstrated in the collaborations between nationally recognized activists and U.S. senators.[5]
Since the end of the Obama presidency, the Task Force has not issued any reports and has not been revived since under the Biden administration. The website NotAlone.gov, launched as part of the Task Force initiation, has since become unavailable.[6]
The Task Force was created to protect students from sexual assault, to help improve the safety of American college and university campuses, and to help American colleges and universities to "meet their obligations" and be in compliance with federal regulations in this area.[1][2][3]
By 2016, the Task Force, in collaboration with federal agencies, produced training, messaging and guidance materials "concerning sexual assault in educational spaces," which can be found in a public-facingResource GuideArchived March 31, 2016, at theWayback Machine.[7] Reporting in 2017 indicated an increase in investigations.[8]
Obama specified in his official memorandum those people who are to be members of the Task Force.[1] Those individuals includeJoe Biden or his designee;Valerie Jarrett or her designee; the Attorney General; the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Secretary of Education; the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; the Director of the Domestic Policy Council; the Cabinet Secretary; and agency or office heads as may be designated by the co-chairs.[1][failed verification]
| International | |
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| National | |
