For Immediate Release May 22, 2003

Colleges and universities often handle campus crimes internally rather than them being prosecuted in the criminal courts, or will run their own parallel proceedings in addition to a criminal prosecution. Previously all information from these campus proceedings, however, had been protected as a part of a student's confidential educational record despite a 1998 change in federal law allowing states to make this information public.

Expulsion is the strongest sanction that can be handed out by these proceedings, although lesser punishments are common according to crime victim advocates.

"Colleges will now have to warn other students when they allow a potentially dangerous student to remain on campus," said S. Daniel Carter the Knoxville based Vice President of Security On Campus, Inc. a campus safety and victims' rights organization that supported the legislation. "Tennessee's college students will be able to make more informed decisions about avoiding victimization on campus."

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Harry Brooks (R-Knoxville) and Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), will also allow violent crime victims to be told the results of disciplinary proceedings against their alleged assailants regardless of the outcome, make it clear that information about registered sex offenders on campus can be disclosed, and allow parents of students who are under 21 to be told if their child is disciplined for an alcohol or drug violation.

A copy of Public Chapter 105 can be downloaded from the Tennessee state web site at http://www.state.tn.us/sos/acts/103/pub/pc0105.pdf in Adobe's Portable Document Format.