University asks Scott Walker to change campus rape reporting rules [Updated]

Update: After this article was published, a University of Wisconsin spokesperson said that it was actually the university that requested that Gov. Scott Walker scrap a requirement that campuses report allegations of sexual assaults to the state because the university already reports similar information to the federal government. You can read the entire AP story here. Our original report is below.

**

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R)'s proposed budget would probably strike most people as a pretty boring read. But Jezebel has discovered "a non-fiscal bombshell" inside the budget: a plan to stop universities from reporting sexual assaults on campus.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The budget, if approved, would cut $300 million from the state's public university system. But just after a section on student tuition bills, Walker's budget asks the state to "delete language related to sexual assault information and reporting." In that section, Walker proposes the state should "delete the requirement that any person employed at an institution who witnesses a sexual assault on campus or receives a report from a student enrolled in the institution that the student has been sexually assaulted report the assault to the dean of students."

If Walker's budget proposal is approved, universities would no longer be required to report their numbers of campus sexual assaults to the Department of Justice. And university employees who witness sexual assault would have no obligation to report the event. The budget also asks the state to delete its requirement that school orientation programs provide information on sexual assault for new students.