ASHE SCHOW: New campus sexual assault laws go into effect in Virginia.

Three new laws aimed to curb campus sexual assault in Virginia went into effect on July 1.

Two of the laws deal with reporting requirements for colleges and police departments. The other law, regarding transcript notations, has created some confusion.

Local station WHSV reported that, under the new law, “Any student under investigation for an offense involving sexual violence will have a special notation on their transcript.”

This is not what the law says, however. The law actually states that schools must “include a prominent notation on the academic transcript of each student who has been suspended for, has been permanently dismissed for, or withdraws from the institution while under investigation for an offense involving sexual violence under the institution’s code, rules or set of standards governing student conduct…”

So no, students under investigation will not have their transcripts noted unless they subsequently withdraw from the university while the investigation is ongoing.

Also, universities under the law would be required to “adopt a procedure for removing such notation from the academic transcript of any student who is subsequently found not to have committed an offense involving sexual violence under the institution’s code, rules or set of standards governing student conduct.”

Of course, the likelihood of a student being able to overturn a finding of responsible after the notation has been made is probably rather slim.

While it is good news that this law doesn’t automatically condemn students just for being accused (the whole process does that already), there are still problems with the other laws that went into effect on Wednesday.

Both laws dealing with reporting requirements use the term “victim” throughout, indicating a clear bias against the accused. This has been a common issue with campus sexual assault bills.

Read the whole thing.