The University of California Office of the President invites comments on proposed revisions to the Presidential Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment. The proposed revisions are to: (i) comply with a new state law, Senate Bill (SB) 493, and (ii) better account for Prohibited Conduct in the clinical setting.
Senate Bill 493
UC must comply with SB 493 by January 1, 2022. The legislation was authored by former Senator Jackson of Santa Barbara and sponsored by Equal Rights Advocates and the Women’s Foundation of California. It was motivated largely by concerns, which UC shares, about potential adverse effects of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2020 amendments to the federal Title IX regulations. UC policies and implementing frameworks already codify most of SB 493’s requirements. Some other requirements are met in practice but not currently written in policy. Implementing revisions to the SVSH Policy are therefore limited, and include: