--- title: Sexual Assault Record College Transcripts Proposed Bill description: Rep. Jackie Speier proposed a bill that would require colleges to indicate sexual assault records on student transcripts. canonical: https://time.com/4596813/sexual-assault-transcripts-bill/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-09T21:07:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:05.141Z og:title: Bill Would Require Colleges to Put Sexual Assault Records on Transcripts og:description: It was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week og:url: https://time.com/4596813/sexual-assault-transcripts-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc809e799128a0d7a/6988b280a988ca62086ba6aa/jackie-speier-sexual-assault-college-transcripts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: Women's Health Presser og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Would Require Colleges to Put Sexual Assault Records on Transcripts twitter:description: It was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc809e799128a0d7a/6988b280a988ca62086ba6aa/jackie-speier-sexual-assault-college-transcripts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill Would Require Colleges to Put Sexual Assault Records on Transcripts > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=62a44f92-20ff-47dc-b522-9f5be9f3e683&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1)  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Dec 9, 2016 9:07 PM UTC  Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., attends a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center to oppose efforts to defund women's health care, January 6, 2016\. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., attends a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center to oppose efforts to defund women's health care, January 6, 2016\. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call,Inc.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Dec 9, 2016 9:07 PM UTC A proposed bill would require colleges to indicate on students’ transcripts if they’ve been punished for [sexual assault](http://motto.time.com/4359689/stanford-attacker-victim-support/?iid=sr-link4), [BuzzFeed reported](https://www.buzzfeed.com/tylerkingkade/campus-rape-transcripts?utm%5Fterm=.xsqkklLnM#.cwVyyDqY4). Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California and advocate for [survivors of sexual assault and harassment](https://speier.house.gov/issues/campus-sexual-assault), introduced the [Safe Transfer Act](https://speier.house.gov/sites/speier.house.gov/files/wysiwyg%5Fuploaded/SPEIER%5FSafe%20Transfer%20Act%20bill%20text.pdf) into the U.S. House of Representatives this week. It would require schools to indicate any punishment given for sexual assault to remain on a student’s transcript for five years after graduation. Schools would also be required to notify graduate schools applied to by a student found responsible of sexual assault about the record. Additionally, if a student who was under investigation by the school for sexual assault transferred institutions, the investigation would still be indicated on his or her transcript for one year. The bill, however, would allow require students who are found responsible of sexual assault to be notified that it would be marked on their transcript and allow them to write a statement to accompany it, [according to Inside Higher Ed](https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/12/09/bill-would-require-transcripts-note-violation-sexual-assault-policies). “Universities and colleges are perfectly willing to include academic infractions like plagiarism on students’ records, yet students who have committed sexual assault can walk away from campus with a clean academic bill of health,” Speier said in a statement, [according to BuzzFeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/tylerkingkade/campus-rape-transcripts?utm%5Fterm=.xsqkklLnM#.cwVyyDqY4). “This is appalling and, whether intentional or not, shows that acts of sexual violence on campus are less serious than cheating. My bill will ensure that students who try to transfer schools to avoid the consequences of their violent acts will, at a minimum, face the same consequences as students who transfer because they’ve cheated on an exam.” In recent years, survivors of sexual assault [have pushed](http://www.npr.org/2016/05/11/477656378/push-grows-for-a-scarlet-letter-on-transcripts-of-campus-sexual-offenders) for colleges to indicate records of sexual assault on transcripts. Virginia and New York [are the only two states](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/07/10/states-requiring-colleges-note-sexual-assault-responsibility-student-transcripts) that have laws on the books requiring higher education institutions to note on transcripts if a student was suspended or expelled for sexually assaulting another student. Speier’s proposal has garnered support from the National Organization for Women, the Association of Title IX Administrators and End Rape on Campus. But it’s unclear how Speier’s proposal will fare in the Republican-controlled Congress. Virginia state lawmakers, before ultimately passing the state law, expressed concern [that the practice](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/13/sexual-assault-transcripts%5Fn%5F7036590.html) would brand students with a “Scarlett letter.” Andrew Miltenberg, an attorney who often represents students accused of sexual assault, told BuzzFeed that Speier’s bill “really leaves very little in the way of protections for the accused.” \[[BuzzFeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/tylerkingkade/campus-rape-transcripts?utm%5Fterm=.xsqkklLnM#.cwVyyDqY4)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4596813/sexual-assault-transcripts-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4596813/sexual-assault-transcripts-bill/"},"headline":"Bill Would Require Colleges to Put Sexual Assault Records on Transcripts","datePublished":"2016-12-09T21:07:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:05.141Z","description":"'Students who have committed sexual assault can walk away…with a clean academic bill of health’","url":"https://time.com/4596813/sexual-assault-transcripts-bill/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc809e799128a0d7a/6988b280a988ca62086ba6aa/jackie-speier-sexual-assault-college-transcripts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc809e799128a0d7a/6988b280a988ca62086ba6aa/jackie-speier-sexual-assault-college-transcripts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Women's Health Presser","caption":"Women's Health Presser","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call,Inc.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4596813/sexual-assault-transcripts-bill/","name":"Bill Would Require Colleges to Put Sexual Assault Records on Transcripts"}}]}] ```