The University of Maryland student government association has approved a $34 annual fee to support the school’s Title IX enforcement efforts involving sexual violence.
The move was prompted by the university Title IX director’s complaints that the school wasn’t adequately funding services to prevent and respond to sexual assault, reports BuzzFeed. The director said she needed to hire more staff to address the growing number of sexual misconduct reports but that she wasn’t receiving enough funding from the school. The Title IX office’s budget has grown from $643,000 two years ago to more than $1 million.
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Currently, it takes 140 days for the university to investigate sexual assault cases. The school’s Title IX office received 243 reports of sexual misconduct last year, which is more than twice as many compared to the 2014-2015 school year. The office has three investigators, and the director says they are becoming burned out.
If the university president and board of regents approve the fee, it will go into effect next fall.
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Campus Safety reported in 2015 that the University of North Carolina Board of Governors approved a $30 annual campus security fee, which was expected to raise $5.4 million a year for police officer salaries, investigators and counselors, as well as federal safety regulation compliance efforts. However, the University of Maryland appears to be the first U.S. institution to charge fees specifically for Title IX enforcement.
