The University of Missouri Board of Curators unanimously ratified changes in rules governing sexual assault and discrimination Thursday.
The changes come from an executive order put forward last week by University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe aimed at toughening university responses to Title IX violations.
Wolfe told the curators he pledged at the beginning of the year to invest in making Missouri campuses safe and secure for students, faculty and staff.
“We weren’t victim friendly," he said. "We didn’t create an environment that made it OK for people to come forward."
The new rules require employees to promptly report complaints and give the university roughly two months to wrap up investigations.
Wolfe said Missouri needs to be part of the national conversation on how to improve the rate of reporting. The president said only about ten percent of the victims of sexual discrimination - assault, harassment or other forms of discrimination - are reported to authorities.
The university president told the curators he’d put an excess of $1 million into training employees and investigators to improve safety and security on Missouri campuses.
The tougher rules come at a time when Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla is on a list of campuses nationwide under federal investigation for Title IX violations.
