STAND. COM. REP. NO 459

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 397

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Higher Education and the Arts and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 397 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii for positions and materials to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System; Hawaii Women's Coalition; Planned Parenthood of Hawaii; and six individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

     Your Committees find that ending sexual violence on college campuses will need comprehensive and sustained efforts to provide awareness and prevention education and training to change attitudes and behaviors of students, faculty, and staff.  Also required are effective response, intervention, investigation, and access to justice when sexual violence offenses occur.  This measure seeks to provide resources to the University of Hawaii to ensure compliance with federal mandates to address sexual violence on campus.

     Your Committees further find that more discussion on the allocation of funds is necessary to assure ongoing support is provided to university students and for higher education programs providing sexual violence prevention education.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the specific dollar amount of the appropriation to the University of Hawaii;

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

     (3)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and the Arts and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 397, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 397, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and the Arts and Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair