Jersey City, N.J. – August 20, 2014 – Saint Peter’s University today announced a joint initiative with the CarePoint Health Foundation to educate higher education and community leaders about the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. The CarePoint Health Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to health, wellness and health education to the residents of Hudson County, N.J., has partnered with Saint Peter’s to develop a conference titled, “The Campus Accountability and Safety Act: Navigating Compliance Issues and the Challenges of Campus Sexual Assaults.” The conference will be held Tuesday, October 7 on the Saint Peter’s University campus.
The Campus Accountability and Safety Act is a bipartisan bill, which takes aim at sexual assaults on college campuses and requires schools to release data about campus attacks. Colleges and universities that fail to comply with the law’s requirements will face significant financial penalties. The bill was introduced by eight senators from across the country in July 2014. The conference at Saint Peter’s will explore what college and community leaders need to know about this act. A panel of experts will discuss the nature of the continued challenge of sexual assaults on college campuses as well as best practices in complying with the rules that accompany the new campus sexual assault regulation.
“A startling number of sexual assaults occur on college campuses every day and unfortunately, a large majority of them go unreported,” said Eugene J. Cornacchia, Ph.D., president of Saint Peter’s University. “We are very proud to be leading the charge in raising awareness about this important issue and the new regulation surrounding it. We look forward to partnering once again with the CarePoint Health Foundation.”
“We were thrilled with the outcome of our previous initiative with Saint Peter’s, which was a seminar on human trafficking,” said Paula Nevoso, vice president of the CarePoint Health Foundation. “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to partner with Saint Peter’s again to increase public awareness about campus sexual assaults, another serious and relevant issue.”
The event will be held on Tuesday, October 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in The Duncan Family Sky Room of the Mac Mahon Student Center at Saint Peter’s University. The panel of experts includes Patricia Teffenhart, MPA, executive director of the NJ Coalition Against Sexual Assault; Ruth Anne Koenick, director of the office for violence prevention and victim assistance at Rutgers University; La’Shawn Rivera, director of sexual violence response at Columbia University; and Michelle Fine, Ph.D., distinguished professor at CUNY Graduate Center.
To register for this conference, please contact Janet Estremera at (201) 795-8000 or carepointhealthfoundation@gmail.com by September 22, 2014.
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Saint Peter’s University, inspired by its Jesuit, Catholic identity, commitment to individual attention and grounding in the liberal arts, educates a diverse community of learners in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs to excel intellectually, lead ethically, serve compassionately and promote justice in our ever-changing urban and global environment. To learn more, please visit www.saintpeters.edu.
Carepoint Health Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening access to care for uninsured and underinsured members of the Hudson County community. The Foundation generates charitable dollars and makes strategic grants to support programs and services that advance its mission of improving access to health, wellness, health education and future health professionals’ education services for residents of Hudson County, New Jersey.