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Panel advances campus-safety bill requiring new-student training, reporting and opioid education at public colleges
Summary
The subcommittee approved H5205 requiring institutions of higher learning to provide new-student safety training within 30 days, report campus crime summaries to CHE/Tech Board and SLED, and make opioid/fentanyl prevention education and naloxone training available to staff and students at public institutions.
The Senate Education subcommittee voted to advance H5205 after adopting a subcommittee amendment that added opioid and fentanyl prevention education and eased several penalties from the House bill.
Katie Grinstead, who staffed the bill, told the committee the measure would require institutions of higher learning to develop and implement a safety program for all new students, administered within the first 30 days of arrival on campus. The program must include the components listed in the bill and each institution must submit an annual summary of that training, including delivery methods and materials, to the Commission on Higher Education or the State Tech Board and to SLED. Grinstead said the required summary should also include, to the extent possible, counts of criminal reports alleging homicide, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor-vehicle larceny and arson, and whether alleged victims and alleged offenders were affiliated with the institution at the time of the report.
The subcommittee amendment requires public institutions to make opioid and fentanyl prevention education available to enrolled students, to provide training on administration of opioid reversal medications to staff assigned to residence halls, and to allow institutions to obtain, possess and store overdose-reversal medications. Grinstead said some of the harsher penalties in the original House version were removed in the subcommittee amendment.
Senator Elliott, subcommittee chairman from Greenville, said the reporting requirement largely formalizes data universities already produce and noted the amendment applies to public institutions only when Senator Rice sought clarification. After brief discussion, the committee adopted the amendment and voted the bill a favorable report.
