Supporting the goals and ideals of National Campus Safety Awareness Month.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 90) supporting the goals and ideals of National Campus Safety Awareness Month.

Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on House Resolution 90 into the Record.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 90, which recognizes the importance of safety on college campuses and promotes the idea of National Campus Safety.

As a community college professor for 20 years and the author of a California bill, the Campus Sexual Assault Safety Act, I understand firsthand how vital campus safety is to enhancing the learning experiences of its students, but more importantly, how raising awareness can serve to prevent campus violence.

We have witnessed this in several tragic cases, for instance, in the case of the death of Jeanne Clery in the late 1980s, who was a freshman at Lehigh University. On April 5, 1986, Jeanne was beaten, raped and murdered in her dormitory room. Jeanne's case brought college campus safety to the forefront when it exposed flaws in the reporting of crime information related to violence on colleges campuses.

At that time, both violent and nonviolent incidents were reported to campus authorities, but administrators had no legal obligation to disclose violent college crimes to the public. In the aftermath of Jeanne's murder, her parents, Connie and Howard Clery, founded Security on Campus, Inc., to end violence on all college campuses.

It is a nonprofit, grass-roots organization dedicated to making campuses safe. Partnering with over 150 colleges from 42 States, Security on Campus, Inc., offers educational programs on sexual assault, alcohol and drugs. Over the past few years, we have seen how important it is to pay attention to our students' safety on campus. It is unfortunate that it takes tragic events like those occurring at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois for us to remember that crimes take place on college campuses all over the country.

More recently, Annie Le, a Yale University graduate student was allegedly murdered and found dead on campus the day she planned to marry her college sweetheart. The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act last year took new action to improve campus safety. It required each educational institution to clearly articulate a method to disseminate emergency notifications to the entire campus body in the case of an emergency. The law also includes measures to ensure that campus preparedness employees coordinate with local law enforcement and emergency management authorities to improve responses to campus emergencies.

Campus safety is relevant, important and necessary. Anyone can become a victim of a campus crime, and it is imperative that students are taught how to avoid dangerous situations. Congress must continue to encourage institutions to update their campus security plans and ensure systems are in place to deal with all types of emergencies. As we commemorate National Campus Safety Awareness Month in September, let us focus our efforts on educating our students about campus safety. Students need to be reminded every year about practical precautions to increase their safety.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I express my support for National Campus Safety Awareness Month and thank Representative Sestak for bringing this resolution forward. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the sponsor of this resolution, Mr. Sestak, for 4 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) for 3 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this month students will return to their

colleges and universities with the anticipation that surrounds a new academic year. And yet we are reminded that these young people will not be immune from unique challenges that face all of us in every community throughout this Nation. The tragic shootings of two students last October at the University of Central Arkansas, the shootings at Virginia Tech which ended in the death of 32 people, and the shootings at Northern Illinois University, where 24 people were shot and six died, emphasize the importance of the issue of campus safety.

The Department of Education has found that between 2005 and 2007 there were not only 10,000 forcible sex offenses, 16,000 aggravated assaults, and 3,000 cases of arson, but also 117 homicides on the campuses of colleges and universities throughout this country. Between one-fifth and one-fourth of female students will become the victims of a completed or an attempted rape, usually by someone they know during their undergraduate careers, and yet less than 5 percent of the cases are ever reported.

Additionally, the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has found that each year there are over 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 who will die from unintentional alcohol-related injuries, including motor vehicle accidents. As we reflect on the significance of this data, we come to understand why this resolution is so important. Originally introduced by a colleague on the other side of this aisle in 2005, this resolution builds on the work of a nonprofit organization, Security on Campus, which is located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in my district.

The organization was founded by the parents of a 19-year-old college freshman, Jeanne Clery, who was raped and killed in her college dorm in 1986. In 2008, thanks to the work of this organization, 350 colleges came together from 42 States and the city of Washington, D.C. to participate in programs on campus safety. Although this resolution is far from the final step to guarantee security on the campuses of our Nation's colleges and universities, it is an important step, along with establishing a National Center for Campus Public Safety towards addressing an issue that we all care about, the security of our children.

I urge all my colleagues to show their concern for the safety of the more than 15 million students throughout the country who are the true motivation behind this great resolution. And I appreciate all of the support and the ideas from the other side. I encourage my colleagues, throughout this great House, to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from California (Ms. Chu) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Sestak) for their leadership on the issue of campus safety.

I rise in support of H. Res. 90, a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of the National Campus Safety Awareness Month. This resolution helps bring awareness to the issue of campus safety. Each year, college campuses across the Nation see a number of criminal offenses, including homicide, forcible sex offenses, aggravated assaults and arson occurring on their campuses. A recent example is the unfortunate murder that occurred at Yale University just a few weeks ago.

Additionally, over the past few years we have seen numerous tragedies occur at colleges and universities, including the disastrous events that occurred at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. National Campus Safety Awareness Month provides an opportunity for campuses to evaluate their campus safety practices and engage in efforts to improve campus safety.

In addition to Campus Safety Awareness Month, one way in which we can improve campus safety would be to provide a one-stop shop for universities to obtain safety information. This is why I introduced the Center to Advance, Monitor and Preserve University Security, or the CAMPUS, Safety Act of 2009.

The purpose of this legislation is to enable our institutions of higher education to easily obtain the best information available on how to keep our campuses safe and how to respond in the event of a campus emergency. The CAMPUS Safety Act creates a National Center for Campus Public Safety, which will be administered through the Department of Justice. The center is designed to train campus public safety agencies in state-of-the-art practices to ensure campus safety, encourage research to strengthen college campus safety and security, and serve as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of relevant campus public safety information.

This bill passed the House of Representatives in February. It also passed last year, but it still awaits action from the Senate. Once the National Center for Campus Public Safety is established it, along with events like the National Campus Awareness Month, will be able to greatly assist schools in assessing their campus safety initiatives.

I commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Sestak) for introducing this resolution to bring awareness to this issue and urge my colleagues to support this important resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

I rise in support of House Resolution 90, a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Campus Safety Month. I would like to thank my colleague, Representative Sestak, for introducing this important resolution recognizing the importance of safety on college campuses and the efforts of outside organizations to dedicate September to promoting greater public awareness of campus safety issues.

Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have seen how important it is to pay attention to our students' safety on campus. Sadly, college campuses are faced with the same crimes that plague many of our country's cities. Whether it be situations involving one individual, like the tragic murder of Annie Le at Yale University, or situations that involve the whole campus, like what occurred several years ago at Virginia Tech, colleges should continue to take steps to make sure the campus community is aware of activities on campus. A more informed population is often a safer population.

To that end, Congress took several steps in the Higher Education Opportunity Act last year to encourage institutions to update their campus security plans and ensure that they have steps in place to deal with all different types of emergencies.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution is especially timely this week as millions of students have left their homes and begun their fall semesters at colleges around the country. And I am pleased to support this resolution and urge my colleagues to do the same. And just as a sidebar--this didn't occur on a college campus--but one of the most distressing things that I have seen in my recent memory was the death of this young honor student in Chicago. And I think this just goes to safety on all campuses. I pray for that family and for that city with this terrible tragedy.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time. I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for this resolution.