U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro

Connecticut’s two congresswomen have joined 37 of their colleagues to call on the U.S. Department of Education to make college safety data readily available for students and parents.

“It is currently difficult for students and parents to find the information they need to make informed decisions about the safety of the colleges and universities they plan to attend,” the lawmakers wrote the department’s Office of Civil Rights last week. (Read the letter here)

The University of Connecticut, the flagship public university in the home state of Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Rep. Elizabeth Esty, is facing scrutiny from students, lawmakers and the federal government for how school officials handle allegations of sexual assault.

In the letter from members of Congress, they ask the department to end the guessing game many parents and students face about whether a campus is safe. They would like the department, at the least, to have a hub where the public can find out which schools the Office of Civil Rights is investigating, safety statistics and any previous agreements and fines issued to schools for violating the federal laws aimed at ensuring that students are safe on campus.

“More transparency is essential to hold colleges and universities accountable for their obligations, and to show survivors that there will be enforcement of those obligations by making the agreements public,” they wrote.

A video call on the letter from some of the co-authors is scheduled for Tuesday at 3 p.m. Watch it here.

Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

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