M
90 years
THE MUR R AY STATE
NEWS
of excellence
October 12, 2017 | Vol. 92, No. 7
REPORTS ON THE RISE State responds to grim sex crime reality
Lindsey Coleman
Assistant News Editor lcoleman7@murraystate.edu
Sabra Jackson Staff writer
sjackson30@murraystate.edu
Reported sex-related crimes at Murray State are increasing this semester, but lawmakers are vowing to step up efforts to combat this state-wide problem. On Monday, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear addressed Western Kentucky University students in support of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, saying he refuses to live with the reality of nearly one in two Kentucky women experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime. Through a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Beshear said the Kentucky Attorney General’s office will receive federal funds for the creation of a unit devoted to seeking justice for the victims of sex-related crimes who have been denied justice “for far too long.” Beshear said the funds will be used for investigating sexual assault cases, hiring another Kentucky State Police detective focused on sexual assaults and paying for testing more rape kits. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), women in college are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted than the average woman. RAINN also reported 11.2 percent of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence or incapacitation. The Murray State Police Department crime logs show nine sex-related crimes reported on campus so far this semester, all of which were committed by an acquaintance of the victim. Though these nine sex-related crimes have been reported this semester thus
far, there has been a total of 15 already in 2017, tying the number reported for all of 2016. In 2014, ten total cases of sex-related 10 crimes were reported and 13 were reported in 2015.
EDUCATION AND RESPONSE
Abigail Cox, coordinator of the Women’s Center and University Counseling Services, said while the university sees an increase in reporting, it does not mean sexually violent crimes have risen. “Increased reporting is a positive trend as it is indicative of an increased awareness of reporting options and resources for survivors,” Cox said. Cox emphasized bystander intervention when she attended 25 classes in the past academic year to educate students on the following topics: advocacy, when a student might need advocacy and why advocacy is important. “This increased awareness leads directly to increased reporting and utilization of support services,” Cox said. Cox said bystander intervention is being introduced to middle schools and high schools through The Green Dot program. “Parents can reinforce these messages by encouraging their child to be an active bystander, not just in relation to sexual violence, but bullying harassment, bigotry, etc.,” Cox said. Murray State University has counseling services available for sexual assault victims through Sexual Assault Response Team, the Murray State University Police Department, University Counseling Services, the Women’s Center and the Purchase Area Sexual Assault Center.
REPORTS AND WARNINGS
“We have made it a very purposeful action on our part, at the police department and the university in general, to
make reporting easier, to make people more aware of how they can report, why they should report and it was intentional,” James Herring, chief of police at the Murray State Police Department, said. When he was hired at the police department, he said he made it his goal to make it easier for students to report assaults and other instances that occur on campus. While some students may feel unsafe about the perceived increase of sexual assaults, Herring said these reports should make them feel safer because the process for reporting has gotten easier. “We feel like the reporting is the first step in getting resources and getting institutional support to back up the student and say, ‘Hey, we are here for you,’” Herring said. Each time a sexual assault is reported to anyone at the university, it must be reported to the police department. Each report then goes into a process to evaluate whether it should be issued as a timely warning. This process can be found in the ‘Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting’ on the Murray State Police Department website. Students are encouraged to read each timely warning to gain information on how to prevent sexual assaults. “You have students who see these required timely warnings come out, and they are not reading what it says,” Herring said. Timely warnings include facts such as 72 percent of sexual assaults involve people who know each other. Herring said this information is included to warn students about who they know and spend time with. “The information in the timely warnings is often overlooked, but it provides information that is important for staying safe,” Herring said.
2 9
REPORTED CASES OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS ON CAMPUS FILED CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS
OUT
OF
ON CAMPUS SEX-RELATED CRIMES BY CLASSIFICATION
1
SEXUAL ASSAULT
4
SEXUAL ABUSE
3
RAPE
1
SODOMY
SEXUAL ASSAULT
Any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.
SEXUAL ABUSE
Sexual contact by forcible compulsion or without consent
RAPE
Penetration without consent
SODOMY
Deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion or without consent
Graphic courtesy of Savanna Hatfield & Austin Gordon
All statistics have been compiled from the Murray State Crime and Fire Logs and the 2017 Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report.
Pension crisis could cost university $4.7 million Ashley Traylor News Editor
atraylor@murraystate.edu
Changes to the Commonwealth’s underfunded pension system loom over colleges and universities, as these changes would hit their already strained operating budgets. “The anxiety level on our campus is very high because of the uncertainty,” Jackie Dudley, vice president of finance and administrative services, said. “It’s just unrest and uneasiness for someone that you might look at that is 55 to 60 years old thinking ‘I might be retiring in a few years.’ You’re in a position now to think ‘I don’t even know what I’m going to get in a few years.’” Gov. Matt Bevin hired PFM consulting group to analyze the state’s retirement plan, and they made recommendations to solve the pension crisis. Gov. Bevin plans to call a special legislative session this month to discuss PFM’s suggestions and reform the plan. While lawmakers have yet to decide how to reduce the deficit, colleges and uni-
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versities could be facing an increase in the amount of pension contributions they are currently paying in for faculty and staff. The pension crisis could potentially take revenue away from other campus priorities. Dudley said currently for every dollar an employee makes, Murray State contributes 49.47 cents to the state’s retirement system. She said that number is proposed to increase to 84 cents for every dollar an employee makes. If that occurs, Dudley said it will cost the university approximately $4.7 million in expenditure that they are not incurring today. The budget challenges also come at a time when Kentucky public universities have already faced limited budgets and steep cuts to higher education. The contribution rates have not been approved for the upcoming fiscal year, but doubling the rate will have an impact on Murray State. Dudley said the increased expenditure will impact university decisions on salary raises, priorities the institution funds
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and tuition rates. “We can’t increase tuition to that magnitude,” Dudley said. “There’s just absolutely no way. We can’t put funding on the backs of students. You can’t increase it to that magnitude and we won’t, but then you have to find a way to deal with it. That will be program prioritization, and it will be efficiencies we continue to fund and identify. It will be new revenues, and it will be to some degree cuts in operating budgets. This is an overriding issue for us this year.” Because the pension crisis is consuming revenue that could be spent on campus, Dudley said the state schools gathered to discuss breaking away from the state pension plan. The model would be similar to the contribution plans at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville, which do not participate in the state plan but have their own optional retirement plan (ORP). At the University of Kentucky, employees contribute 5 percent of their base salary to the retirement system, and
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the university contributes 10 percent of the employee’s base salary, according to their benefits and retirement website. The University of Louisville has two contribution plans employees can choose from: a 403(b) retirement plan and two 457(b) deferred compensation plans. In the 403(b) plan, the university contributes 7.5 percent of the employee’s base salary and the employee has the option to contribute or not. If the employee makes additional contributions to the retirement plan, the university will match up to 2.5 percent. The deferred compensation plan, 457(b), allows employees the option to defer compensation on a pre-tax basis through payroll deduction. If Murray State broke away from the state pension system, the university would have a school-operated defined contribution program, where an employee contributes a percentage of their base salary and the employer would contribute a flat rate. Dudley said new hires would not have the option to partici-
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pate in the state pension plan, only the university’s defined contribution program. Current university employees who are under the state’s retirement plans would not be able to opt out of those programs for the school-operated plan. Murray State has two pension systems: Kentucky Education Retirement System (KERS) and Kentucky Teacher Retirement System (KTRS). All faculty at Murray State fall under KTRS. A faculty member then has the choice between a defined benefit plan or a defined contribution plan. Faculty under the KTRS plan can choose a defined benefit plan, or an optional retirement plan. For a defined benefit plan, an employee and an employer make contributions to the retirement system, and when the employee retires, he or she receives the same payment for life. In contrast, an ORP means they will not join the state system. An ORP is a defined contribution plan and the employee could set up their own ‘tax shelter’ or 401K plan. For a defined contribution plan,
an employee and an employer make a contribution and that is invested in the market. Right now under the ORP option, Murray State is contributing 8.74 percent of an employee’s salary to their defined contribution plan. If the university were to elect a school-operated plan, it could avoid the 84 percent contribution rate that is proposed by PFM for the state-funded program. The contribution rate is legislatively set at 8.74 percent currently, but Dudley said there is the possibility that schools will be able to adjust the rate if they move to a school-operated program. For years, the state has not appropriated and invested money into the pension for it to remain fully funded, resulting in the state having only 37.4 percent of the money to pay retirees. “That’s one of the contributing factors that we had that we’re having to pay the price for now because prior legislation decisions were made,” Dudley said. “It’s going to be a tough year.”
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