<p>Per Sullivan</p>
<p>This is hardly a bold step. The campus closes for Thanksgiving break and then its only 2 more weeks until the semester is over. PR move that hopes to quiet things down until the start of next semester. Sullivan has shown no interest to make any real changes.</p>
<p>It is a smart move for everyone to do this. It is probably more of a safety decision than a punitive decision</p>
<p>To me this was not punative at all. They are trying to take the minimum action possible to buy time to reassess the situation. </p>
<p>The Dean makes clear what their priorities are when she says they don’t like to give out numbers because no one wants to send their kid to a rape school. </p>
<p>They have not taken strong steps until now because they care about the school’s PR over student safety. Now that the PR will be worse if they do nothing, they do the minimum. </p>
<p>If President Sullivan had any leadership and wanted to know the truth, she would have made a personal appeal for anyone who is aware of any rape that occurred at UVA at any time to please come forward and tell what they know so that justice can be done, and the University can be a model for others.</p>
<p>She did nothing of the sort. Very sad. Unfortunately this is only the tip of this iceberg at UVA and many other colleges. </p>
<p>CNN just ran a segment on UVA and the Rolling Stone article. So glad this has finally gotten some traction. So sad that is takes the spotlight of the press to get Sullivan moving. I am disappointed in her.</p>
<p>Not a fan of how this has been allowed to go on and how there was only any response at all when the Rolling Stone article came out and some PR damage control had to be done. But you are spreading misinformation about Sullivan’s belated response. Did you read her statement? As quoted in the Washington Post:</p>
<p>“As you are aware, I have asked the Charlottesville Police Department to investigate the 2012 assault that is described in Rolling Stone. There are individuals in our community who know what happened that night, and I am calling on them to come forward to the police to report the facts. Only you can shed light on the truth, and it is your responsibility to do so. Alongside this investigation, we as a community must also do a systematic evaluation of our culture to ensure that one of our founding principles — the pursuit of truth — remains a pillar on which we can stand. There is no greater threat to honor than secrecy and indifference.”</p>
<p>I guess she didn’t ask for any others to come forward to discuss other rapes.</p>
<p>But why wasn’t that appeal made to the student body the day the girl went in and talked to Dean Eramo? This is pretty serious stuff. To let those boys continue to walk around that campus is more than negligent. I am also disappointed that the women in the UVA administration did not feel the same outrage that many on this forum have expressed. Are they that jaded? If so, then that says a lot about what has been swept under the rug on that campus.</p>
<p>@mathyone my point is they continue to act in damage control mode with minimal response. While many women have now come forward, they want to try to contain the scope to just one instance because the don’t want to open Pandora’s Box. If they thought these women were lying, and this was not a widespread problem, they would ask others to come forward.
Instead, they act like they fear the truth coming out.</p>
<p>I agree that all allegations should be taken seriously and investigated. I was just responding to the assertion that Sullivan did “nothing of the kind” like asking people with knowledge to come forward. I am not defending how this has been handled. I am very much concerned about it. I just felt your comment didn’t represent her recent statement quite fairly.</p>
<p>This has probably been discussed elsewhere but I haven’t read all the posts on the topic of college rapes and I’m unclear on what actions the University can take if the victim declines to press for an investigation or to file a criminal report. If the victim’s report and identity are confidential, does asking witnesses to come forward compromise this?</p>
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<p>Because it happened in 2012. Because when Dean Eramo spelled out the accuser’s choices, the accuser made a choice. There’s not much that can be done right now other than to protect the kids in frats by shutting them down for awhile until things calm down and to let the police do what they probably should have been doing in 2012. UVa gives accusers a choice how they want to proceed but they are leaving it up to the accuser to make the ultimate decision. Could UVa administration be more heavy handed with accusers and simply call the police in when they hear a report of sexual assault, sure, but that is not legally where we are right now. Perhaps we will get to a point where if it’s forcible assault colleges and universities MUST call the police. If force is not involved then the accuser gets to pick and chose how they want to proceed. </p>
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<p>Honestly, to me the idea that the UVA administrators or anyone else can simply decide not to call the police over a rape or sexual assault case boggles the mind. It makes a mockery of the concept of Clery Act disclosures to me. If the decision to contact the authorities is shrouded in secrecy and privacy, how do we know whose call it really was? Did the administrators browbeat the student into keeping quiet? Did the student make the call to be quiet on her own? </p>
<p>Part of me wants to say that it doesn’t matter – colleges don’t have the discretion to keep quiet about robberies, shootings, etc. even if the victims in those cases decide not to press charges. Sure, they might not call the police but do they do other things to conceal the existence of this problem?</p>
<p>There are good reasons for the UVA policy too but after Penn State I get concerned whenever college administrators start deciding that sexual assault cases should be veiled in secrecy. Sure, they might be doing for the benefit of the victim but I’m no longer at the age where I can just believe that any more.</p>
<p>Really, how about an internal investigation at the time the administration became aware, to make sure those boys weren’t free to do this again? I do do feel in these sort of circumstances there is a duty by the school to take action. I get the feeling that had the girl felt more supported she might have found the courage to file formal charges with the police. But if a student discloses a gang rape to the school’s administration? Some action should have been taken immediately. While we will never know what her conversation sounded like with Dean Eramo, it astounds me that nothing was done. And I do believe that this is what UVA will suffer for. The rape itself is bad enough, but the lack of a timely and appropriate response is just inexcusable.</p>
<p>I agree with mathyone. The incident cited in the Rolling Stone article happened in 2012 under Pres. Sullivan’s watch. There was another article which appeared in 2011 in the Washington Post about a rape which occurred in 1985 and was also swept under the rug - this article was also cited in the RS article. The UVA institutional response to complaints of sexual assault is not new. Perhaps the national exposure of this story will force a much-needed dialogue about how we address and deal with complaints of sexual assaults, both as a society as well as at colleges and universities. As my DH & I discussed this article, I described it as a “teachable moment.” He responded, “No, it’s an indictable moment.” </p>
<p>At the risk of “victim blaming,” I am also wary of jumping on the bandwagon. We need to proceed with caution. Rolling Stone has published several recent articles where facts and quotes were distorted or misrepresented. The 2006 Duke lacrosse rape case turned out to be a false accusation. The rights of the victim should not outweigh the rights of the accused, and visa versa. I am glad that Gov. McAuliffe and Pres. Sullivan have called for a full investigation into this account. If the facts substantiate the allegations, the men who perpetrated this attack should be held accountable for their actions and locked up.</p>
<p>I don’t blame the Greek system alone, although UVA also has a problem of dealing with Greeks (ie. Greeks were also counseled in the past few years for hazing incidents). This is an institutional failure and the byproduct of excessive alcohol consumption. It is unfair to paint the entire UVA community as a “party culture.” As the parent of a UVA graduate, I am both sickened and heartbroken. It is devastating that the criminal actions of a few have overshadowed the accomplishments of many. </p>
<p>UVA will be fine. The girls that are raped…</p>
<p>My immediate reaction, which was “good job UVA,” changed when I realized that most of the time the frats are “closed” is when the school is shut down for the holidays. So it’s a pretty meaningless gesture. Now if she had shut them down for the duration of the school year …</p>
<p>I’m comparing Sullivan’s response to the president of Hobart & William Smith after the NY Times ran a similar story about rape. Sullivan’s is much, much better – but UVA is a public institution so if she tried to swipe this under the rug the politicians would not be happy.</p>
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<p>This. I totally agree. Granted, I understand that the violation endured by a woman from a rape is different than a robbery. But an alleged crime is an alleged crime, and this one was particularly grievous. </p>
<p>I wish people would stop using the Duke lacrosse thing to try to justify not investigating campus rapes. If UVAs numbers are to be trusted, there are approximately 500 campus rapes per year and zero expelled or prosecuted rapists.</p>
<p>The Duke case was suspect from the beginning, within a month it was clear there was no case, and the prosecutor ended up being disbarred. </p>
<p>"I wish people would stop using the Duke lacrosse thing to try to justify not investigating campus rapes. If UVAs numbers are to be trusted, there are approximately 500 campus rapes per year and zero expelled or prosecuted rapists.</p>
<p>The Duke case was suspect from the beginning, within a month it was clear there was no case, and the prosecutor ended up being disbarred."</p>
<p>I agree. The troubling thing is that to do that, you have to pretend that the issue is only about one case for that to be valid at all. The statistic I saw was that women falsify accusations about 8% of the time, so when you make it about one case it is at least plausible. </p>
<p>However, with the number of independent events being reported where the women do not know each other at all, there is zero chance that the significant majority of these accusations aren’t true. </p>
<p>Where does the 500 number come from? The number I read was 38 with 9 women choosing to go forward and 4 cases being decided by the college panel. The results are not available due to privacy concerns.</p>
<p>“Because it happened in 2012. Because when Dean Eramo spelled out the accuser’s choices, the accuser made a choice. There’s not much that can be done right now other than to protect the kids in frats by shutting them down for awhile until things calm down and to let the police do what they probably should have been doing in 2012.”</p>
<p>What happens in other cases? Let’s say Student A beats up Student B such that B has a good case for assault and battery. Does that get brought to the police? I don’t know how this works. Mine managed to stay out of trouble with the law :-)</p>
<p>The fraternities should get involved, the nationals. They need to tell the brothers that they need to report rapes and rapists and cooperate with police investigations from here on out.</p>
<p>The Universities need to create a policy where if a rape happens and the brothers report the rape and testify and support the process, the fraternity isn’t punished but the criminals.</p>
<p>Right now, I think sometimes these guys are disgusted by these guys but afraid if they come forward they will “lose their house.” I’m not saying it’s admirable, but it’s human. Why not create an incentive instead of a disincentive for cooperating with the investigation and reporting? </p>
<p>I honestly think most fraternity men would welcome a chance to get the rapists out of the house and in prison if they didn’t think they’d lose the whole house, themselves.</p>