Congressional Survey on Sexual Violence on Campus

<p>Interesting reading - was covered on the national news last night - this is the complete report (first 12 pages are report - the rest are appendices) -
<a href="http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/SurveyReportwithAppendix.pdf"&gt;http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/SurveyReportwithAppendix.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Don’t have time to read the whole report right now–thanks for posting it–but based on a quick glance through, what is incredible is the number of institutions that haven’t conducted ANY investigations in the last five years. Because you KNOW it is almost impossbile that there haven’t been any assaults at those schools.</p>

<p>I was part of team that responded on behalf of our university. It was one of the worst written surveys any of us had ever seen. The general belief that it was designed more to benefit the Senator then it was to actually elicit useful information. </p>

<p>I wish our electorate would spend more time figuring out what is wrong with the criminal justice system that necessitates colleges having to investigate and adjudicate criminal behavior. Within the first couple sentences it says only 5% of students reported criminal behavior to law enforcement. There’s the big problem. Bullet two says colleges failed to encourage reporting. There’s the second problem. The solution is NOT for colleges to hire more administrative personnel to duplicate what already exists in the justice system, the solution is to fix whatever is not working with the existing system. </p>

<p>If it’s not criminal then I have no problem with individual colleges managing their own honor codes - it’s pretty transparent that currently every college manages it’s honor codes in different ways. We don’t need a “national” referendum on honor code violations. If it’s criminal, we have a process, we don’t need a parallel process, There is already a process for colleges to report criminal activity on campus. So hold their feet to the fire to call the police through mandatory reporting and report it for students and parents like the Cleary Act requires.</p>

<p>Very powerful story of a campus rape and aftermath in today’s NY TImes:
<a href=“How One College Handled a Sexual Assault Complaint - The New York Times”>How One College Handled a Sexual Assault Complaint - The New York Times;

<p>^Was just coming to link the NYT story. I am appalled at how HWS handled the investigation. </p>

<p>That should have absolutely been reported to the police. Horrible.</p>

<p>Yes. Just another example of why colleges should not be involved in adjudicating criminal matters. So sad. </p>

<p>This stood out for me in the article:

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<p>Exactly. I cannot image why the police were not called and allowed to do their jobs. A panel deciding whether a rape occurred? Are you kidding me? A panel cannot put rapists in prison. </p>

<p>oldmom - I heard about the “red zone” while looking up something on the WVU web site. I guess it’s a hopeful sign that colleges are out there trying to bring awareness to a problem so bad that it has a nickname. ONOH, I can’t believe that poor woman from HWS was questioned when the results from the rape kit weren’t even back yet!</p>

<p><a href=“http://well.wvu.edu/articles/the_red_zone”>http://well.wvu.edu/articles/the_red_zone&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>How about instead of hiring more Title IX specialists and administration to investigate and adjudicate criminal matters colleges and universities hire more on-campus law enforcement and crack down on the underage drinking if we, as a nation, can’t stomach re-lowering the drinking age to 18? Many of these kids go off to college and have no ability to understand the dangers of alcohol, have never learned the buddy system, are totally street naive when it comes to partying and absolute freedom. It galls me that our only solution is to wring out hands and force the colleges to “fix” an issue that we have a solution for in the criminal system and yet turn a blind eye to alcohol which is probably the first and foremost issue that causes the problem. The young lady here refused to press charges and that is, after the alcohol, the second problem. </p>

<p>I had to force myself through that article, and most ofthe time I was skimming. I haven’t watched the videos. </p>

<p>That was horrendous. It simply boggles the mind that they would ignore a rape kit which would provide DNA evidence. It is incredible that there were so many mis-statements and distortions. It is so extremely clear that the priority of the school was to clear the football players if at all possible.</p>

<p>I also do not understand why the DA said he had nothing to work with. There was the rape kit. There was the examination showing trauma. There were witnesses. What more do you need?</p>

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<p>Could it be that the young lady refused to press charges and the prosecutor felt the case would not be strong enough without the victim?</p>

<p>Can’t the semen on the victim’s body be linked to the rapists? Isn’t that irrefutable proof? Can someone explain that to me? And why in God’s name has the woman refused to press charges? Given the high visibility she has given the story–it seems evident her parents contacted the NYT–why is she refusing to press charges and,shockingly, (according to my husband…I must have missed this in the article…) why is she returning to HWS?</p>

<p>Did you read that one of the only THREE faculty/administrators of the review panel was the head of the bookstore who volunteered to join the group? What madness is this? That credentials does this woman–I’msure she’s a well meaning ;person–have to make her worthy to sit on a panel to judge this heinous criminal offense?</p>

<p>The stories one hears of today would never, never have happened (well, IMO)when I was in college 74-78. The stories in the news of college rapes now are acts of barbarians and the drinking is totally out of control and seem out of the realm of reality for a thinking person. This girl was just out of HS, so where are the values at home growing up? The brutality–photo taking, cheering on,etc,., of these stories staggers the mind.</p>

<p>This is especially heartbreaking for me because my DD would have gone to HWS but they didn’t have an Engineeringmajor. They have a 3-2 program with Dartmouth. She chose a fine LAC with an Engineeering major (4 yrs) who gave her the identical very generous aid HWS gave her. We visited HWS twice and we so impressed by the student guide, woman who interviewed my DD, the lovely camp;us and “clean cut” kids. We went to “admitted students day” for a second visit–actually it was a scholar’s day-each student had been given a $25K scholarship–and sat with a lovely group of students, ;parents, and a charming Cal Tech p;hysics prof. I have been thinking of the school for my daughter who just finished tenth grade ; she wants to be a French major. Truly, guide me, should I rule it out? In my head, I am composing long letters to the Dean of Admissions, FinAid, the Pres (by whom I am/was very impressed/he left the job of Head of the Peace Corps, a liberal decent guy, to take the job at HWS),and telling them how perplexed and confused I am.</p>

<p>Actually, mom of three boys, I read your post too fast. Did the woman indeed refuse to press charges?</p>

<p>Yes, but she changed her mind six months later. At that point prosecutors said there was not enough evidence left to work with, whatever that means, exactly.</p>

<p>Sorry to be dense, but I don’t get it. A whole six months was rolling by and she was mulling over whether to press charges or not? But wasn’t the college’s verdict of “not guilty” rather swift(and of course I recognize this was an internal,not a police/criminal investiation)? If I remember what I recalling reading in the paper this morning, the decision from the college’s private investigative board came in 12 weeks? And then six months later she came forward and said “I am making this matter public but I am not pressing charges, to the police community outside the college?” And then went to the NYT, but is not pressing charges?</p>

<p>Here’s a NY Times Room For Debate from 3/13 in which various “experts” talk about the issue of college justice system vs criminal justice system:
<a href=“Colleges Give Rape Survivors a Separate Form of Justice - NYTimes.com”>http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/03/12/why-should-colleges-judge-rape-accusations/colleges-give-rape-survivors-a-separate-form-of-justice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I believe Title IX guidance suggests colleges complete the investigation within 60 days regardless if the victim presses charges. Quite a Catch-22 for the university if the court systems lags beyond 60 days which it often does I think. But then again she didn’t press charges. Many rational adults including adults that sit on these tribunals would wonder why she didn’t in my opinion further compounding the issues.</p>