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<p>@Much2learn your post begs the question: If not Brown, where? Where are you sending your child?</p>
<p>But is he sorry?</p>
<p>hmm … the April 22nd Penn student paper … the seems pretty recent</p>
<p><a href=“Guest Column | Break the silence: a call to action | The Daily Pennsylvanian”>Guest Column | Break the silence: a call to action | The Daily Pennsylvanian;
<p>(PS - I have no axe to grind here … the real shame is that sexual assault and inadequate responses it the reality on almost all campuses … society on the whole has a LONG way to go on this one)</p>
<p>Much2learn:</p>
<p>the letter is clear that you should not bother the University further about this issue unless you intend to take them to court.</p>
<p>That isn’t what the letter says at all. It states:</p>
<p>If you believe that the University’s student conduct system has not fully addressed your concerns about this incident, your charges can also be pursued through the Rhode Island criminal justice system.</p>
<p>My daughter who has been accepted to a number of good universities made up her mind that Brown is a safe and appropriate environment for her and will be attending Brown. I fully support her decision. </p>
<p>I’m sorry, but the argument that recent events somehow evidence that Brown is unsafe for women is wildly un-thought-out. That an event such as this (which sadly happen at all schools…) is brought out into the open and discussed at Brown should, at this point, be a sign that relative to its peers, of how supportive Brown is. I’m incredibly proud of our students for creating an atmosphere in which victims feel safe® to come out and discuss their experience, and a body which support victims loudly and staunchly through any difficulties they encounter.</p>
<p>I too find this a frustrating and troubling situation. I wish we could know more. But I am not drawing the same conclusions much2learn thinks is obvious. I don’t have a knee jerk reaction to a thorny situation. Brown does not have a pattern of problems of this nature. It is extremely disingenuous to think that your daughter’s college choices are not part of the same problem, just because it didn’t happen this week or is the news today According to your arguments, if they had better policies it should have influenced Brown to have better policies and Brown would not be in this situation.</p>
<p>I don’t think the lie detector test is a good solution or an enforceable one legally speaking, and people do have rights here. I would not like to see such a policy. I would never take one myself. I would like to see there be mandatory police involvement when there is a crime alleged. Why that isn’t part of policies baffles me but maybe the victim has to assert that wish and can’t be forced so such policies can’t be made.</p>
<p>In related news, a student I know was at Wesleyan this year when students, like some Brown students did, were informing potential classmates about the ‘rape factory’ frat and their dissatisfaction with administration response to that situation. Separately, I liked that the students gave a talk about women at Wes and this student came away enlightened about what feminism is all about. The notice these students put out is disturbing to future students–I had to explain this isn’t a bad college to an international in the Wes forum. I wouldn’t run around telling people not to go to Wes because of a rape and how it was handled. I like how the Wes students invited the prospies to join the dialogue–although it is harshly put.
<a href=“The Wesleyan Argus | To the admitted students”>The Wesleyan Argus | To the admitted students;
<p><a href=“Wesleyan University, 'Rape Factory' Frat House and Victim Reach Settlement in Lawsuit : Students : University Herald”>http://www.universityherald.com/articles/4521/20130912/wesleyan-university-rape-factory-frat-house-victim-reach-settlement-lawsuit.htm</a></p>
<p>This is a societal issue, not a Brown issue. I’ve lost track of who has said what, but I did notice someone said there was no evidence that this was a violent rape. All rape is violent. It is a violent act in and of itself. </p>
<p>^well said</p>
<p>Much2learn must be relieved that his/her final college decision for his/her daughter doesn’t include Brown as an option.</p>
<p>Barnard Mom: Brown did not find that a rape occurred at all. They found undefined sexual misconduct, which includes rape, but not only rape. The defined offenses distinguish between conduct that includes violence or threats of physical injury and conduct that doesn’t. Nobody said rape is not a violent act. And as far as we know, Brown didi not find facts that would establish a rape. We only know that the victim called it a rape. I don’t take a side here, only observe that the argument that Brown is letting a rapist return to campus is not supported by any evidence of what the Brown findings actually were.</p>
<p>Don’t send ANY of your kids to a Lynch Mob school like Brown.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.providencejournal.com/news/police-fire/20140426-brown-student-accused-of-rape-says-he-wont-return-to-campus-in-the-fall.ece”>http://www.providencejournal.com/news/police-fire/20140426-brown-student-accused-of-rape-says-he-wont-return-to-campus-in-the-fall.ece</a></p>
<p>It seems that if Dean Ward had simply accepted the recommendation of the University Conduct Committee, this mess could have been avoided.</p>
<p>I hope he had good reason for his decision as it put at least two families through wringer and involved Brown’s administration and president for God knows how many hours. </p>
<p>What a nightmare.</p>
<p>Sometimes, these things do have back-stories that we don’t see. (That’s not siding with the accused.)
Note how important it is to report these incidents quickly, to the right authorities (whether that starts on campus or with local police.)</p>
<p>Brown has put out a statement about this. But before I get to it, I feel compelled to reply to one thing much2learn said:
</p>
<p>My understanding, based in part on statements made at the rally, is that the other student did NOT file a complaint and only came forward when the case here came to light. </p>
<p>Sigh! I guess all my years on CC have made me too cynical – my first thought to the headline “Don’t send your daughter to Brown” was “because MY daughter got waitlisted and scaring people off is the only way I know to get her admitted.”</p>
<p>I am not sure you are being too cynical, Much2learn with no seeming interest in sending his daughter to Brown could have rewritten his original post as follows and it would have been more applicable to his own considerations but equally reactionary and ill conceived:</p>
<p>"As you make your final college decisions, consider whether Penn is a safe and appropriate environment for your daughters and sons. How would you feel if this happened to your daughter or son?</p>
<p><a href=“Guest Column | Break the silence: a call to action | The Daily Pennsylvanian”>Guest Column | Break the silence: a call to action | The Daily Pennsylvanian;
<p>Vote with your attendance decision. It is the only thing they understand."</p>
<p>Having a daughter who recently graduated from Brown, we’ve had some interesting conversations about this article the video etc. As the Huff Post article mentions at the end, this is not isolated to Brown, but a problem at I would surmise most college campuses. I think Brown is in part in the spot light because Brown students and community are more open and forthcoming about gender/ sexual issues than many other campuses and maybe hold Brown to a better (I wouldn’t say higher, because societies standards are far below what they should be re sexual crimes) level. Certainly there are even colleges where a student would never feel they could report this to their university, and even some where they could not admit to having sex in any form, voluntary or not. Some parents might be misguided to think their children safer at other schools–not so, just things get hushed up more effectively.
In any event I certainly sent my daughter to Brown feeling it was a much safer school re her sexual health, and separately her risk of any assault of any kind, than I would have at most schools. This is for many reasons: the college frats are much more “open” and held to a higher standard that at most/ many schools,(I know this assault took place in a dorm, and not in a frat dorm.) the environment is safer than many college campuses, and this may be just a personal assessment, but Brown students seem to be more open to discussing with their peers what is right and wrong in sexual encounters.
So,while we are both disappointed that Brown did not keep this guy out of the school until the woman graduates, I certainly would still not hesitate to send my daughter off to Brown if she was headed there this fall. </p>
<p>Now that 55 schools are being investigated for how they mismanaged reports of sexual misconduct, do you eliminate all of those from the list too? </p>
<p>I went to Brown years ago, and there were complaints and issues and problems with the way the university handled sexual assault back then, too. It seems not much has changed, unfortunately.</p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone will remember this (it did make national news, and the core organizing group of women were on Donahue)–but when I was a student, there was a movement for women to write the name of their rapist/assaulter in bathroom stalls all over campus. The women said they had to do it because the administration would not listen to them, or gave slaps on the wrist. As for the accused men, who can say if they were all guilty? Once the names were out there, the cloud was over them. It was not a good time. Students were angry with the administration, women and men were mad at each other…</p>
<p><a href=“Rape List, serving the Brown community since 1991 - The Brown Daily Herald”>Rape List, serving the Brown community since 1991 - The Brown Daily Herald;
<p>I will also agree that this is not a Brown-centric problem, and indeed, Brown may be much more open with discussing the issues and the difficulties surrounding them. </p>