<p>After reading about the recent arrests of four Vanderbilt football players, I am disturbed on many levels. Obviously, by what they were arrested for but I am also concerned by the fact it happened in a freshman dorm. The news article stated the dorm room belonged to one of the players but it stated the football players involved were 3 sophomores and a junior. I thought the Commons was a freshman only campus.</p>
<p>I believe it happened in June when most people aren’t even on campus. During the school year Commons most definitely houses only freshman (save for the RAs of course), and seeing as they are some of the nicest dorms on campus I would not be surprised if they were heavily utilized for summer housing for everyone.</p>
<p>As Adam mentioned, the event occurred well into the summer. Commons housing is often used for groups of various ages that are at Vanderbilt during the summer-- athletes, summer students, summer interns, etc.</p>
<p>Anyways, the way Vanderbilt swiftly handled this issue should show you a) how rare it is and b) how seriously the University takes it.</p>
<p>Crimes on even the most elite college campuses are disproportionately committed by athletes and such who are admitted without rigorous evaluation because of their talent in some areas. Unfortunately this creates a sub culture on many campuses where such kids feel they are outside of the universities’ normal codes of conduct. It is time that colleges collectively re-evaluate this contamination of our edifices of higher learning!</p>
<p>There was a thread about this in the Parent Cafe earlier this week: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1540220-vanderbilt-rape-case-school-acts.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1540220-vanderbilt-rape-case-school-acts.html</a></p>
<p>One of the players (I believe the rising junior) was a new transfer who had only recently arrived on campus for training when the assault occurred; the other three were redshirted freshmen last year. </p>
<p>To give Vanderbilt credit for responding properly to this attack: according to police reports, the victim was unconscious during the assault. It was brought to police attention by school officials who were looking at dorm surveillance tapes on another issue and noticed the players behaving suspiciously. Campus police were alerted; they contacted local police. The players were kicked off the team and banned from campus within a week of the assault. It’s an unusual case in that the victim apparently did not report the attack herself, I assume because she had been drugged.</p>
<p>It’s also a heartbreaking case. Our family loves this school. I’m gratified that it has responded properly, and I hope it continues to do so.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, 3 additional people have been indicted according to Inside Vandy. From the article, it sounds like only one was a student and the university has once again dealt with this in an appropriate way.
[Chris</a> Boyd among three additional individuals indicted today in Vanderbilt sex crimes case - InsideVandy: Safety](<a href=“Inside Vandy: Vanderbilt University's student news source”>Inside Vandy: Vanderbilt University's student news source)</p>