Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

This story was sent to you by: Daniel Carter

Some students at Yale are calling for better responses to sexual 
assaults.-Daniel Carter

>From ctnow.com 
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Reports Of Sex Crimes At Yale Are Up 
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Group Says Number Still Too Low

By KIM MARTINEAU
Courant Staff Writer

November 1, 2004

NEW HAVEN -- Reported sex crimes at Yale are up. But no one's that surprised.

For years, advocates for sexual assault victims have accused Yale University 
of understating the numbers of reported rapes and other sexual assaults on 
campus. Over the summer, an investigation by the Yale Alumni Magazine 
explained why those numbers were so low: Yale wasn't reporting complaints 
handled informally by an internal board of students, professors and 
administrators.

Yale's 2003 campus crime statistics, submitted this month, include, for the 
first time, those informal complaints. The result is a record number of 
reported assaults: five.

The university reported just one assault in 2001.

The national watchdog group, Security on Campus, says the new numbers are an 
improvement - but still too low for a campus of Yale's size. Both Princeton 
and Dartmouth, with far fewer students, reported twice as many sex crimes 
last year.

"Until you're honest about the numbers, the rest of the problems aren't going 
to be corrected," said the group's senior vice president, S. Daniel Carter. 
"It's easy for the schools to say it's a very small problem. They don't have 
to do anything about it."

The majority of sexual assaults on college campuses go unreported - for many 
of the same reasons, according to researchers, that 85 percent of sexual 
assaults nationally go unreported. Victims may fear they will be blamed, 
especially if alcohol was involved, and they may be reluctant to accuse 
someone they know of a crime. Universities, worried about bad publicity, may 
be tempted to hide the problem.

"Students need to know sexual assaults happen on college campuses and more 
often than not, it's going to be someone they know rather than a stranger 
coming from the bushes," Carter said.

Previously, Yale reported only those incidents that students formally report 
to police or in rare cases to its undergraduate executive committee. But this 
fall, Yale began disclosing complaints handled informally by its 
undergraduate sexual harassment grievance board, a panel of students, 
professors and administrators who hear 15 to 20 complaints a year and resolve 
them without punitive measures.

Under the 1990 Clery Act, colleges are required to report all rapes and 
non-forcible sex crimes that happen on their campuses to the U.S. Department 
of Education. The law was passed four years after Jeanne Clery, a freshman at 
Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, was raped and killed in her dorm room.

Yale was first accused of brushing off complaints of sexual assault and 
harassment by feminist author Naomi Wolf in a New York magazine story 
published in February. In the story, Wolf accused a Yale professor of groping 
her while she was a student, nearly two decades earlier.

Wolf's criticism prompted the Yale Alumni Magazine to do its own 
investigation, which uncovered several flaws with Yale's procedures. The 
reporter, Emily Bazelon, a graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, published 
her findings in the magazine's July/August issue.

In her story, she recounts a Yale sophomore's experience of being pinned down 
by a junior in his dorm room, and having him masturbate and ejaculate on her. 
The incident was handled informally - and the woman was satisfied with the 
outcome. Yet, Yale never reported the 2001 incident to the Department of 
Education, as required, Bazelon found.

Yale spokesman Tom Conroy defended the university's handling and reporting of 
sex crimes on campus. "Yale has always done an excellent and thorough job of 
reporting crime to the federal government as required," he said. "If, over 
the years, we find newer and better ways to do an even better job, then 
that's great."

The Department of Education is reviewing Security on Campus' complaint about 
Yale's reporting procedures, a department spokeswoman said. If Yale is found 
to have violated the act, the university could be fined up to $27,500 for 
each unreported incident. It could also be forced to correct its previous 
reporting.

Until Bazelon's investigation, Yale's informal grievance board kept no 
written records - to protect the confidentiality of both the victim and the 
accused, said board member Peter Parker, a Yale physics professor. The board 
also did not report any of its cases to the secretary's office, which 
collects Clery Act data. "Nobody ever asked us to keep a record of informal 
complaints," Parker said.

Harvard University leads the Ivy League in reported sex crimes. Between 2000 
and 2003, Harvard reported more than 60 on-campus sexual assaults - nearly 
nine times the number reported by Yale.

Harvard says the high numbers are due to the wide net it throws for 
complaints, but also the comfort students feel in coming forward.

Still, there are many more victims who don't come forward, said Susan Marine, 
director of Harvard's office of sexual assault prevention and response. 
"These numbers only reflect those who have the courage to say, `This is what 
happened to me,'" Marine said.

A 2002 U.S. Department of Justice study estimated that one in four college 
women have been victims of rape or attempted rape since the age of 14 and 
that 90 percent know their attacker.

In the Yale Alumni Magazine article, Yale administrators speculated that 
Harvard and others with high numbers might be double-counting some assaults. 
Steven Catalano, spokesman for the Harvard Police Department, says Harvard 
goes to great lengths to cross-check complaints reported to the police, its 
sexual assault office, deans of residential colleges, and others, to make 
sure none is counted twice.

As the official charged with collecting the data for Harvard, he took Yale's 
criticism personally. "Their baseless allegations are unprofessional and 
uncalled for," he said.

For years, students at Yale have pushed for an office or coordinator to deal 
exclusively with sexual assaults. Though Yale provides rape crisis services 
through its mental hygiene office, a psychologist in the Yale Alumni Magazine 
story acknowledged that it isn't advertised and students don't know about it. 
Until last year, a student-run rape crisis hot line wasn't staffed on 
weekends.

Conroy said incoming freshmen are told about Yale's sexual assault services 
during orientation and that Yale already offers any medical services and 
counseling a victim might need. "Anyone who goes to the university mental 
hygiene office is going to receive a full and thorough and sympathetic and 
expedited response," he said.

Students say universities may be reluctant to create an office for handling 
sexual assaults because they're afraid of advertising the problem. "Most 
schools don't want to admit rape happens on campus - there's a potential 
public relations liability with parents and alumni," said Dave 
Chandrasekaran, a Yale medical student and member of Men Against Rape and 
Sexual Violence, who has worked on the issue at universities in Boston and 
New Haven. 
Copyright 2004, Hartford Courant


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My sincere thanks to everyone who replied to my request for information on
support for students accused of sexual assault. Several campuses have
protocol or disciplinary advisors who advise students accused in any
University judicial discipline case about campus and legal policies and
protocols. This is just what I was looking for.

It's a blessing to have such supportive and generous colleagues (even if
it's in the "virtual" sense).

Best wishes,
Kris

Kris Montgomery
Coordinator, Women's Resource Center
Sexual Violence Resource Specialist
Sonoma State University, Student Union
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707.664.2845
www.sonoma.edu/campuslife/wrc/