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UVA Rape Story Collapses; Duke Lacrosse Redux
Topic Started: Dec 5 2014, 01:45 PM (60,452 Views)
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http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2015/02/how-uvas-campus-newspaper-dealt-with-two-huge-national-stories/

Education
02.09.2015
What UVA’s Campus Newspaper Dealt with Two Huge National Stories
By Simon Owens

Rebecca Lim first realized that the kidnapping of Hannah Graham, the 18-year-old University of Virginia student who went missing on Sept. 13, had become a national story when she began receiving emails and phone calls from major media outlets. “I had CNN calling me,” Lim, the editor of the Cavalier Daily, UVA’s campus newspaper, told me. “And that’s not something that usually happens. CNN doesn’t call me about the latest student council meeting.”

On a typical day, the Cavalier Daily, founded in 1890 and originally called College Topics, covers stories that rarely resonate outside the college campus — everything from graduates clerking for the Supreme Court to coverage of UVA’s sports teams. But occasionally an event relating to the university will suddenly capture the attention of the world at large, and Cavalier Daily’s staff finds itself beholden to millions of news consumers searching for any new developments in the story. Recently, UVA has been at the heart of two blockbuster stories: the kidnapping and murder of Hannah Graham and the Rolling Stone article depicting a brutal gang rape and the administration’s alleged failure to properly investigate it. With television networks and major newspapers descending upon the college town, the Cavalier Daily, with a staff of about 250 volunteer students, faced intense pressure to cover and break news.

The impact of digital

If these events had occurred only 20 years ago, when the news industry was focused much more heavily on print, the Daily’s coverage might not have had much impact outside Charlottesville. A reader in Portland, Oregon, who was interested in a UVA-related story would have either had to learn about it on the nightly news or through an AP story in the local paper. But with the emergence of web editions of college newspapers, readers from afar could get on-the-ground information from student journalists who were closest to the scene.

We saw this most prominently in 2007 in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting in which 32 were killed and 17 injured. The Collegiate Times, the campus newspaper, was the first to report, in a brief web update, that there was a shooter on campus. In the days following, the newspaper achieved several scoops and was the first to release the list of names of those killed once the families had been notified. The New York Times linked to it on its website’s front page and the campus paper’s own website crashed underneath the traffic. Some argued it deserved a Pulitzer for its breaking news coverage.

The Cavalier Daily used to be a daily print paper back when Lim began writing for it the first semester of her freshman year of college. “Two years ago we switched from five days a week to four days a week,” she recalled. “And then the next year after that we went from four days a week to two days a week. We now print on Mondays and Thursdays.”

But the web version is updated daily, publishing about 100 new stories a week. On a normal day, it receives between 10,000 and 15,000 visits, about 30 percent coming from social media. While it was covering the Graham kidnapping, its traffic more than doubled, but that’s nothing compared to what happened when the Rolling Stone piece landed on November 19. “On November 20, we had 156,452 page views, and 165,000 November 21,” said Lim. “We averaged more than 100,000 views for three days after that.”
Shifting to face breaking news

Because there’s so much competition and more pressure for immediacy when covering these national stories, the Daily’s normal editorial process can be upended for a more streamlined approach. Usually, writers are assigned to specific beats, and their stories are subjected to an editing process before they’re then copy edited and published. For the Graham and Rolling Stone stories, most were assigned to just a handful of senior writers. When those more experienced writers aren’t available to cover a piece of breaking news, the editors will step in. “You’ll have top-level editors making calls to police and administrators, interviewing students, and cranking it out in the moment,” she said. “And then one or two people will look at it and then it goes online. So the process and turnaround is a lot quicker.”

In the case of Hannah Graham, the newspaper’s staff first heard rumors that she had gone missing from friends and classmates. Once the disappearance evolved into a kidnapping case and then later an active manhunt for her kidnapper, a staff writer named Kelly Kaler, who had a longstanding rapport with local police, took over the bulk of the reporting. One of the main challenges the paper faced was resisting the urge to retweet and report on apocryphal rumors swirling around the case and the police investigation. “So rather than just jumping on the bandwagon, we waited it out,” said Lim. “We asked police sources to confirm, asked them to independently verify, and that ended up counting in our favor because we didn’t tarnish our credibility. We managed to maintain our high standards while keeping up with these national media outlets.”
Photo by City College Norwich on Flickr and used here with Creative Commons License.

Photo by City College Norwich on Flickr and used here with Creative Commons License.

The paper was performing a constant juggling act, not only covering new developments but also focusing on the campus response, both at the administrative and student level. This kind of coverage has been especially important in the weeks following the publication of the Rolling Stone article, as it triggered significant backlash not only against the Greek fraternity culture but also the university administration’s response to reported rapes and sexual assault. This was then further complicated by the continued unraveling of the Rolling Stone article, which began when it emerged that the article’s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, never reached out to or knew the names of the alleged rapists, and then further metastasized when the Washington Post and others found discrepancies in claims made by Jackie, the student at the center of the story.

“For the Rolling Stone article, we actually knew it was going to happen before it dropped,” said Lim. “We didn’t know what the reaction was going to be prior to the article coming out. We didn’t know if it was just going to fall under the radar or become as huge as it has been.” Obviously, it was the latter, and so then the staff had to decide on how to approach the fallout. I wondered if there was any discussion as to whether to seek out other victims who may have wanted to speak out about their own stories. But Lim said the staff didn’t want to start putting pressure on students to come forward. “It is really difficult to pester them for that when you’re a student here as opposed to when you’re an outside reporter coming in for a story. There’s something much more personal about this” for reporters who also happen to be students.

The Daily published one particularly important piece once the Rolling Stone story was falling apart and far-right conservatives used the revelations as an excuse to accuse Jackie of fabricating her entire experience. Emily Clark, Jackie’s suitemate freshman year, wrote an editorial stating that “Jackie’s story is not a hoax,” and she detailed the dark depression Jackie fell into after whatever happened to her that night in 2012. It was shared thousands of times on social media and cited by dozens of national news outlets.

Neither story is over, of course. The man charged with kidnapping and killing Graham still faces a trial and we’ve yet to get to the bottom of Rolling Stone’s journalistic failings. I asked Lim, who said she has no current plans to go into journalism once she graduates, whether her experience over the last few months had opened her eyes to the potential of journalism in ways that weren’t readily apparent to her when covering student council meetings and local sports. “How can you not see the power of journalism through this?” she replied. “What [college student] can say they’ve had a story that’s been read by 50,000 people on the Internet? It’s incredibly empowering but also comes with a lot of responsibility, and a desire to do it right, and to maintain that level of quality, and prove we’re capable of doing this. I’m really proud of the way our staff has come together so far.”

Simon Owens is a technology and media journalist living in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Email him at simonowens@gmail.com
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http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2015/02/sexual-assault-legislation-passes-aids-victims-protects-college-students

Sexual assault legislation passes, aids victims, protects college students
Bills require Virginia DNA database additions, independent counseling services, mandatory reporting
by Maddy Weingast | Feb 12 2015


The Virginia House of Delegates recently passed legislation which aids victims of sexual assault and protect students on college campuses.

House Bill 1928, introduced by Del. Rob Bell, R-Charlottesville, would require adding certain additional violent misdemeanors to the Virginia DNA database. Bell also introduced HB 1930 to require colleges to provide independent counseling services to victims, inform them of their legal options, and mandate reporting of sexual assault where necessary to protect the safety of the public and confidential review of all cases by a team including law enforcement officials.

“Sexual assaults on campus has been a concern for some time,” Bell said in an email. “ The Crime Commission looked at the campus police issue in 2011. The goal is to do all we can to support the victim, while also preventing the next victim.

Bell said he knows the issue has been pertinent, as he was a Class of 1988 graduate.

“This has been an issue since I was at U.Va.,” he said, “So I'm sure it is something we will continue to work on.”

Bell said under the new bill, reports made to a responsible party will be transmitted to the Title IX coordinator. The coordinator will then assemble a review committee consisting of him/herself, a representative from the Student Affairs Office and a representative from local law enforcement to review the report. The report can remain confidential at the request of the victim.

Identifying information about the victim will only be released if it is “necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other individuals.” A review will also be conducted by the local Commonwealth’s Attorney.

Del. Jimmie Massie, R-Henrico, introduced HB 1785, requiring campus police to notify the local Commonwealth’s Attorney within 48 hours of a victim-initiated investigation.

Massie said in light of the erroneously-reported Rolling Stone article and the tragedy of Hannah Graham it has become clear that assault problems exist at universities both public and private.

“Our objective is to make our campuses as safe a place as we possibly can and to help the victims, catch the bad persons, and do all of it in a fair way,” Massie said.

Massie said the initial reaction in Richmond was to institute mandatory reporting, but after working through it and speaking with victims, it became clear that in order to help to victims and apprehend those responsible, they needed to work closely with the victim.

“There were a number of victim advocate groups that spoke to us and we had a lot of University students coming through here and the message was if you want to help the victims, if you want to catch bad persons, and do all that in fair manner, you need victims to come in and feel comfortable coming in and talking to you,” Massie said.

In drafting the bills, comfort and respect for victims was a high priority.

“They’ve lost control of their body in a private situation,” Massie said. “The last thing they want is to lose control of information in a public manner.”

Massie referenced his bill, Bell’s bill, and a third bill requiring sexual assault to be stamped on one’s transcript if found guilty of the offense, as results of objectives aiming to alleviate the problem of sexual assault on college campuses.

“I think we’re going to have these three bills, or some form of them are going to come out this year and then we’re going to take a breather and see how they do,” Massie said.

Massie said it would unrealistic to achieve perfection but lawmakers in Richmond are trying as hard as they can, and if holes are found in the legislation that need to be filled, they will be tweaked further.
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http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2015/03/prevention-working-group-holds-town-hall-meeting-discusses-sexual-violence

Prevention Working Group holds town hall meeting, discusses sexual violence
Students, faculty, University community consider possible solutions
by Anna Higgins | Mar 02 2015 | 5 hours ago



The Prevention Working Group of the President’s Ad Hoc Group on University Climate and Culture held a town hall-style meeting Monday in which students, faculty and other University community members discussed ideas about how to prevent sexual violence on Grounds.

The University Climate and Culture group includes three working groups: Prevention, Response and Culture. While all of the groups work closely together, separate meetings for each group are held to facilitate deeper collaboration on issues.

“Each of these messages is so important that we wanted to focus the time and effort into the individual work groups,” Prevention Working Group Chair Bill Brady said. “There’s some degree of overlap from the mission of one work group to another, so we share and communicate.”

The purpose of the town hall meeting was to involve the University community in creating solutions to prevent sexual violence on Grounds.

“We want you to be here and we want you to be able to express yourself, thoughts, opinions, concerns, anything that’s appropriate for the University to use,” Brady said in his address to attendees.

The Prevention Working Group outlined five charges to prevention programs — alcohol and drugs, reporting and student advocacy, admissions and infrastructure. The five different charges were represented at different tables around which attendees circulated to discuss solutions.

Under the alcohol and drug charge, participants discussed safe drinking practices and changing residence hall policies, which may indirectly encourage students to drink off-Grounds.

In discussing infrastructure, participants mentioned the role of resident advisors and how they could intervene to prevent sexual assault. The infrastructure charge also discussed how increased lighting and emergency phones could improve student safety on Grounds.

Conversations across all charges emphasized the risks first-year students face upon arrival to the University and initial exposure to University life.

“There are real risks that happen when people show up in those first six weeks,” an attendee said in the group discussion. “They don’t know the people they’re with, they don’t know the environment they’re in, they’re encouraged to do new things.”

Attendees offered different solutions to reduce first years’ vulnerability in their first weeks, such as a mentor program that matches first years with undergraduate upperclassmen, especially women.

“There is such a wealth of knowledge in the older students,” an attendee said. “Older students have so much experience and first-year women are at such a risk when they come here.”

Other solutions offered by attendees went past the scope of first-year students. Many participants emphasized the need for continued education throughout students’ careers at the University in addition to a heavy concentration of sexual assault education for first-year students.

Brady said sexual assault education needs to start at the basics, including defining “sexual violence.”

“I think some people have an idea of sexual violence as one specific act when it’s a spectrum of things that can happen,” Brady said.

Participants also highlighted how University men should be involved in sexual assault policy reform based on their willingness to see change on the cultural and administrative levels.

“Men are standing up and being passionate allies to change this situation,” an attendee said. “It’s really a time to step into that.”

Brady said the meeting provided constructive dialogue and new ideas to consider for two reports due to President Teresa Sullivan at the end of March.

“I think we heard several new things that we hadn’t considered, we heard many things we talked about before [and] we got new perspectives from things we heard before,” Brady said. “We will take all of it to heart and factor it into our consideration.”

Brady said he hoped the meetings for the other two working groups will see the same success as the Prevention Working Group.

“We met the objectives to broaden this topic and make sure the University community is represented,” Brady said.
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chatham
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So the universities have finally developed and solidified a way to gain significant additional funding through sexual activities on campus.
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http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/rolling-stone-article-prompted-feds-to-request-uva-s-sexual/article_f77ca30e-c38f-11e4-bfe7-2bd6f71d3231.html

Rolling Stone article prompted feds to request UVa's sexual misconduct files

Posted: Thursday, March 5, 2015 6:33 pm

By Dani Kass


On successive days following the release of Rolling Stone’s shattered exposé, federal officials demanded University of Virginia documents related to sexual attacks described in the story and announced plans to review two years of sexual misconduct files.

Three large bankers boxes and one small box filled with formal complaints awaited officials from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, a UVa official said in an email. A standard bankers box can hold files containing 2,500 pages or more.

A senior attorney with the civil rights office told the school that several of her colleagues would visit from Dec. 1 to Dec. 3.

“We really won’t need anything from you except the files,” Samantha Shofar wrote in an email.

A recent open records request by The Daily Progress turned up the emails between the civil rights office and the university following the Rolling Stone’s story’s Nov. 19 release. The first email from the civil rights office came the day after the story broke and the next came a day later. Civil rights office officials planned to review Sexual Misconduct Board files from the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years, according to the emails.

Officials at the civil rights office declined to comment. UVa described the inquiries as related to a federal Title IX investigation already underway.

“The Office of Civil Rights requested the documents regarding the other incidents as part of its current Title IX review of the university,” UVa spokesman Anthony de Bruyn said in an email, declining to comment further.

UVa is among more than 75 schools nationwide under federal Title IX investigation. Signed into law in 1972, Title IX traditionally has been used to ensure equal opportunity for women in athletics. But following a directive several years ago from the Department of Education, the law recently has been used to target sexual assault and harassment on college campuses.

That already had drawn UVa into the Title IX net by the time Rolling Stone came along with its tale of a woman named Jackie being raped by seven men in an upstairs room at a fraternity house. The story also featured the account of a woman who said she was one of three raped by a male student who received a one-year suspension.

“This is in fact objectively false,” de Bruyn wrote in an email to a Rolling Stone fact-checker, referring to the latter account, before the story’s release.

Several days after officials from the civil rights office were to visit Grounds to review sexual misconduct files, Rolling Stone conceded discrepancies in Jackie’s story. Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity where the magazine said the gang rape took place in September 2012, released a statement rebutting key claims in the magazine’s account.

By then, however, the civil rights office had demanded documents from both incidents.

The day after the story was released, Shofar spoke with UVa Chief Student Affairs Officer Susan Davis over the phone about the sexual assaults described in the Rolling Stone story. Shofar then emailed at 2:30 p.m. requesting all documents from those cases. Shofar confirmed to Davis on Nov. 24 that she’d received the records via FedEx.

UVa helped organize open office hours on Grounds for civil rights officials to talk with students who wished to speak about sexual harassment and assault, according to the emails. On Dec. 12, Davis sent to Shofar copies of cases flagged by the civil rights office during its visit to the university.

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, the former Virginia governor, has been critical of the civil rights office for the slow pace of its investigation into the Title IX complaint against UVa filed June 18, 2012, by a student who said she was raped, sought medical care and then filed a complaint with the school’s Sexual Misconduct Board. No action had been taken a year-and-a-half later, according to Feb. 20, 2014, court documents. The complaint claims nurses altered evidence and the misconduct board used a stricter standard of evidence than required to reach a not guilty finding.

On Dec. 12, Kaine wrote to Education Secretary Arne Duncan urging him to accelerate the investigation.

“While a thorough investigation is critical, it is important for investigations to be completed in a timely manner,” reads the letter signed by Kaine and fellow Democratic Sen. Mark R. Warner along with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.

Catherine E. Lhamon, the Department of Education’s secretary for civil rights, wrote Kaine back saying officials “are moving expeditiously to bring the case to conclusion.”


http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1678969-uva-ocr-emails.html#document/p1

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1679386-title-ix-lawsuit-amp-kaine-doe-letters.html#document/p1
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http://www.dailyprogress.com/starexponent/news/state/uva-officials-discuss-president-sullivan-s-contract/article_7a8230ae-cc4e-11e4-a706-135487d02ebc.html

UVa officials discuss President Sullivan's contract

ANDREW SHURTLEFF/THE DAILY PROGRESS

Posted: Monday, March 16, 2015 10:36 pm

The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress

RICHMOND – University of Virginia officials met privately Monday morning to discuss school President Teresa A. Sullivan’s contract.

Rector George Keith Martin said he hopes to have a final decision on a deal by the time his term ends June 30.

“That’s a personal goal of mine,” Martin said after Monday’s meeting. He declined to comment further on the negotiations.

The Executive Committee of the university’s Board of Visitors met behind closed doors at the Omni Hotel in Richmond to continue Sullivan’s evaluation, which began earlier this year.

Contract negotiations for public officials may be held in private, according to state law.

Sullivan’s current deal expires July 31, 2016, and pays total annual compensation of $674,700, an increase of $9,500 since she took over as president in 2010.

The talks follow a difficult year at UVa . The university faced national media blitzes following the disappearance and death of second-year student Hannah Graham, 18, and a Rolling Stone story alleging — among other things — that the university mishandled the investigation of a gang rape at a fraternity house.

The story since has been discredited, but the university is still under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for its handling of another sexual assault case, first reported in 2011.

Last year’s drama was only the latest under Sullivan’s tenure. She was abruptly fired by the board in 2012, with former Rector Helen E.Dragas leading the coup. Sullivan was reinstated after an uproar from students, faculty and alumni.

The timing of her contract negotiations also coincides with plans for a new tuition and financial aid model. Members have talked about following one used by the College of William and Mary, where the school governing board in spring 2013 approved a 14 percent hike in tuition and fees but promised that subsequent increases would be applied only to incoming freshman.

Tuition and financial aid have been hot topics at UVa. Under Sullivan’s leadership, the university cut its financial aid program, AccessUVa , in response to concerns from board members over the program’s soaring cost. The changes, which swapped some grant aid with loans for low-income students, were approved by the board in 2013.

The measure has proved unpopular in some corners, but Sullivan said it was necessary to keep the program sustainable. Since then, she has spearheaded a fundraising campaign to help support AccessUVa. That effort has raised more than $15 million to date, said UVa spokesman Anthony de Bruyn.

Sullivan also is overseeing a five-year, $564 million strategic plan that includes the hiring of more than 400 new faculty members to replace about 300 projected retirees and keep up with enrollment projections. New research institutes and technological improvements also are part of the plan.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/03/22/uva-rolling-stone-alleged-rape/25183033/

Police to release report of alleged U.Va. rape
Marisol Bello, USA TODAY 2:38 p.m. EDT March 22, 2015

The Charlottesville (Va.) Police Department will release the results of an investigation into an alleged sexual assault at the University of Virginia that was reported in Rolling Stone magazine in the fall of 2014.

In a statement on its website, the department said it will hold a news conference Monday at 2 p.m. and would not release any information prior to their announcement.

The Rolling Stone piece, A Rape on Campus, detailed a female student's gruesome tale of a three-hour gang rape by seven men at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity's chapter house in 2012. The story, published in November, immediately drew worldwide attention to the very real problem of sexual assault on the nation's college campuses.

The story roiled U.Va., campus fraternities and ultimately, Rolling Stone, in a complicated controversy.

A few days after the article's publication, school president Teresa Sullivan suspended all activities by fraternal organizations on campus. But a Washington Post article found discrepancies in the story. The magazine later admitted that it never contacted the man accused by the alleged victim because the woman asked them not to.

The questions and doubts raised by the discrepancies in the article have led to a Charlottesville police investigation into the alleged assault.

In January, the university reinstated the fraternity because it said in a statement that police updated school officials on their investigation and told them "that their investigation has not revealed any substantive basis to confirm that the allegations raised in the Rolling Stone article occurred at Phi Kappa Psi."

Rolling Stone is conducting a separate investigation it expects to be completed in coming weeks. In December, publisher Jann Wenner asked Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism to conduct an independent review of the story. The magazine admitted that it honored the alleged victim's request not to contact the man she said raped her.

The magazine said it will publish Columbia's findings as soon as their investigation is complete.

The article has led to soul-searching about rapes on campus and efforts to stop the crimes. The university reinstated Phi Kappa Psi after the Greek organization agreed to new rules about parties: No kegs, security workers are required and at least three fraternity members must be sober. The school is also considering new courses to teach students safety and a center to research violence.
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http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/22/media/rolling-stone-uva-columbia/

Rolling Stone to publish review of campus rape article soon
By Brian Stelter @brianstelter

Columbia University's review of Rolling Stone's disputed article about a college gang rape will be published in the magazine in early April.

The article, "A Rape on Campus," horrified readers when it was published last November. It described how a University of Virginia freshman named Jackie was sexually assaulted by seven attackers during a frat party, and how the university failed to adequately respond.

The article sparked conversation about sexual violence on college campuses, but the details of the story soon came under withering scrutiny.

As contradictions and discrepancies emerged, Rolling Stone apologized and said it would investigate what went wrong. On December 22, it enlisted Columbia University's graduate journalism school to conduct an independent review.

At the time, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner said Columbia would have free rein to review the magazine's "editorial processes." The actions of the writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely; the editors; and the fact-checkers have all been questioned by critics.

Journalism school dean Steve Coll has been leading the review, and there has been ample speculation about what it has found.

Although its details are not known, a source with knowledge of the review said Saturday it will be released in early April.

Wenner subsequently confirmed the timing in an email message.

"Expecting it in about two weeks and will publishing shortly thereafter in full," he said.

When asked whether he will be making any editorial changes at the magazine as a result of Columbia's review, Wenner said, "Haven't read it so I have no comments to make."

A spokeswoman for the magazine said Sunday that the review will be published in the print magazine. A spokeswoman for the journalism school had previously hinted at this, saying "we are coordinating production schedules with Rolling Stone."

Separately, local police in Virginia are expected to hold a press conference on Monday releasing the results of an investigation into the alleged rape.

CNN reported last month that Charlottesville police "informed the university at the start of the spring semester that its investigation has found no evidence that the brutal gang rape happened at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, as the Rolling Stone story alleged. However, the police have not ruled out that Jackie was raped -- possibly even gang raped, somewhere else, perhaps on a different day."
CNNMoney (New York) March 22, 2015: 11:54 AM ET
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http://www.ketknbc.com/news/police-to-reveal-findings-on-alleged-gang-rape-at
Police to reveal findings on alleged gang rape at UVA reported in Rolling Stone

Sunday, March 22, 2015 - 11:01am

CNN — (CNN) -- Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, will publicly discuss on Monday the results of their investigation into an alleged gang rape of a University of Virginia student, which was initially reported last year in Rolling Stone magazine.

The police findings could put to rest a complicated controversy about the alleged gang rape of a female student at a fraternity party.

The accusation has been controversial because of the nature of such a crime and because the accusation itself has been clouded by subsequent questions about the Rolling Stone article.

After the account was published last fall, Rolling Stone magazine later apologized for discrepancies in its article about the alleged gang rape after friends of the victim expressed doubts about the woman's account and the accused fraternity chapter denied key details.

CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter described Rolling Stone's announcement as falling short of a full-scale retraction. It remains unclear what really happened to the female student, Stelter said.

"We are in the phase here where Rolling Stone is trying to figure that out," Stelter said in December. "They've apologized, but not retracted. So they're not saying the story is false. They're just saying there are some questions they need to figure out the answers to still."

The Charlottesville Police Department will hold its press conference at 2 p.m. ET on Monday.

Rolling Stone editors had chosen not to contact the man who allegedly "orchestrated the attack on 'Jackie' (the woman who was the subject of the article) nor any of the men she claimed participated in the attack for fear of retaliation against her," a decision the magazine said it regretted.

"In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie's account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced," Rolling Stone said in December.

Rolling Stone Managing Editor Will Dana later tweeted that "the truth would have been better served by getting the other side of the story."

The article chronicled the school's failure to respond to that alleged assault. It prompted an emergency meeting by the school's governing board and the announcement of a zero-tolerance approach toward sexual assault cases.

According to the magazine, Jackie, who at the time had just started her freshman year at the Charlottesville school, claimed she was raped by seven men at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, while two more gave encouragement, during a party.

However, the University of Virginia's Phi Kappa Psi chapter did not have a party the night of September 28, 2012, the date when the alleged attack occurred, or at all that weekend, the chapter said. The chapter's lawyer, Ben Warthen, told CNN that is proved by email and fraternity records.

Warthen said there were other discrepancies in the accuser's account. For example, the accused orchestrator of the alleged rape did not belong to the fraternity, the fraternity house has no side staircase, and there were no pledges at that time of year.

Jackie told the magazine she hurried out a side staircase after the incident and said her attackers egged each other on, asking, "Don't you want to be a brother?"
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/business/media/rolling-stone-to-publish-review-of-disputed-rape-article.html?_r=0

Rolling Stone to Publish Review of Disputed Rape Article

By RAVI SOMAIYAMARCH 22, 2015

Rolling Stone magazine plans to publish an external review of a widely disputed article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia “in the next couple of weeks,” its managing editor, Will Dana, said on Sunday.

The 9,000-word article, which was published in November, was based on the account of a female student who described being sexually assaulted by seven men in a dark room during a fraternity house party.

The article quickly became part of a national debate over sexual assault on college campuses, and the university suspended the fraternity’s operations. But in early December, substantial portions of the article were called into question. Rolling Stone acknowledged that it had not sought to independently corroborate the woman’s account, and that it had doubts about the veracity of the story. Shortly afterward, it announced a review of the article would be led by Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

“Steve Coll has not filed yet, but I expect the report soon and the plan is to publish in the next couple of weeks,” Mr. Dana said in an email on Sunday. He has not read the report, he said, and does not know what it might say.

Mr. Coll said when the review was announced that the magazine had allowed him access to its staff and materials. The report will focus, he said, “on the editorial process,” but he added that it would also “have the freedom to move in any direction along the way that we believe would be germane and of public interest.”

News of the timing of the publication of the review was first reported by CNN.
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Joan Foster

Expect some version of "something happened" to Jackie...so she can retain her celebrity Victim status.
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Rusty Dog
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“Steve Coll has not filed yet, but I expect the report soon and the plan is to publish in the next couple of weeks,” Mr. Dana said in an email on Sunday. He has not read the report, he said, and does not know what it might say.


Is he a slow reader?
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/03/23/charlottesville-police-to-issue-report-on-u-va-sex-assault-investigation/

Charlottesville police to issue report on U-Va. sex assault investigation
By T. Rees Shapiro March 23 at 12:07 PM

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. — Police Chief Timothy J. Longo on Monday afternoon plans to announce the results of an investigation into an alleged sexual assault at a University of Virginia fraternity, a claim detailed in a Rolling Stone magazine article that has since come into doubt.

Longo is scheduled to speak at a 2 p.m. news conference here to discuss the results of a five-month investigation spurred by allegations of a brutal fraternity house gang-rape described in a 9,000-word magazine account that went viral online in November. The Rolling Stone report unraveled under scrutiny, as the accuser’s version of events was publicly challenged by her friends, members of the fraternity and sexual assault advocates on campus. After Washington Post reports revealed flaws in the account, Rolling Stone’s editors backed away from it.

The Rolling Stone article examined allegations of sexual assault at U-Va. and what it characterized as the administration’s apparent lackluster response; the article fueled an ongoing national debate about the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses. The article focused on a junior named Jackie who told the pop culture magazine that she was attacked by seven men during a party at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in 2012 after she went on a date with one of the men.

In interviews with The Post, Jackie said that she stood by the account she provided to Rolling Stone.

“I never asked for this” attention, she said in an interview. “What bothers me is that so many people act like it didn’t happen. It’s my life. I have had to live with the fact that it happened — every day for the last two years.”

[Key elements of Rolling Stone's U-Va. gang rape allegations in doubt.]

[U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault.]

A Post investigation into the claims found significant inconsistencies in the account. Phi Psi fraternity members strongly rebutted the allegations, saying they did not have a party on the night in question and did not have a member fitting the description of the alleged attacker; an alleged attacker — who Jackie told friends she was on a date with that night — turned out not to be a U-Va. student, had not been in Charlottesville in years, attends another school in another state, and said he barely knew Jackie; and Jackie’s friends told The Post that her version of events to the magazine did not match what they saw on the night she claims she was assaulted.

Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner announced in December that Columbia University would examine the magazine’s reporting of the U-Va. story. Columbia journalism school dean Stephen Coll told The Post that the school’s investigation will be published in Rolling Stone in the next two weeks.
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http://www.mediaite.com/online/watch-live-police-hold-presser-on-uva-rape-investigation/

WATCH LIVE: Police Hold Presser on UVA Rape Investigation
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http://news.yahoo.com/police-press-conference-on-uva-rolling-stone-rape-investigation-covered-live-by-katie-couric-205013344.html

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