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Blog and Media Roundup - Tuesday, January 30, 2018; News Roundup
Topic Started: Jan 30 2018, 04:47 AM (111 Views)
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https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/29/trustees-face-pressure-resign-michigan-state-its-hard-force-out-boards

Trustees Take Heat

Michigan State board members face calls for their resignation in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, but it's hard to force out boards. Some say that's for good reason.
By Rick Seltzer
January 29, 2018


The exploding time bomb of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal continues to rip through Michigan State University’s upper levels, with the university’s athletic director stepping down Friday, the same day longtime president Lou Anna Simon’s resignation became official.

Scrutiny keeps mounting on remaining officials, as the Board of Trustees faces extreme pressure over its handling of the situation and reporters dig anew into sexual assault and violence claims involving the university’s best-known athletic programs. A dean at the university even took the unusual step of issuing his own statement ripping leaders’ response to the situation.

Trustees spoke of the future Friday in an emotional meeting at which they also accepted Simon’s resignation and apologized to Nassar’s victims. Several choked up as they gave individual statements pledging to change a culture at Michigan State that allowed Nassar to abuse girls and young women unchecked for years.

Two of the university’s eight trustees are up for re-election in statewide races this year. Both have said they will not run. Legislative leaders are examining options for impeaching trustees, they said last week, and a Republican strategist has sued Governor Rick Snyder in an attempt to force trustees from office. Michigan House Speaker Tom Leonard, a Republican who is seeking election as attorney general, has called on the entire board to resign. So has a Democratic candidate for governor, Shri Thanedar.

Still, it’s not clear how easily politicians could force trustees out if they do not choose to resign. The Snyder administration does not think it has the power to remove them while the Legislature is in session and has the option of impeaching them, according to The Detroit News.

A recent example at the University of Louisville proves that determined politicians in the right political situation have more of a chance of forcing out trustees than many higher education leaders would like. But Louisville’s case also proves that such actions come with real consequences and can prove to be headaches long after old boards are disbanded.

In individual speeches Friday, Michigan State trustees offered a mix of apologies, repentance and vows to move forward. Vice Chairman Joel Ferguson, who had to issue an apology last week after making comments on a radio show saying more was going on at Michigan State than “this Nassar thing,” apologized for his own inaction and the board’s inaction in the past but also vowed to remain in place.

“The one commitment I have is to make certain that I stay here and redouble our work and redouble how I’m going to perform to make Michigan State University a better institution,” he said. “We’re going to do much better, and we’re going to make Michigan State a poster child of how we deal with sexual abuse going forward.”

Others seemed to acknowledge the possibility they will not be in office indefinitely.

Dan Kelly, whose term began last year and lasts until the first day of 2025, said he was committed to never forgetting the testimony of Nassar’s victims “for however long” he lasts on the board.

Kelly, a lawyer, also said he had come on the board when civil litigation was already under way in the Nassar case. He had felt comfortable working to resolve it through the legal process, but the last two weeks changed his outlook.

“What I learned in the last two weeks was this is not about the litigation,” Kelly said. “That’s only part of it. What this is about is the culture of MSU, and I’m embarrassed to say I learned that from, in some cases, young teenage women who testified in front of a court, who showed the courage to not hide behind the litigation but to testify and in some cases state their names with regard to this abuse.”

Before trustees gave their individual statements, Chairman Brian Breslin read a statement on behalf of the entire board, apologizing to the victims and saying change is overdue at Michigan State. Breslin is one of the two trustees who could have run for election this year but is not. The other is Mitch Lyons.

“We must also acknowledge that there have been failures at MSU not only in our process and operations, but in our culture,” Breslin said on behalf of the entire board. “We are united in our determination to take all necessary steps to begin a new day and change the environment.”

Outside the meeting, pressure continued to build. Newspapers’ opinion sections were not kind to the board.

The Detroit News ran an editorial calling for all eight trustees to resign and give Snyder the ability to appoint an interim board until elections can be held. The current board “closed ranks around Simon and the administration and was no more interested in determining who at the school might have enabled Nassar’s 20 years of assaultive behavior,” the editorial read. Therefore, it argued, current board members should not be the ones to pick Simon’s successor.

A columnist held back even less fury, taking aim at both the current board and the rare at-large statewide ballot system Michigan uses to elect trustees for flagship universities.

“Where, exactly, has the university’s board of trustees -- mostly a collection of old jocks, a few small-business people and an octogenarian football coach -- been on this long downward arc to ignominy?” wrote the columnist, Daniel Howes, referring in part to Trustee George Perles, who coached Michigan State football in the 1980s and served for a few years as athletic director in the early 1990s. “From this week on, the name ‘Michigan State’ will be synonymous with ‘Penn State,’ shorthand for officially sanctioned serial molestation.”

It is notoriously difficult to force large groups of trustees, with staggered terms, from their position overseeing state colleges and universities. That is in large part due to design -- boards of trustees are intended to insulate institutions of higher learning from ambitious politicians’ whims and swings in public opinion. That’s true even when governors appoint trustees, a more common mechanism than that used to name board members at Michigan State.

Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky scandal provides an example of the difficulty in ousting trustees. The scandal broke in November 2011, and Penn State’s board chair at the time was heavily criticized for not earlier sharing information about investigations into Sandusky with the full board. He did not resign as a trustee for months, until July 2012, although he had opted in January of that year not run to retain the chairmanship.

More recently, a series of scandals and governance difficulties at the University of Louisville led Kentucky governor Matt Bevin to oust the university’s longtime president, James Ramsey, while dismissing almost all of its Board of Trustees and replacing it with a new, smaller board in 2016. The move was challenged in court and drew the attention of accreditors, who placed the university on probation. The situation was ultimately only resolved after state lawmakers passed legislation revamping the board, which satisfied concerns raised by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

It is unclear what mechanism Michigan State would use to oust trustees, said Armand Alacbay, vice president for trustee and legislative affairs at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, who reviewed the university’s bylaws.

“How would you replace a board that’s elected?” he said. “This is a time when you need strong leadership at a university that’s grappling with very extreme and fast-moving circumstances. One of the questions is how do you address the short term here?”

The situation that unfolded at Michigan State proves that trustees need to be involved and responsive to sensitive issues, Alacbay added.

“It’s a reminder of the massive public responsibility that trustees have and the seriousness of what they do,” he said. “If anything, Michigan State reminds everyone of the importance of trustees in institutional oversight.”

Other experts agreed.

“The board needs to own its accountability,” said Rick Legon, president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. “Being a member of a board is not easy. It requires real engagement. It requires awareness. It requires curiosity as a group, as an entity, as a fiduciary body.”

So replacing trustees would be a high-stakes, difficult proposition. Such action probably requires an intense and sustained political outcry.

But it’s possible the prerequisite conditions are percolating at Michigan State. Calls for investigations and a House vote for a resolution calling for Simon to step down were bipartisan, said Susan Demas, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics. The university and its handling of the Nassar scandal will likely be a factor in this year’s elections, she said.

“There is a tremendous amount of heat on the board and the highest officials at the university,” she said. “You probably saw the athletic director just stepped down. I don’t think he’s going to be the last to do so. I think there’s going to be quite a sea change at Michigan State.”

Michigan athletic director Mark Hollis on Friday announced he is retiring. The news came after the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced an investigation into Michigan State’s handling of the Nassar case.

Also last week, new investigations continued to scrutinize Michigan State’s handling of sexual assault cases involving athletes. An ESPN report found “a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of such allegations by officials ranging from campus police to the Spartan athletic department.” It reviewed cases involving Michigan State’s well-known men’s basketball and football programs.

Hollis held the athletic director position since 2008, making him the second longtime leader to step down last week after Simon, who had been president since 2005.

Michigan State trustees officially accepted Simon’s resignation, effective immediately, at their Friday meeting. They named Bill Beekman, vice president and secretary of the board, acting president and said they would start a search for an interim president. The university also plans a national search for a full-time president.

Trustees did not comment on whether Simon’s resignation alters a contract that has been scrutinized for her postpresidential pay and benefits.

Meanwhile, others within Michigan State’s administrative structure called for continued changes in personnel and practice. Sherman W. Garnett, dean of Michigan State’s James Madison College, on Thursday released a statement blasting university leaders.

“What I saw in our university’s response to the survivor statements in court from senior MSU spokespeople and leaders frankly made me ashamed,” it said. “We are so much better than this, so much more dedicated to fundamental human and humane values, than these words conveyed.”
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http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state-university/2018/01/29/msu-rowing-team-meet-trustees-over-nassar-case/109910112/

Rowers challenge board in unprecedented meeting
Jonathan Oosting and Matt Charboneau, The Detroit News Published 12:23 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2018 | Updated 10:06 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2018

East Lansing — Locked arm in arm, more than 75 members and supporters of the Michigan State University women’s rowing team marched across campus on Monday to confront trustees over MSU’s “failure” to protect students from serial sexual assaulter Larry Nassar.

Trustees Dianne Byrum, Brian Mosallam, Melanie Foster and Dan Kelly met with the athletes at the Hannah Administration Building for more than 50 minutes, calling it the first meeting of its kind between the board and a university team.

The meeting was the “start” of a broad discussion over the Nassar scandal, said acting interim President Bill Beekman, who also sat in along with Greg Ianni, deputy athletic director. But it’s “a long, long way from the end of the conversation,” Beekman said.

The rowing team, led by six senior athletes, peppered trustees with questions, asking the university to adopt policies to suspend employees under criminal investigation, improve communications with athletes victimized by Nassar and ensure all student-athletes have access to a chaperone during medical treatment.

The rowers’ demands Monday kicked off another week of turmoil and uncertainty at MSU as the university grapples with fallout from the Nassar scandal.

More than 150 women have accused Nassar of sexual assault while he worked as a sports doctor for MSU, USA Gymnastics and other organizations. He also treated members of the women’s rowing team from 1998 to 2016 despite complaints that reached at least 14 MSU employees over two decades.

“Many women, including myself, were patients of his,” said Nicole Marek, a senior member of the team who told reporters she was not personally assaulted. “We have teammates who are victims of his abuse, and it’s not right he was employed at that time.”

Byrum led Monday’s meeting with the rowing team. From the outset, board members told the athletes they could not discuss specific allegations against Nassar and did not have all the answers to their questions.

Officials want to listen and to change the “culture” at MSU, Byrum said, suggesting the university may host a series of town halls or other public forums to discuss potential changes.

“It’s going to take all of us,” Byrum said. “It’s not going to be one stakeholder or one college. It’s not going to be one set of policies. It’s going to be everyone traveling along this journey together.”

Attorney General Bill Schuette, meanwhile, is asking the university for a trove of documents, emails and text messages from a slew of current and former officials related to Nassar.

In a letter dated Saturday, Schuette requested the university hand over every record MSU has pertaining to its former women’s gymnastics coach Kathie Klages, former dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine William Strampel, and emails and text messages sent to or from former President Lou Anna Simon regarding Nassar.

An Ingham County Circuit judge last week sentenced Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison for seven counts of first-degree sexual misconduct. It followed statements either read or submitted in court from more than 150 victims of the 54-year-old Nassar, a former USA Olympics doctor. He is already serving 60 years in prison for possession of child pornography.

On Saturday, Schuette told reporters he would be sending the letter, but he did not disclose the scope of the information request, which seeks any records “concerning Kathie Klages, Brooke Lemmen and William Strampel,” including personnel files, records of complaints made against them regarding Nassar or any other complaints.

The attorney general also requested “all reports generated as a result of investigations concerning their conduct while employed with Michigan State University,” Strampel’s work computer and cellphone, and all email and text communications related to Nassar sent to or from Simon, former Athletic Director Mark Hollis, Strampel and a slew of other university officials, including trustees.

His request for MSU’s records came as the Attorney General’s Office is trying to figure out how much money it needs for its MSU investigation.

“We are determining what funds we may need to request from the Legislature or SAB (State Administrative Board),” Schuette spokeswoman Andrea Bitely said in a Monday email. “The size and scope of this investigation are broad and all-encompassing.”

Outrage toward MSU came to a head last week as victims detailed Nassar’s abuses during a sentencing hearing in Ingham County Circuit Court, with several victims also ridiculing the university’s response.

Simon resigned late Wednesday, Hollis stepped down Friday and board members remain under fire. Four members, including embattled Trustee Joe Ferguson, were not present at the Monday meeting.

At the rowing team meeting Monday, Marek said she was disappointed the four other trustees could not participate but called the meeting a good start despite trustees’ inability to answer several of their questions.

“I think it was a bit frustrating,” she told reporters after the meeting, “but patience is going to be key here, and we can be patient for the answers.”

Nassar abused women under the guise of medical treatment. Among the issues raised Monday, rowing team members said they still are not asked if they want a chaperone present during medical treatment.

“At my last appointment, that was not the case,” Marek said.

Beekman, who is expected to serve as president while trustees search for an interim leader, said Hollis had completed a review of athletic health and safety issues before he resigned.

MSU will likely fill Hollis’ empty position in the next 24 to 48 hours, Beekman told the rowing team, and it will be “a top priority of the acting athletic director to work on and implement recommendations that came from that report.”

Beekman and trustees did not talk to the media after the meeting, but they asked the athletes to continue the dialogue and remain in touch.

“We need your ideas; we need your input; we need your experience,” Mosallam said.

Mosallam earlier Monday called for the resignation of Bob Noto, the school’s vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, in the wake of the Nassar scandal. Noto could not be reached Monday.

The call came after a second Title IX report emerged Friday, showing that a victim who filed the complaint in the 2014 investigation got a version of the report that hid details found in an investigation of the case.

Both reports cleared Nassar, but the unabridged report that recently surfaced and was marked confidential showed that Nassar was a liability to the university and “ is exposing patients to unnecessary trauma based on the possibility of perceived inappropriate sexual misconduct.”

Legendary basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, one of MSU’s most famous alumni, on Monday also joined a growing chorus of voices calling for the dismissal of Michigan State University officials who knew anything about Nassar’s abuse.

“If anyone was aware of the sexual assault happening to women on the MSU campus from the office of the President, Board of Trustees, athletic department, faculty & campus police, and didn’t say or do anything about it, they should be fired,” wrote Johnson, a Lansing native and MSU alumnus, on his Twitter account.

joosting@detroitnews.com
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Judge who gave Stanford swimmer light sentence for rape now faces his own ‘jury’

By Robin Abcarian

Los Angeles Times
January 29, 2018 09:16 PM

In June, voters in Santa Clara County, will be asked whether Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky should be removed from the bench.This is not the standard, every-six-year retention vote faced by California judges. This is a recall, borne of outrage and frustration at the way Persky mishandled a sexual assault case involving a Stanford swimmer named Brock Turner and an unconscious young woman, known to the public only as “Emily Doe.”

Rather than send Brock to prison for six years, as the prosecutor recommended in 2016, Persky opted for a lenient penalty: six months in jail and three years of probation. Turner served half his sentence and was freed after 12 weeks in county jail. For Turner, a slap on the wrist. For his victim, a slap in the face.

More than 96,000 signed the recall petition in Santa Clara County, which stretches from the upscale tech environs of Silicon Valley to the garlicky fields of Gilroy.

If the effort succeeds, Persky will become the rare judge to be recalled. His supporters — and even critics who found Turner’s sentence too lenient — claim the recall represents a threat to judicial independence.

I say hogwash.

In the same way that Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken’s resignation last year sent a clear signal that Democrats would not tolerate sexual harassment of any stripe in their ranks, the recall of Persky will send a powerful message that Californians no longer will tolerate the abuse of women — by men or by courts.

In the words of Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, a leader of the recall campaign: “Enough is enough.”

Recently, I met up with Dauber in her third-floor campus office. We had 90 minutes before she was due downstairs to teach a course on campus sexual assault law. Several years ago, she led the process that revised Stanford’s policy on sexual assault.

Dauber, 52, a constitutional scholar with an expertise in the American welfare state and disaster relief, is also, as it happens, a family friend of Emily Doe’s. She was galvanized by her outrage at Turner’s light sentence.

In the past 18 months, the “Recall Judge Aaron Persky” campaign has raised more than $700,000 and is on track to raise another $500,000, Dauber said. “We have over 4,000 individual donors, averaging around $100. There are a couple of really generous larger donors, but this is a grassroots effort.”

The campaign used both paid and volunteer signature gatherers. “We left no area uncovered,” Dauber said. “We walked precincts in every incorporated community. We went to turkey trots, farmer’s markets, coffees, block parties, all kinds of political and social events.”

When I first met Dauber at the beginning of the recall effort, I was impressed by her passion. But I was also pretty sure that the recall process would take so long and create so many procedural hurdles that by the time the signature gathering got underway, people’s outrage about the Turner sentence would have cooled.

Then came the Donald Trump “Access Hollywood” tape where he bragged about sexually assaulting women, his subsequent election, the Women’s March, the pussy hats. Last year, came the exposes about Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor, etc., etc., etc. Getting fired for sexual harassment is the new black.

And the botched Turner sentence still feels as fresh and outrageous as the day it was handed down. In 2016, a bereft Emily Doe stood in a Santa Clara County courtroom and addressed Turner, who had sexually assaulted her while she lay unconscious outside a frat party on the Stanford campus. It was more than a year before dozens of women in Hollywood found the courage to reveal the sexual harassment and assault they endured by powerful men.

A jury convicted Turner of three felonies, including digital penetration and attempted rape. Emily Doe wanted to bear witness, to tell Turner to his face how she was tormented to learn after the fact what he had done to her.

It was the victim impact statement that was heard around the world: “You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice,” she said, “until today.”

Then Persky began his remarks. He acknowledged that Emily Doe’s life had been “devastated” by Turner. But then, in an extraordinary misstep, he handed down his minimalist sentence.” Obviously,” Persky said, “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.”

Isn’t that the very point of prison sentences?

Of course, she couldn’t have known it at the time, but Emily Doe was at the forefront of our current national reckoning about sexual harassment and assault. She insisted on being heard. She refused to allow the crime against her to be minimized.

In November 2016, Glamour magazine named her a woman of the year and said she had changed the conversation about sexual assault. At that point, her statement had been read more than 11 million times. She inspired the California legislature to change the legal definition of rape to include digital penetration, and to require prison terms for rape when victims are unconscious or unable to give consent.

Persky, who has widespread support in the legal community, tried to keep the measure off the ballot on a number of technical points. None of them succeeded. His own day of reckoning awaits.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article197320639.html#storylink=cpy
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http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/university-of-miami-rape-investigator-fired-for-sex-misconduct-10037484

Miami New Times, LLC
University of Miami Rape Investigator Quietly Fired for Hitting On Students
Jerry Iannelli | January 29, 2018 | 3:05pm

As the director of judicial affairs at the University of Miami from 2008 to 2016, Associate Dean of Students William A. "Tony" Lake investigated rape and sexual assault complaints. When he left in 2016, many assumed it was connected to a mishandled rape case that drew national press. Lake punished then-student David Jia for allegations that police later found to be false and was also separately accused of mishandling a different case by telling a victim to simply "avoid" her alleged rapist on campus.

But according to documents New Times obtained, Lake was fired May 31, 2016, because university officials discovered he had behaved inappropriately toward students.

According to Lake's termination letter, a female student filed a formal complaint against him April 26, 2016, after the two met through the school's Panhellenic Council. The student said Lake was hitting on her.

"Specifically, the student advised that you had expressed personal feelings toward her, and as a result, she requested that you refrain from further participation as an adviser to the Panhellenic Council," Ricardo Hall, the school's then-dean of students, wrote in the memo. (The council handles Greek-life issues around campus.) "On May 31, 2016, the investigation was completed and the allegations were substantiated."

The letter went on to state that Lake also engaged in "unprofessional discussions regarding other female students."

The letter does not specify what Lake said or did to warrant the firing. But Hall laid out three university rules that Lake broke, including acting in an "immoral or indecent" manner on the job, acting in a way that would "bring unfavorable attention" to UM, and committing any "willful act, careless act, or conduct detrimental to University operations or the safety and rights of other persons on University premises." He was fired immediately, according to the letter.

It's unclear how long the inappropriate comments went on or how many women the incidents ultimately affected. UM spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests from New Times. Lake did not respond to a message today — lawyers representing both him and the university in open lawsuits declined to comment.

Lake was hired under then-UM President Donna Shalala, who served in that role from 2001 to 2015. Shalala, the former secretary of health and human services under President Bill Clinton, is the current president of the Clinton Foundation. Shalala has reportedly been considering a run for central Miami's open congressional seat in 2018.

Lake was ultimately fired under Shalala's successor, Julio Frenk, UM's current president. But Lake's reputation was already on shaky ground before Frenk took over. In 2014, then-UM student Angela Cameron accused fellow student Jia of rape — leading one unofficial rape counselor at the school, former professor Katharine Westaway, to rally around Cameron and demand Jia's expulsion. Lake agreed and ultimately punished Jia.

But portions of Cameron's case unraveled: The Coral Gables Police Department ultimately found that Jia was not in town when Cameron said the events occurred. (Cameron still maintains she was assaulted.) Westaway's teaching contract was not renewed as a result. Jia sued the school, Westaway, Cameron, and Lake in federal court last January for Title IX violations, negligence, and defamation. The university and Lake have filed multiple motions to dismiss the suit.

"Many of the allegations are intentionally sensational and demonstrably false," Lake and UM's lawyers have argued in court.

Separately, the university was sued again, in September 2017, for another case Lake allegedly mishandled. (He was not sued personally but is named in court documents.) In this instance, an anonymous victim says she reported a sexual assault to Lake in 2013 — and instead of helping, she says, Lake refused to investigate the claim, told her to "avoid" her assailant on campus, encouraged her to "feel bad" for her rapist because he "did not have many friends," and tried to convince the victim that, perhaps, the assailant had used his finger instead of his penis to penetrate her. The student said she was assaulted in August of that year at Red Road, an off-campus apartment complex that caters to UM students, and that after the assault, her rapist continued to stalk and harass her.

The student also reported the assault to Coral Gables Police, who ultimately arrested the male student on stalking charges. She says she eventually attempted suicide due to the stress.

The university has filed documents maintaining it did not violate Title IX in this case. The school's lawyers have also attempted to out the anonymous accuser, who filed as a "Jane Doe" complainant.

While many commentators and education professionals have debated whether universities should take it upon themselves to investigate rape complaints, Lake's termination letter suggests he was likely a uniquely unqualified person to handle the job.

"The investigation found that you engaged in inappropriate and unprofessional behavior towards the aforementioned female student, which undermined and jeopardized the integrity of your position as the Associate Dean of Students," Hall wrote. He then asked Lake to clean out his office and turn in his employee badge.
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http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/29/student-expelled-for-sexual-assault-had


Student Expelled for Sexual Assault Had Evidence His Accuser Was Dating the Cop Who Investigated the Case
Judge says University of Cincinnati student "presents plausible allegations that his ability to present a meaningful defense was thwarted in this case."

Robby Soave|Jan. 29, 2018 3:15 pm

CinciPublic DomainThe University of Cincinnati expelled a student, Tyler Gischel, after he had sex with a student who claimed she was incapacitated at the time. Gischel claims investigators ignored two critical aspects of his defense: that his accuser wasn't as drunk as she claimed, and that she might have been romantically involved with William Richey, the university police detective who handled the case.

Friends of the accuser, Jennifer Schoewe, even claimed she exchanged messages with the detective in which they proclaimed their love for each other. But Richey deleted his texts before officials could see them, and Schoewe refused to unlock her phone.

Now Gischel is suing Richey, the university, and the administrators who expelled him. Last week he won an important victory: Southern District of Ohio Judge Susan Dlott ruled that three aspects of his complaint should survive the university's motion to dismiss.

"Gischel presents plausible allegations that his ability to present a meaningful defense was thwarted in this case," says Dlott's decision.

The information presented by Gischel casts significant doubt on the allegation against him, and it makes a strong case that the university violated his due process rights. The police detective's conduct seems utterly reprehensible—so bad, in fact, that the judge is allowing Gischel to sue the officer in both his official and personal capacities. (Dlott dismissed the personal claims against other college officials but some of the official-capacity claims against them will also proceed.)

Gischel's lawsuit is different in some ways from other cases I've covered that were brought under Title IX, the federal statute that requires universities to adjudicate sexual misconduct. For one thing, both the accused and accuser are mentioned by name, freeing us from the convention of calling them John Doe and Jane Roe. Also, this wasn't just a Title IX case: Schoewe initially pursued criminal charges as well. But many of the other details will sound familiar.

Gischel and Schoewe met at an off-campus party on the night of August 22, 2015. "Witnesses described Schoewe as the most intoxicated person at the party," according to Judge Dlott's decision. Between midnight and 1:00 a.m., a group of people that included both Gischel and Schoewe went out for pizza. The lawsuit describes Schoewe as behaving in a manner that indicated sexual interest in Gischel: She both kissed him and grabbed his crotch.

Gischel and a friend attempted to walk Schoewe home, but the friend became separated from them. Around 3:30 a.m., Gischel informed the friend via text that Schoewe was either unwilling or unable to recall where she lived, and wanted to go home with Schoewe. Later, at Gischel's apartment, Schoewe "expressly consented to having intercourse," according to Gischel. They had sex, and then Schoewe left, intending to go to another party. By this point it was well after 4:00 a.m.

Sometime over the course of the next two days, Schoewe spoke with her boyfriend and mother about what happened. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, she was in a five-year relationship with her boyfriend and had planned to lose her virginity on her wedding night. Her mother then called the University of Cincinnati Police Department and told Richey she was worried her daughter had been raped (a situation reminiscent of the infamous Drew Sterrett Title IX dispute, in which a mother read her daughter's diary and pressured her to file a sexual misconduct complaint). Schoewe subsequently reported the incident to the campus's Title IX office, and pursued criminal charges.

Richey handled the university's investigation. Concerns that Richey and Schoewe were somehow involved grew serious enough that the university conducted an internal investigation. Schoewe had posted a picture of herself on social media with the caption "my detective loves me," and her friends allegedly read damning text messages. Richey also gifted Schoewe a pendant to give her strength while she testified before the grand jury. The university eventually transferred him to a different division. (The College Fix has more about the investigation here.)

The court ordered Richey to make the text messages available, but he had already deleted them. Schoewe had the text messages, but she refused to unlock her phone for the authorities, and so the criminal charges against Gischel were dismissed.

The Title IX hearing was another matter. Gischel was denied the opportunity to directly cross-examine Schoewe; instead, he was told to submit questions to administrators who would pose these questions to Schoewe at the hearing. Gischel submitted 63 questions, but officials declined to ask Schoewe two of the most important ones: whether she had a romantic relationship with Richey and whether she had actually been incapacitated on the night in question. (Schoewe had claimed that she believed her incapacitation stemmed from the fact that she had been drugged, but no drugs were found in her system.)

On March 28, 2016, Gischel was found responsible for sexual misconduct and expelled from the university.

His lawsuit makes several noteworthy claims. He argues that the investigation reflects a gender bias against males, for instance, because the investigators did not care that Schoewe had kissed and grabbed him in a manner possibly inconsistent with Title IX. Dlott dismissed this aspect of the lawsuit because Gischel never made an issue of it—he did not file a Title IX complaint against Schoewe.

The lawsuit also impugns the federal government's interference in sexual misconduct disputes at the university. During the course of the investigation, Schoewe filed a federal complaint with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights alleging a sexually hostile educational environment. It's easy to see why the specter of a federal investigation might have made administrators more eager to send a strong message and expel an accused abuser.

Dlott has allowed the following aspects of the lawsuit to proceed: a Title IX claim for erroneous outcome against Gischel, procedural due process violations committed by college administrators in their official capacities, and a malicious prosecution claim against Richey in his professional and personal capacities.

KC Johnson, a professor of history at Brooklyn College and expert on Title IX cases, has noted on Twitter that this is the 77th campus-due-process-related decision that's favorable to a student accused of sexual misconduct. It's a perfect example of why due process is so important—and the Obama-era effort to undermine it was so pernicious. This young man had a strong case to make that he wasn't guilty and that the investigation was prejudiced against him. He was denied the opportunity to make this case two years ago, and now the court has no choice but to relitigate the matter under fairer circumstances.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/the-nassar-investigation-that-never-made-headlines/551717/

The Nassar Investigation That Never Made Headlines
Looking into a 2014 Title IX complaint, Michigan State University found no evidence of misconduct.

Caroline Kitchener Jan 29, 2018 Education


After months of court hearings, Larry Nassar, the former Olympic doctor convicted of molesting dozens of young female athletes, has now been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. The last time Nassar’s abuse came under formal scrutiny, however, incarceration was apparently never considered. When a 2014 Title IX investigation at Michigan State University found no evidence of misconduct, he returned to work at the school, where he continued subjecting students to assault disguised as proper medical treatment.

The Title IX complaint—in which the former MSU student Amanda Thomashow described Nassar massaging her breasts and vaginal area during medical examinations—was handled by Kristine Moore, the school’s Title IX coordinator and a full-time MSU employee. Moore, now MSU’s Assistant General Counsel, responsible for protecting the school from legal liability, concluded that Nassar’s behavior was “medically appropriate,” a judgment she reached based on interviews with three medical specialists and an athletic trainer. All four had personal ties to Nassar, and all four were employed by Michigan State.

Over the weekend, The Detroit News revealed that Moore gave Thomashow a different report than the one she delivered to MSU, withholding key information about Nassar’s behavior and clearing him of sexual harassment. The report to MSU, which, until now, had remained internal, also cleared Nassar of harassment but included the assessment that his methods were inflicting “unnecessary trauma” on his patients and putting the university at risk. Thomashow never saw that version of the document.

“There should not be two reports. I’ve never heard of two reports,” said Mick Grewal, the attorney representing 65 of Nassar’s victims. “If there were two, they should have been released at the same time. Not years later.” By making the internal report public in 2014, Jim Graves, Thomashow’s attorney, said Michigan State could have prevented further abuse. “They deprived Amanda and all of the survivors from that knowledge they held at the time. Had they disclosed that information, it would have been disseminated so people would know that Nassar was preying on girls.”

Because the 2014 investigation was conducted internally, conflict of interests may have influenced the outcome, allowing Nassar to continue his abuse for two more years. That possibility, along with Michigan State’s role in the scandal more generally, is now coming into sharp focus. The university’s long-time president, Lou Anna K. Simon, resigned late Wednesday. A few hours later, Gary Peters, a U.S. Senator from Michigan, called on Congress to launch a formal investigation into how the school handled the Nassar case.

Title IX, a 1972 federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools, has long required universities to adjudicate cases of student sexual assault and harassment. After the Education Department issued what later became known as the Dear Colleague letter in 2011, outlining the specific requirements a university must fulfill to comply with the law, colleges rushed to hire Title IX coordinators to handle these cases, or at least assign the role to someone already on staff. (Although the Department has since rescinded the 2011 guidelines under Betsy DeVos, few universities are likely to make cuts to their Title IX departments.)

University employees typically investigate incidents of campus sexual assault, but not always. While the Dear Colleague letter encouraged universities to employ internal teams to adjudicate campus sexual assault, it also warned them against potential conflicts of interest. Particularly if the case involves staff members, as opposed to just students, it can be difficult to hold a fully independent investigation. Colleges are tight-knit communities. And even when a school has 50,000 students, its medical specialists are likely to know one another.

If a case is particularly sensitive or high-profile, universities will often hire outside specialists—law firms that focus on college sexual misconduct—to handle the investigation and publish a public report. Brett Sokolow, a Title IX attorney who runs an independent practice outside of Philadelphia, said 17 colleges call on his team to investigate every single Title IX complaint they receive. That’s not economically feasible for most institutions, though, and many additional colleges hire Sokolow on a case-by-case basis. “We must do 400 of these investigations every year,” he said. If conducting the investigation internally could potentially hinder the results in any way, Sokolow said, the school has an obligation to hire an outside team. (As a third-party investigator, it bears mentioning, Sokolow would stand to benefit from that).

“They should have realized, part way through the Nassar investigation, the enormity of what they were taking on,” Sokolow said. “At some point, the Title IX coordinator should have gone to Lou Anna Simon and said, ‘This is beyond our scope. This is bigger than us. We need to go outside.’” While the 2014 Title IX investigation was based around a single complaint, Sokolow said, “You’re not a good investigator if you’re not looking for a pattern.”

Other schools have learned this lesson the hard way. In 2015, in the midst of a long, messy sexual-assault scandal, Baylor University hired a large Philadelphia law firm to investigate its football program, particularly Head Coach Art Briles, who was suspected of covering up for football players accused of sexual assault. Initially, Kenneth Starr, then President of Baylor, moved to conduct the investigation internally, appointing the law professor Jeremy Counseller, Baylor’s faculty representative to the NCAA, to draw up the report. It was only after widespread public backlash that Baylor chose to call on outside lawyers. The external report exposed a cover-up within the football program that extended throughout the highest levels of the university. Soon after the report came out, Briles was fired and Starr was removed as president.

Notorious sexual-assault scandals at Baylor and Penn State have sent a clear signal to universities across the country: If the case is likely to get any kind of media attention, outside investigators are essential. “If you’re able to say to the press, ‘We hired this law firm, they had no reason to lie to us … They told us we’re okay, so we are,’ it can make the university look less biased,” said Erin Buzuvis, a law professor at Western New England University specializing in Title IX litigation. If universities earnestly believe they have nothing to hide, Buzuvis said, it’s in their best interest to bring in help from outside.

Michigan State seems to have finally gotten the message. When a different sexual-assault scandal rattled its football team in late 2016 and early 2017, after the first Nassar allegations became public, the administration hired a law firm to “conduct a thorough and independent investigation into football program staff members’ compliance with university policy.”

It’s not clear why the school didn’t do the same thing in 2014. The nature of Thomashow’s case against Nassar—the accusation against a staff member, Nassar’s position at USA Gymnastics, the fact that similar reports had been made by MSU students before—certainly made the complaint a prime candidate for external investigation. “The reason could be something benign, or it could be nefarious,” Buzuvis said. The school might have believed the complaint would be easy enough to handle alone—or it might have been trying to protect a nationally recognized Olympic doctor, one of the most prominent members of its athletic staff. A MSU spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Either way, it never should have been the university’s decision. There are no government regulations that determine whether a college needs to hire an outside investigator; the choice is left entirely up to the school. When conflicts of interest are as easy to spot as they were in Nassar’s Title IX investigation, it’s likely there are many more cases like this one, permitted to pass smoothly through the campus adjudication process without sufficient scrutiny. After Thomoshow’s complaint, the Nassar allegations were dismissed and nearly forgotten. It took two years for any other victims to publicly come forward.

“My voice didn’t matter four years ago,” Thomashow said at Nassar’s sentencing hearing in Lansing, Michigan, last week. “But maybe this time, at least my voice can be part of a chorus that makes a change.”
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Jan 30 2018, 04:53 AM
http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/29/student-expelled-for-sexual-assault-had


Student Expelled for Sexual Assault Had Evidence His Accuser Was Dating the Cop Who Investigated the Case
Judge says University of Cincinnati student "presents plausible allegations that his ability to present a meaningful defense was thwarted in this case."

Robby Soave|Jan. 29, 2018 3:15 pm

CinciPublic DomainThe University of Cincinnati expelled a student, Tyler Gischel, after he had sex with a student who claimed she was incapacitated at the time. Gischel claims investigators ignored two critical aspects of his defense: that his accuser wasn't as drunk as she claimed, and that she might have been romantically involved with William Richey, the university police detective who handled the case.

Friends of the accuser, Jennifer Schoewe, even claimed she exchanged messages with the detective in which they proclaimed their love for each other. But Richey deleted his texts before officials could see them, and Schoewe refused to unlock her phone.

Now Gischel is suing Richey, the university, and the administrators who expelled him. Last week he won an important victory: Southern District of Ohio Judge Susan Dlott ruled that three aspects of his complaint should survive the university's motion to dismiss.

"Gischel presents plausible allegations that his ability to present a meaningful defense was thwarted in this case," says Dlott's decision.

The information presented by Gischel casts significant doubt on the allegation against him, and it makes a strong case that the university violated his due process rights. The police detective's conduct seems utterly reprehensible—so bad, in fact, that the judge is allowing Gischel to sue the officer in both his official and personal capacities. (Dlott dismissed the personal claims against other college officials but some of the official-capacity claims against them will also proceed.)

Gischel's lawsuit is different in some ways from other cases I've covered that were brought under Title IX, the federal statute that requires universities to adjudicate sexual misconduct. For one thing, both the accused and accuser are mentioned by name, freeing us from the convention of calling them John Doe and Jane Roe. Also, this wasn't just a Title IX case: Schoewe initially pursued criminal charges as well. But many of the other details will sound familiar.

Gischel and Schoewe met at an off-campus party on the night of August 22, 2015. "Witnesses described Schoewe as the most intoxicated person at the party," according to Judge Dlott's decision. Between midnight and 1:00 a.m., a group of people that included both Gischel and Schoewe went out for pizza. The lawsuit describes Schoewe as behaving in a manner that indicated sexual interest in Gischel: She both kissed him and grabbed his crotch.

Gischel and a friend attempted to walk Schoewe home, but the friend became separated from them. Around 3:30 a.m., Gischel informed the friend via text that Schoewe was either unwilling or unable to recall where she lived, and wanted to go home with Schoewe. Later, at Gischel's apartment, Schoewe "expressly consented to having intercourse," according to Gischel. They had sex, and then Schoewe left, intending to go to another party. By this point it was well after 4:00 a.m.

Sometime over the course of the next two days, Schoewe spoke with her boyfriend and mother about what happened. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, she was in a five-year relationship with her boyfriend and had planned to lose her virginity on her wedding night. Her mother then called the University of Cincinnati Police Department and told Richey she was worried her daughter had been raped (a situation reminiscent of the infamous Drew Sterrett Title IX dispute, in which a mother read her daughter's diary and pressured her to file a sexual misconduct complaint). Schoewe subsequently reported the incident to the campus's Title IX office, and pursued criminal charges.

Richey handled the university's investigation. Concerns that Richey and Schoewe were somehow involved grew serious enough that the university conducted an internal investigation. Schoewe had posted a picture of herself on social media with the caption "my detective loves me," and her friends allegedly read damning text messages. Richey also gifted Schoewe a pendant to give her strength while she testified before the grand jury. The university eventually transferred him to a different division. (The College Fix has more about the investigation here.)

The court ordered Richey to make the text messages available, but he had already deleted them. Schoewe had the text messages, but she refused to unlock her phone for the authorities, and so the criminal charges against Gischel were dismissed.

The Title IX hearing was another matter. Gischel was denied the opportunity to directly cross-examine Schoewe; instead, he was told to submit questions to administrators who would pose these questions to Schoewe at the hearing. Gischel submitted 63 questions, but officials declined to ask Schoewe two of the most important ones: whether she had a romantic relationship with Richey and whether she had actually been incapacitated on the night in question. (Schoewe had claimed that she believed her incapacitation stemmed from the fact that she had been drugged, but no drugs were found in her system.)

On March 28, 2016, Gischel was found responsible for sexual misconduct and expelled from the university.

His lawsuit makes several noteworthy claims. He argues that the investigation reflects a gender bias against males, for instance, because the investigators did not care that Schoewe had kissed and grabbed him in a manner possibly inconsistent with Title IX. Dlott dismissed this aspect of the lawsuit because Gischel never made an issue of it—he did not file a Title IX complaint against Schoewe.

The lawsuit also impugns the federal government's interference in sexual misconduct disputes at the university. During the course of the investigation, Schoewe filed a federal complaint with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights alleging a sexually hostile educational environment. It's easy to see why the specter of a federal investigation might have made administrators more eager to send a strong message and expel an accused abuser.

Dlott has allowed the following aspects of the lawsuit to proceed: a Title IX claim for erroneous outcome against Gischel, procedural due process violations committed by college administrators in their official capacities, and a malicious prosecution claim against Richey in his professional and personal capacities.

KC Johnson, a professor of history at Brooklyn College and expert on Title IX cases, has noted on Twitter that this is the 77th campus-due-process-related decision that's favorable to a student accused of sexual misconduct. It's a perfect example of why due process is so important—and the Obama-era effort to undermine it was so pernicious. This young man had a strong case to make that he wasn't guilty and that the investigation was prejudiced against him. He was denied the opportunity to make this case two years ago, and now the court has no choice but to relitigate the matter under fairer circumstances.
I've always consider the campus police to be a fuzzy setup, serving law and school. This case makes it even fuzzier.

Makes one curious why the officer was not charged for obstruction of justice.
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https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/30/metoo-movement-inspires-similar-campaigns-among-colleges?utm_content=buffer62e2d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=IHEbuffer


A College's List of Alleged Rapists

Administrators grapple with campus version of #MeToo movement in which students are publicly naming others and accusing them of sexual assault.
By
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
January 30, 2018
31 Comments

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Last year, the rise of #MeToo spawned a crowdsourced document known as the Shitty Media Men list. This was a Google spreadsheet, shared by women working in media, in which anyone could name powerful male industry figures whose offenses ranged from alleged rape to creepy comments.

This database of sorts, which was in part compiled anonymously, had been intended for private viewing but was circulated publicly and raised questions about whether unverified accusations could unfairly ruin the reputations of the accused. Still, many cheered the list, and similar ones in other industries, for giving victims a voice for grievances that had long been ignored.

College campuses are now grappling with similar scenarios, with the movement emboldening student activists to speak out and identify those they believe have committed sexual assault and harassment -- even if it’s unverified. Relying on these informal channels, rather than reporting to campus officials, speaks to a broken system and frustrated students who do not trust administrators, survivor activists said in interviews.

At Middlebury College, the campus has been in tumult for the last few weeks, starting when one student posted on Facebook the names of more than 30 men whom she accused of rape, emotional abuse, “emotional manipulation” and more.

These were made public without the permission of those allegedly wronged and launched a campus debate about the proper way to handle these accusations -- whether students were obligated to report them and Middlebury’s handling of such cases.

Screen shot of a Facebook post by Elizabeth Dunn: “[Content warning sexual assault/abuse] Something that’s been weighing me down for a while, especially after the #metoo movement, is how incredibly visible survivors can be, and yet how invisible the ones who violated our boundaries remain. So many people at Middlebury are open about the trauma they’ve experienced here, and yet there’s still reluctance to publicly name the ones who have caused this pain. It’s profoundly f*cked up to me that I can write so much about my trauma, and see that and similar narratives hyper-consumed on so many platforms, and yet in my everyday life still see people associate with those who have perpetuated this violence as if nothing has happened. So in the spirit of that, here’s a short list of men to avoid: [name blacked out] (rapist), [name blacked out] (rapist), [name blacked out] (my rapist, don’t know his last name), [name blacked out] (physically/emotionally abusive), [name blacked out] (sexual harassment, treats women but especially black women like shit), [name blacked out] (made fetishistic, racist, sexual comments about black women), [name blacked out] (sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (rapist, physically violent), [name blacked out] (sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (sexual assault), [name blacked out] (rapist, emotional abuse), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (serial rapist), [name blacked out] (rapist), [name blacked out] (emotionally manipulative), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment, sexual assault), [name blacked out] (serial rapist), [name blacked out] (rapist), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment, sexist comments), [name blacked out] (emotional abuse, sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (sexual assault), [name blacked out] (attempted rape), [name blacked out] (rapist, sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (serial rapist), [name blacked out] (emotionally manipulative, sexual abuse), [name blacked out] (sexual harassment), [name blacked out] (serial rapist) and a lot of other people that I don’t want to name to respect people’s safety. Anyways here’s to not being complicit in 2018, and feel free to DM me more names to add to this status because I could really give a f*ck about protecting the privacy of abusers. Student Elizabeth Dunn, in a now deleted post from December, wrote that “so many people” at Middlebury were open about trauma.

“And yet there’s still a reluctance to publicly name the ones who have caused this pain,” Dunn wrote, continuing with the names of men she had collected from survivors and dubbing it a “List of Men to Avoid.”

Middlebury has declined to comment on Dunn and the list because of federal privacy laws.

In an email to campus after Dunn posted to Facebook, the college wrote that public allegations “should not take the place of established procedures.” The email encouraged those who felt they had been wrongly accused to contact the college’s Judicial Affairs officers.

Middlebury students must tell campus officials of any relevant information once an investigation is launched into an offense, according to the college’s rules -- or be subject to punishment. Students who learn of sexual misconduct should report it to campus officials, among them the Title IX coordinator. These employees help administer the federal anti-gender-discrimination law, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Middlebury’s rules did apply to Dunn, who did not respond to a request for comment, but reportedly had refused to disclose information to some administrators.

Spokesman Bill Burger said in a statement,

“Middlebury is committed to reducing sexual violence on our campuses and takes all allegations regarding sexual assault extremely seriously, regardless of the source of that allegation. When we become aware of an allegation, we follow our policies closely to ensure that investigations are comprehensive and that our judicial process is thorough and fair. Through the process, we are committed to supporting survivors of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct.”

Federal laws including Title IX generally don’t compel students to report such offenses, said S. Daniel Carter, president of Safety Advisors for Educational Campuses, which consults with colleges on matters of sexual misconduct. A student who works for the university, such as a resident assistant, would be required to report.

Dunn’s list ended up being distributed widely around the college.

Editors of the campus newspaper, The Middlebury Campus, penned an opinion piece this month, writing that students were no doubt jarred to see some of the names there.

They acknowledged the criticism around not checking with survivors before publishing the list and noted that the accusations were never authenticated.

“As members of this community, our indignation is colored by the anecdotes of our friends and peers who say the college’s legal system has failed them,” they wrote.

A list with unsubstantiated claims can be damaging for its creator, said Scott Lewis, a lawyer and partner with the NCHERM Group, a risk-management firm that works with colleges. Lewis also helped found the Association of Title IX Administrators.

The list potentially could create a hostile environment for the men named in it, which is prohibited under Title IX, Lewis said. A student in theory could be disciplined for that, Lewis said, or be sued for defamation if a false accusation cropped up in a Google search for one of the men and he was prevented from receiving a scholarship or job opportunity.

Lewis took issue with the idea of publicizing names with unproven allegations against them. Lewis noted that one man was accused of being “emotionally manipulative,” but it was unclear what that truly meant. Trained investigators must look into these matters and determine what happened, he said.

If students want to help, they should take part in education around assault prevention, Lewis said.

“If you want true consequence to happen, bring it to the people who enforce the rules and investigate this -- pass that information on,” he said.

Institutions that possess the names of students who have been publicly accused of sexual assault should ask equally publicly for survivors to come forward -- and promise confidentiality, a fair disciplinary process and, to the extent possible, strong support, Carter said.

“This would evidence a meaningful effort to comply with the law, make the campus safer and do so in a way that does not chill reporting or further harm survivors,” he said.

Many people who report rape as a third party do so without asking permission of the survivor, but that’s a bad practice, said Alyssa Peterson, a state organizer with the survivor advocacy group Know Your IX.

Peterson said that doing so doesn’t allow survivors control over their own stories.

Know Your IX doesn’t take a formal position on such public lists, because often they are symptomatic of an institution that hasn’t met its commitment or where survivors have felt “left down” in some way.

“We just wish we had a process that promises enough justice that survivors would feel comfortable going to the university,” Peterson said.

Although #MeToo is expected to lead to more instances like that at Middlebury, long before the current movement, students have vented their frustrations with sexual assaults and colleges' handling of them in more underground methods.

In 2014, names of men accused of rape were scrawled onto bathroom walls and on fliers at Columbia University, prompting national headlines. At Columbia spokesman at the time declined to comment “to avoid chilling complainants from coming forward and to respect all parties involved.”

At the time, Columbia was under investigation by the Education Department for how it treated sexual assault cases.

Two historically black institutions in Atlanta, Spelman College and Morehouse College, and their sister colleges and universities, were roiled in 2016 after an anonymous Twitter user under the name @RapedatSpelman posted an account of her rape, which in turn created the hashtags #RapedatSpelman and #RapedbyMorehouse. More recently, another Twitter handle emerged, @WeKnowWhatYou (#WeKnowWhatYouDid), that directly named alleged rapists within the Atlanta University Center Consortium.
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