Victim Protection or Revictimization: Should College Disciplinary Boards Handle Sexual Assault Claims?

INTRODUCTIONEarly one morning a few weeks into a new school year at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), Anna, an eighteen-year-old first-year student, was found by her friends bent over a pool table at a dance hall ("The Barn") being sexually assaulted from behind by a senior football player.1 A group of people stood by, watching and laughing.2 After being removed from the hall and escorted home by friends, Anna, who had been drinking heavily, could not recall ever being at The Barn, but did recount being raped at a fraternity house earlier in the evening by the same senior football player and two others.3 A sexual assault nurse would later record that Anna's med* ical exam revealed evidence of blunt force trauma and indications of "intercourse with multiple partners, multiple times, or that intercourse was very forceful."4Worried friends reported the incident to campus police, who then accompanied Anna to the hospital.5 Campus police then began an investigation by taking statements from Anna, other students, and the accused players.6 The senior football player was advised not to contact Anna or involve his friends in any retaliatory acts, a warning he failed to comply with on numerous occasions.7 The matter was then referred to a disciplinary panel to evaluate the allegations and determine any punishments. 8 The threemember disciplinary panel that was tasked with evaluating the evidence of sexual assault included the college's Vice President of Human Resources, an assistant psychology professor, and the director of the campus bookstore.9At the disciplinary hearing, neither the accuser nor the accused was permitted to have a lawyer present, although each was allowed an adviser who was required to remain silent throughout.10 As with most college and university disciplinary committees, the panelists acted as prosecutors, judges, and jury, without any limitations or guidelines for their questioning.11 Records indicate that the questioning was sporadic, unclear, and focused on Anna's actions-what she had to drink and how she had danced-without ever questioning the players as to why their stories had changed multiple times.12Twelve days after the attack, the panel finished its investigation and hearing and cleared all three players of any misconduct.13 Anna received a written confirmation of the panel's decision, including a note stating where in the school's sexual misconduct policy she could find information about appealing the decision.14 The page that she was directed to, however, included no information about the appeals process; instead, it included a section on "False Allegations," an error the school later admitted.15 Although Anna initially declined to report the incident to police after a school official warned her it could lead to a long, drawn-out process, she changed her mind six months later and filed a report.16 The Ontario County District Attorney, however, claiming that he did not have enough information to proceed, closed the case quickly.17In response to numerous reports of campus sexual assaults like Anna's and the inadequate responses of colleges and universities, President Obama created the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault ("Task Force") in January 2014.18 The Task Force released its first report in April 2014, confirming that Anna's experience at HWS was not uncommon: one in five women is sexually assaulted while attending college in the United States.19 In most cases, the attacker is an acquaintance of the victim, rather than a stranger, and many attacks occur while the victim is incapacitated.20 A previous government study of college men who admitted committing rape reported that the majority of the men surveyed committed multiple offenses, with an average of six rapes each.21 Although the number of sexual assaults on college campuses outpaces the assault rate for women of the same age who are not in college,22 only about twelve percent of campus assaults are reported to law enforcement. …