At exactly 7:00 a.m. on Sept., 29, as the sun was rising over Plymouth State University’s Homecoming Weekend, a call came in to the Plymouth Police Department reporting a sexual assault. A campus safety alert was sent out later that day reading: “A female PSU student reported she was sexually assaulted by 2 white males – unknown age and description.”
A sad, but predictable scene; last year the Federal Justice Department’s Center for Public Integrity reported that more than 20 percent of college women are victims of rape or attempted rape by the time they graduate.
Last semester, The Clock received two Letters to the Editor claiming that such crimes were happening frequently on campus and were handled with indifference by the administration.
Stephen Lefebvre, the Plymouth Chief of Police, who could not disclose any information on last weekend’s incident, believes attacks like last weekend’s are a rarity here.
“It doesn’t happen as often as people think it does, but it does happen, maybe a couple times a year.”
Yet, as Sean Bogle, the Coordinator of Student Conduct and Community Standards, points out, “There isn’t necessarily a correlation between the assaults that may be happening on campus and the information we get.”
Domestic and sexual abuse experts agree, many victims simply do not speak to the administration or police. Robin DeRosa, the president of Voices Against Violence in Plymouth, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the cycle of violence and abuse, says, “in the first three weeks of September alone, we provided services to seven PSU students.”
DeRosa, who is also a professor in PSU’s English Department, has been with Voices for four years, says something is missing in the administration’s adjudication process.
“We know that sexual assault is very common here, since we are aware of the national statistics about rape. And yet, our judicial system handles only a small handful of sexual misconduct cases each year.”
Tim Keefe, the Dean of Students, says getting the word out to victims will be essential in making sure no assaults go unpunished.
“The hardest thing to do is just get the word out to people that we are here to help, and that no one is going to take the power and authority away from you,” said Keefe, but adds, “We can’t prosecute without a complainant and someone who is willing to write a statement-we can’t do it without consent from an adult.” And since all Plymouth students are adults (legally, even a 17-year-old student can act as an adult in such an instance) the only way to prosecute is to speak up, because as Keefe says, “an adult has a choice, whether they want to report to the police or not.”
Bogle, along with Keefe, handles judicial matters on campus that are brought to their office from the Police, Residential Advsiors, or students. They hear anything from a noise complaint to a sexual assault.
The defendants in some of these cases can go in front of student panels, or resident director panels, but, unlike many other universities, sexual assault cases at PSU never go before a student panel.
Bogle points out, “student panels are not formed in cases where suspension might be an option. If suspension is an option either myself and colleagues or Reslife will make a panel.” Keefe adds, “The last thing victims want to do is go in front of a panel.”
Despite this process, one anonymous victim in an editorial for The Clock cites that she, after being, “pinned up against a wall and groped,” was forced to “pick up and move to a different part of [their] building,” while the alleged groper received no punishment and got to stay put.
“Here’s what can happen sometimes-a student comes forward and says, ‘I was sexually assaulted, I want to do nothing…’ Well then we can’t move that person [the alleged assaulter]. So we might help you find another place to live, but that only happens if you choose not to report it,” said Keefe.
Bogle wants students to know that their door is always open. “If a student feels that they’ve had a negative or challenging experience in the past, come back to us. If you feel like you didn’t get what you wanted the first time, come back.”
DeRosa sees this disconnect between the administration and victims as an opportunity to reevaluate our universities’ adjudication processes.
“If we can start with an honest assessment of our own process, and help victims get hooked up with a legal advocate immediately, we can dramatically improve the results they have by using our systems,” says DeRosa.
“Many years ago,” Keefe said, “the student government considered the idea of having legal consultants on campus to give advice and guidance to students,” but the idea has not manifested.
DeRosa continues: “My feeling is that any student reporting a sexual assault should automatically be connected with an advocate — not just referred to one, but introduced to one. Every time, every student.”
“Sexual assault will always be hard for victims to report, but right now, society hasn’t given victims much evidence that if they report, the system will work with them to achieve justice,” said DeRosa. “I think we have to do much better before we can suggest that it’s okay to sit back and wait for victims to come forward.”
“We [at PSU] do not have a significant record of successful hearing outcomes,” said DeRosa.
Current students will likely not be familiar with the incident that occurred at PSU about six years ago, involving a female victim of assault and abuse that was treated questionably by the Plymouth Police Department. The Clock reported heavily on the incident. The following information was gathered from our archives.
In 2005 a brutal assault took place in “the vicinity of Langdon and Pleasant Street,”-a few blocks from the Sep., 28,attack. In this case, a female student was allegedly beat by three males late at night.
When questioned after the attack, the victim told police she did not know her attackers. Weeks later, the victim came forward and “admit[ted] she [knew] one of her attackers.” While police and University officials did not dispute that she was, in fact, beaten the victim was then “arrested on the charges of unsworn falsification.”
The arrest eventually lead to an arraignment and a punishment of a “$600 fine,” and “one year of good behavior in lieu of a 10-day sentence in the Grafton County House of Corrections.”
“In a separate campus disciplinary proceeding, the alleged victim was suspended.” The victim withdrew from the University after the suspension, and after the administration released her name publically on the Plymouth State University website.
While many current students will not recall the 2005 incident, factors still exist within the University’s judiciary process that seem to be discouraging to victims that might otherwise want to come forward and take action against their assailants. “We have a major problem in that we haven’t made our judicial process worthwhile for victims, for whatever reason,” says DeRosa.
Many in the administration want to get more victims to come forward, but understand the apprehension might be overwhelming.
“If you don’t want to talk to ‘authority,’ you should talk to Voices Against Violence; they will give you the care and right resources,” said Keefe.
There are advocacy groups on campus like the S.A.G.E. Center that can help empower and support victims, but as Keefe reiterates, coming forward is the first step. “Any student, any time, if you feel your rights have been violated, don’t sit silently and suffer. You control the process, but if you don’t come forward we can’t help you understand what your options are.”