Last April, the University of Oregon issued a campuswide notice to alert students that the school was investigating alleged sexual assaults, possibly involving the use of drugs. The memo urged students to take steps to protect themselves, on and off campus.

The law school dean's follow-up email, which went only to the university's 537 law school students, was more pointed: If a woman is not capable of consenting to sex, that constitutes rape.

The law school's email Listserv lit up in what the alleged assault victims would later describe as a "flame war." Students reacted in back-and-forth emails, some supportive of the women, others bashing the women and university officials, urging them to stop preaching their "moral superiority about how not to rape people."

Second-year law student Ginger Kimler, an editor of the school's law review, read the emails with more than passing interest. Her allegations against a fellow male law student, as well as similar allegations from a second female law student, inspired both the warnings and the furious Web debate.

When does an alcohol-fueled night that takes an unexpected turn and ends in sex with an acquaintance turn into a crime?

Kimler, who says she woke up naked in the male student's bed the previous August with no memory of how she got there, wasn't sure herself until she received an email from another female law student, who said that she had had a similar experience with the same man.

Separately, the women reported their concerns to an assistant dean of students in the law school. Eventually, they also reported the suspected attacks to Eugene police.

The Oregonian is not naming the male student because he was not charged with a crime. The newspaper does not usually name the victims of alleged sexual assault, but Kimler said she wanted her name used.

"I've taken on the mentality that I have nothing to hide," Kimler said. "I have nothing to be ashamed of. I don't want to be treated like a victim."

Through his attorney, the male student denies any misconduct. On the eve of a university code of conduct hearing, he agreed to leave the school. The women said they were dissatisfied and concerned about other women.

The male student admitted he had sex with both women, said his lawyer, Gregory E. Veralrud of Eugene.

"In both situations, he acknowledges his intoxication -- his own and theirs -- but nothing was nonconsensual," Veralrud said. "Let's face it. A lot of collegiate and young people on campuses are involved in relationships that in the cool light of day probably wish they hadn't been."

Through his attorney, the male student denied drugging either woman.

Universities are increasingly under pressure to respond better to students' reports of alleged sexual assault. But college officials struggle, particularly with the thorny issues of what constitutes consent and how to respond if the accused hasn't been formally charged with a crime. In this case, the law school dean reminded students in an email what is spelled out in the law.

"To be clear, sexual intercourse with a person who is incapacitated by drugs or alcohol and thereby incapable of consent is rape in the first degree under Oregon law,"

. "It is also a violation of the UO's student conduct code. The conduct code applies to sexual activity that occurs off-campus."

The UO law school case illustrates the difficulties: The two women said they were ashamed and struggled to report the incidents, and the law enforcement inquiry did not find enough evidence to prosecute. The UO's response was typical of how universities handle sexual assault complaints, particularly when complicated by the parties' use of alcohol, experts say.

What stands out in this case is that the accused student, not either woman, left the law school.

"Typically, the victim quits because they can't function and succeed in school," said Phyllis Barkhurst, a founder and former director of the Oregon attorney general's Sexual Assault Task Force. "The fact that this guy quit, that's a rare occurrence."

To UO officials, the male student's departure seemed a reasonable resolution. But it was small comfort to the women, both of whom missed classes and say they suffered depression.

Hazy memories

Kimler remembers attending a birthday party on Aug. 28, 2010. She was downing vodka in drinking games and then went bar hopping. After vomiting on a sidewalk, she ended up in a taxi with the male first-year student.

She made it home but realized she didn't have her cellphone. She messaged him on Facebook. He arranged for a taxi to pick her up as she'd left her phone in the taxi, Kimler told police.

"I vaguely remember getting my phone back. Then I remember waking up the next morning. I was in his bed, and I wasn't wearing clothes," she said.

She told police she messaged him repeatedly over the next few days, asking him whether they had sex. "I need to know whether I should get tested. Finally, he told me I should," Kimler said in an interview.

Kimler told her friends about the night. Then she said she tried to repress it. Months later, on April 4, 2011, Kimler received this email out of the blue from a first-year female law student:

"I realize that this is a random request, but I wanted to see if you want to meet up for coffee. I had an issue with (the male student) from my section and I have heard that I am not the only one. Please let me know what you think."

Kimler said she was astonished to learn that another woman may have had a similar experience with the same man.

The next morning, Kimler said, she broke down in tears as she reported the alleged sex assault to Nicole Commissiong, the law school's assistant dean for student affairs.

Drinks, then ride home

On Nov. 19, 2010, the first-year female law student joined her classmates at a local bar to celebrate completion of a months-long class assignment. They met about 12:30 p.m. for lunch, drinks and to shoot pool at McMenamins. The student said she had about four drinks: wine, tequila, a shot of whiskey and a shot of vodka.

About 3 p.m., she left with a friend whom she had asked to baby-sit her daughter as she had plans that night to see a play. She returned to the bar 30 minutes later to meet her date for the play. She continued drinking. She said she recalled seeing the first-year male law student, who was an acquaintance, at the bar.

"I remember talking to (him). I was pretty sure he was drinking with me," she said.

Friends said she left the bar about 4 p.m., leaving her purse behind.

"I don't remember anything else until I got home," she said. "(He) gave me a ride home, but I don't remember anything."

She said she does recall walking up to her front door. She was dressed in a man's red, white and blue sweatshirt, her black tights and boots. Missing were her blouse, jacket and skirt. Her baby-sitting friend said it was about 9 p.m. The friend asked whose clothes she was wearing.

"I told her I didn't know. I didn't know what I was doing," she said, not knowing how she'd spent the past five hours or where her clothes were.

"I've been drunk before, but I wasn't sobering up like that. It was like I was out of it," she recalled.

A friend drove her to Springfield's Sacred Heart Medical Center emergency room about 11:30 p.m. She said she was advised that if she wanted a rape exam, the hospital would have to call police. "I was like, no, I don't know what's going on. I didn't want to get police involved," she recalled.

Hospital spokeswoman Andrea Ash said she could not discuss the case, but said it's the hospital's policy to conduct a sexual assault exam even if a victim doesn't want police involved. It can be a numbered, anonymous kit that would be preserved as evidence should a victim want police involvement later.

Upset and crying, the woman went home and went to bed. The next morning, she realized she didn't have her phone, purse or car. She messaged the male law student on Facebook.

"Hey ... ? What happened last night?" she wrote.

Then she called him. He told her it wasn't a good time to talk as he had been stopped for DUII about 9:30 that night in Eugene, which a prosecutor's memo later confirmed. She asked what had happened.

"We had hooked up," she recalls him telling her.

Upset, she called him again from a friend's phone. This time, he told her they had sex, she told police. Later, after retrieving her purse from a friend who had found it at the bar, she found text messages from the male student on her cellphone. One text read: "Please take morning after or something please." She bought and took the pill, she later told police.

Finals were in three weeks. But she said she skipped class the following Monday. "I didn't want to be in the same room with him," she said.

She had three classes with the male student, and she ended up dropping one -- criminal law -- in second semester because she said she feared sexual assault would be discussed.

In March, as she sat alone in the student lounge, she said the male student walked up to her. "I have your clothes," she said he told her. She said she walked with him to his locker, where he handed her a plastic bag. Her skirt, blouse and jacket were inside. All the clothes had been washed.

Then she ran into him at a bar on her birthday that month, she said, and he warned a male friend of hers to watch out for her. "I felt like I needed to tell someone," she said, "but I didn't know how to go about it."

On April 4, she visited the law school's assistant dean of students, unaware that Kimler had done so about 30 minutes earlier. She had heard of Kimler's experience from a friend.

"I just basically tried to explain everything I could," she said. "I felt really nervous and fearful because I have to be around this guy, and I have to be around all his friends."

Go to police or not?

Four days after the two women reported the incidents to Commissiong, the law school's assistant dean of student affairs emailed the women to let them know she would be meeting with the University of Oregon's dean of students. She asked whether they had further questions.

The first-year female law student wrote back: "Does the university have any suggestions of handling the situation ... we have almost every class together?"

Carl Yeh, the university's director of student conduct and community standards, gave the women the option of pursuing a case through the police or university, or both.

"They urged me to go to the police first," the first-year female law student said. She was torn. A single parent, she wasn't sure she wanted to go through a long court process. Yet she said she was concerned about other women.

"It became more real to me," she said. She said reporting the incident to police let her acknowledge that she felt violated.

An officer took her report. Eugene Detective Matt Herbert called her a few days later. A week later, the detective called Kimler. Commissiong accompanied Kimler to Eugene police, where she shared her story.

The detective had both women call the male student separately to try to elicit more about the nights they were with him and record their conversations. The practice is standard procedure in sexual assault investigations in which there is no physical evidence. A detective asks the complainant to confront the accused over the alleged behavior.

"We take all reports like this seriously, and we do what we can to corroborate what they've said," Herbert said.

The calls to the male student yielded no significant information, police said. Without any physical evidence, on June 13, Lane County Deputy District Attorney Robert Lane found "insufficient evidence to prove charge(s) beyond a reasonable doubt" in both cases and declined to prosecute.

Hearing set, canceled

Both women also decided to pursue a sexual misconduct complaint through

.

In cases where a student accuses another of misconduct, the university tries to "limit disruption," such as requiring the accused not to have contact with an alleged victim. In this case, the male student continued to share classes with the first-year student who made a complaint.

"We are in a situation that is not simple. We try to do what we can, remembering at that point nothing had been proven," said Randy Geller, the university's general counsel.

The women prepared for the hearing while trying to keep up with coursework. On the scheduled day, they learned the male student's attorney and the university's general counsel had reached a deal: The male student would withdraw from school, and no hearing would be held.

The women fired off angry e-mails to university officials.

"If you are offering him a deal for our sake -- the sake of the victims -- I believe you are doing us a great injustice," Kimler wrote May 23. "Offering him a deal also puts other females at risk. It lessens the effect of my reporting; it puts a Band-Aid on a bullet wound."

"I feel like the process was wrong because I never got to tell my story," said the first-year female student.

Geller said the university must prove misconduct by a preponderance of evidence. "We have the same proof problems as a law enforcement agency, so we're always making judgments," Geller said. "It's not whether something happened or not. It has to be about our ability to prove it."

The male student's attorney said he recommended his client go through with the hearing, noting that one student planned to tell how the first-year woman was seen making out with his client at the bar before leaving with him.

"I told him he had a very defendable case," Veralrud said.

Yet Veralrud said he was disturbed that when he had asked the university to delay the hearing by a few hours because of an unrelated court conflict, no delay was granted.

The male student did not want to take the risk the panel would find against him, his lawyer said. If the university panel found the complaints unfounded, the male student would still face a cloud of suspicion in the 563-student law school, his lawyer said. "At some point, even when you win, you lose," Veralrud added.

The male student left with a clean record. If he were to apply to another school, the university would provide no information about the incident unless the other school inquired specifically about allegations of sexual misconduct, according to Geller.

A student's voluntary removal, or withdrawal from school, "as a practical matter, serves the same as expulsion would serve, in terms of removing the person from the community," Geller said. "These are difficult situations. We do the best we can. We have a lot of different rights of individuals to balance."