Who should investigate rape cases on campus?

She woke up and stumbled from the Michigan State University dorm room.

Tottering home across the East Lansing campus, Ashley frequently stopped to get her balance, wondering if she would fall off a bridge into the Red Cedar River.

Ashley — her story backed by university documents inspected by the Free Press — felt she had the worst hangover ever but couldn't remember why. The 18-year-old sophomore remembered drinking three shots the night before, but why had that wrecked her so much? Why couldn't she remember the whole night? Why did she have a fleeting memory of a male student standing over her? Had she been drugged and raped?

The 2013 fall semester at MSU was just getting under way and Ashley spent the rest of that day becoming increasingly convinced she had been raped. By the end of the day, she was telling her story to police. Nearly two years later, she has joined an unhappy chorus of voices critical of how universities handle sexual assault reports.

Ashley, who says university officials were insensitive to her situation, was among 4,700 students in 2013 who reported sexual assaults on campuses nationwide, including 159 on Michigan campuses.

Her case and others across the state have exposed a flawed and inconsistent system of on-campus justice for how Michigan's public universities respond to claims of sexual assault, with campuses taking widely differing approaches.

Michigan State University, for example, requires staff to call police immediately upon receiving a report of a sexual assault, but the University of Michigan leaves the question of police involvement to the survivors.

Then there is the question of punishment. Someone charged with rape through the criminal justice system can face jail or prison time and a lifetime on a public sexual offender registry, while an accused student taken through the university administrative process may be ordered to write a 500-word essay or, at worst, be expelled.

The lack of a centralized policy reflects the lack of a consensus among experts — and survivors — about how best to address the rising wave of sexual assault and rape on campus. And federal regulations largely permit individual universities to determine how they handle the incidents, leading to a fragmented system critics say is often more concerned about protecting a school's reputation than the survivor.

In some cases, survivors say their assaults have been trivialized through the punishment handed out administratively, yet they fear being retraumatized when the police and courts become involved. In a few instances, alleged perpetrators say they're denied basic due process rights as a rush to judgment results in ruined academic lives and reputations as they're quickly kicked off campus without ever being criminally charged or having their day in court.

"It's all super screwed up. In the world we are in, the criminal justice system doesn't produce justice for survivors," said Emily Kollaritsch, who graduated this year from Michigan State University and is a sexual assault survivor. "But universities aren't any better. Both sides of it need to be revamped."

Three Michigan universities — Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan — are being investigated by the federal Education Department's Office of Civil Rights over how they handled specific sexual assault claims. The number of these types of investigations has increased more than tenfold across the nation from 2009 to 2014.

The issue also has caught the attention of lawmakers and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's wife. First lady Sue Snyder is convening a statewide summit on Monday of university sexual assault investigators, students, lawmakers and others. They will gather in Lansing to develop a strategy for dealing with sexual assaults on campus.

"We need to make Michigan a leader in ending these sexual assaults because it's been going on too long," Snyder recently told the Free Press. She said she has met with at least 20 public university leaders as well as the heads of the state's private and independent colleges, and they've all pledged to attend the Let's End Campus Sexual Assault Summit.

Not all are happy with the summit. Several survivors told the Free Press they had to fight to get invited to the event. Event organizers told the Free Press there is a waiting list of people who want to attend.

A growing problem

Stroll down any student-centered street in Ann Arbor, East Lansing or Mt. Pleasant on most any Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, and the party scene will swirl around you.

There are young college students, away from home for the first time. There are also students on the prowl. The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study, funded by the federal Department of Justice, found that more than 50% of college sexual assaults occur in either August, September, October, or November.

And those who have survived a sexual assault point out alcohol and youthful hormones — both present in the party scene — aren't a valid excuse for rape.

The vast majority of sexual assaults on college campuses involve people who know each other from class, dorms, or who have met at a party. Several reports over the last decade place between 80% and 90% of all campus-related rapes in the acquaintance rape category rather than as stranger rape. And there are no real statistics on how many of the rapes involve date rape drugs. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network says 30% of sexual assaults have alcohol involved.

A societal tendency to blame survivors can make many rape victims hesitant to come forward. That attitude — known as victim shaming — is a major reason why it's so hard to get an accurate read on how widespread sexual assaults are on college campuses. Many survivors worry they won't be believed because they were drinking, or because cases boil down to their word versus their attacker's word.

"It's the only crime where the victim's behavior is more scrutinized than the assailant," said Barbara Niess-May, executive director of the SafeHouse Center in Ann Arbor. "When you hear about a 10-year-old being raped, you think what a horrible thing to happen to an innocent person. When you hear of a 20-year-old who's been at a party and flirting, you think she's not so innocent. That's wrong. It's still rape."

Experts believe sexual assaults on the nation's college campuses are vastly underreported. What is known is that the number of cases actually reported each year — across the nation and in Michigan — is rising.

In 2001, 2,425 cases were reported across the nation on four-year public and private college campuses (not including students off campus), federal data show. In 2013, that number was 4,700, a 94% increase. There were 98 sexual assaults reported on public and private campuses in Michigan in 2001. In 2013, that was up to 159, an increase of 62%.

Experts and college administrators cheer the increase, saying it's proof students are more comfortable reporting attacks.

Along with the rising number of reported assaults, there have been increased complaints about how the universities handle sexual assault investigations.

In 2009, there were nine complaints from across the country filed with the federal Education Department's Office of Civil Rights. In 2014, there were 102. Through April 8 this year, there have been 51 complaints filed.

Those include the ongoing investigations of Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan.

"We're very proud of our student sexual misconduct policy, our prevention efforts and our programs to support survivors of sexual misconduct," U-M said when it was notified of the OCR investigation. "We will fully cooperate with the Department of Education, and we believe that a review of our policy, programs and investigations will conclude that the University of Michigan is doing what it should in this important area."

Federal law, through Title IX, mandates universities investigate sexual assault and harassment claims. That law has been around since 1972 but was rarely enforced. However, lawsuits and policy decisions in recent years have ratcheted up the spotlight on how universities respond.

In April 2011, the Education Department sent out a Dear Colleague letter to remind universities they needed to be investigating these cases.

"The school's inquiry must in all cases be prompt, thorough, and impartial," the guidance said. "In cases involving potential criminal conduct, school personnel must determine, consistent with state and local law, whether appropriate law enforcement or other authorities should be notified."

Michigan has no state law demanding the police be called when a sexual assault is reported by a college student.

Ashley's story

Ashley — the Free Press agreed to use only her first name to protect her identity because of the nature of the incident — spent that day in late August 2013 on her phone, texting her friends, trying to figure out how she ended up passed out in a strange dorm room the previous night.

"What the (expletive) happened last night jeez" she texted to one friend mid-afternoon.

Still not feeling well, she headed into work, where she Googled date rape drugs on her phone. As results popped up, she felt worse and worse. A supervisor noticed and asked what was wrong. Ashley said she had eaten some bad seafood and headed back to her dorm.

On the advice of friends, she asked at the front desk for the building director and finally verbalized the fear that had been swirling in her head all day: She may have been raped.

As Ashley started telling her story, she got cut off — the staff member told her the police had to be called.

"A huge amount of police responded," Ashley said. "It was like a train of police cars pulling in."

Ashley was walked out to a police car, escorted by uniformed officers.

"They were all kinds of people around. Everyone was looking at me. It was overwhelming. It should have been a couple of officers in plainclothes."

Ashley told the police and administrators she met the male student for the first time the previous night at an off-campus party. He was flirtatious — she wasn't — and during the evening she lost a game of water pong to him and owed him a shot.

Ashley and some friends left the party together, heading first to Cedar Village apartments to drop one friend off and then back to a residence hall. The man tagged along.

Once they got back to the residence hall, the man kept asking about the shot she owed him.

They went into a friend's room and the man left to get alcohol and returned with a bottle of gin.

Ashley drank a shot.

The man and his friend then went into a bathroom to shotgun a beer or two. They came back to the room with some vodka and four shots were poured — one for Ashley, one for her friend, one for the man and one for his friend.

Ashley drank her shot and her friend's shot.

That's about the last Ashley remembers for the night. At least until she somewhat woke up, seeing the man standing above her.

Shortly after Ashley's meeting with police, her assailant also met with investigators. He brought his attorney along. In the meeting, the man and his attorney asked questions about the process, but declined to answer questions about the night.

Nine days later, the male student's attorney sent MSU an e-mail to inform the school his client would not be cooperating with investigation. A month after that, the attorney e-mailed a copy of a privately conducted polygraph test to Michigan State.

The polygraph included this statement: "The subject said Ashley slept with him, but nothing happened that evening. When they woke in the morning, the subject stated they had sexual intercourse. He advised Ashley was conscious and actively participated in the sexual act. ... The subject denied providing any type of illegal drug to Ashley."

The polygraph tester also asked the man if he had provided date rape drugs to Ashley and if Ashley was conscious when the two had sex. The answers? No and yes. The tester said the assailant had been truthful.

So-called date rape drugs, such as GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), can be slipped into a person's drink and cause a person to black out, to feel paralyzed and/or not be able to remember events. They can work their way through a person's system quickly, making testing for their presence hard.

The MSU administrative investigator also interviewed several witnesses to some of the evening's activities. The university also looked at various text messages that it says supported Ashley and other witnesses' version of what occurred.

"In this case, we are presented with conflicting reports regarding the consensual nature of the sexual activity," the university wrote in its findings report, reviewed by the Free Press. "When there are conflicting versions of relevant events, each party's credibility should be weighed."

The university found "by a preponderance of the evidence that (Ashley's) version of events, i.e., that (Ashley) did not consent to sex with (the male student), is more likely the version that occurred. We find by a preponderance of evidence that (the male student) violated MSU's Sexual Harassment Policy."

The male student was kicked out of school but was admitted to the University of Michigan. A criminal investigation by MSU police is continuing, Ashley said.

U-M declined comment on this specific transfer, but said, in general, it asks transfer students three different times if they have had any disciplinary issues at their prior school.

Crime and punishment

At Western Michigan University, faculty and staff are required to report all crimes to police but have a special exemption from calling police about reported sexual assault. The policy says that the university will help anyone notify police. An alleged victim "has the right to notify, or decline to notify, law enforcement," part of the policy says.

At U-M, it's also up to the survivor if the police are called, or if it's handled only by the university. Either way, an on-campus process ensues involving a university investigator, written statements and multiple meetings, including an appeals board hearing if needed.

The federal government requires each campus to have a Title IX office that must be notified of any reports of sexual assault.

Despite official policies, Joshua Sheffer, a Traverse City-based attorney who represent survivors, said he has clients who were actively discouraged by university officials from calling police.

"Often universities present it as either the police or them, and it's not," he said.

Many of Sheffer's clients don't want the police involved.

"They don't trust the criminal justice system," he said. "They think they won't be believed, that they will be blamed."

The argument boils down to a belief that the university can better protect already traumatized victims than police. For example, U-M officials, and officials on many other campuses, say they can act immediately to remove students from classes and dorms where both parties might run into each other.

Kollaritsch, 21, who graduated from MSU in May, said a male friend attempted to rape her at least twice. MSU found him responsible for violating the sexual conduct code, according to documents reviewed by the Free Press.

Despite the university issuing a no-contact order to her assailant, Kollaritsch still found herself seeing him in various locations and having him stalk her. She has filed for a personal protection order but still saw the male student in hallways and other places around campus.

"He was given a no-contact order," Kollaritsch said. "That didn't mean anything. It didn't stop anything. He was still threatening me. He would walk right next to me to spark a panic attack."

She filed a complaint with MSU, alleging the man was stalking her and intimidating her.

The university thought she was "fabricating the seriousness of the events" when she reported the retaliation, because in their minds she was a victim who "may (be) seeking revenge," an MSU investigative report says. That's not true at all, Kollaritsch said. All she wanted was protection from him and the ability to move through her daily life without seeing him.

The force of secrecy

Universities say they can conduct an investigation quicker than the criminal justice system.

And universities have a lower burden of proof, which means they can administer penalties in cases where a jury in a criminal case might not.

That's important, officials at several Michigan universities argue, because in he said/she said situations, without a lot of evidence, it can be tough to get a criminal conviction, or even to persuade a prosecutor to bring charges.

But there are issues with having universities handle these issues.

Chief among them is secrecy.

"Universities can hide behind student privacy laws and keep information from their students," said Diva Kass, an activist who is a sexual assault survivor. "There needs to be much more transparency and accountability in these issues."

Under federal law, universities have to track how many reports of sexual misconduct they have each year. But Michigan universities — and others across the nation — use federal student privacy laws to shield any details from public view, including punishments meted out.

There are also problems with the people assigned to conduct administrative investigations.

At most Michigan public universities, it's a paid staff member. Kass said that type of system can put pressure on the staff member to act how they perceive the university administration wants them to act.

At Michigan Technological University, sexual assault misconduct cases are investigated by a contracted investigator who was previously the lead investigator for the Houghton County Sheriff Department and who has undergone training in investigating these types of cases and has experience doing so.

It takes specialized training to investigate sexual assault cases, said Bob Stevenson, the executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police and the former police chief in Livonia.

"It's a very difficult topic to talk about," he said. "You don't want to revictimize the victim. This is not a job you assign a rookie to. You need someone with superior people skills. They need specialized training and experience in handling difficult cases."

The U-M Police Department, like Michigan State has already done, is creating its own special unit to deal with these type of cases.

"They are complicated investigations," U-M Police Chief Robert Neumann said. "We want to create confidence in victims that they can come to the police."

However, a U-M police investigation is not automatically launched if a student reports a sexual assault to a staff member. It's up to the student to decide if police will be involved. They can call the police at any point.

And with many cases not making it to a police investigation, a lot of focus is on the universities' investigators.

That's part of the issue in a federal lawsuit filed by Drew Sterrett, a U-M student who was banned from campus after an administrative process found he forced sex on a female student, although no criminal charges were ever filed. Sterrett maintains the sex was consensual.

His attorney, Deb Gordon, said the administrative process is flawed and Sterrett's rights to due process were denied.

" When it comes to sexual assault allegations — a crime — they cannot simply turn the process over to administrators who run student affairs programs, who have their own agenda, which is what is happening now," Gordon said. "And they are not competent to handle this ..."

Read a book, write a paper

Despite being banned from the U-M campus for sexual misconduct, Sterrett can return, according to papers filed as part of his lawsuit against U-M. All he has to do is read an assigned book and write a paper about it and what he has learned through this experience.

There's no set reading list, and books are assigned on a case-by-case basis, U-M spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.

There haven't been a lot of expulsions in recent years for sexual misconduct at Michigan's public universities.

From July 2013 to June 2014, U-M received 129 reports of sexual misconduct, 68 of which were for assaults. The school conducted investigations into 27 of them and found violations in 11 cases. As for punishments, there was one permanent separation from the university, four temporary separations and a variety of lesser punishments.

During the same time period, Wayne State did not find anyone responsible of violating its sexual misconduct code, according to a report given to its board in December.

Michigan State University had 97 reports of sexual misconduct during that same time period. Thirty-two made it to the investigative phase, with eight ending in a finding of a violation. Two students were kicked out of the university and two students were suspended for 21/ 2 years or less. The others had other minor punishments.

It's not uncommon for universities across the nation to assign papers or counseling as punishment for those found guilty by campus hearings of sexual misconduct, several experts said. That's part of the problem of relying on campus officials only to deal with the issue.

"Explain to me how a paper would be appropriate punishment for sex assault," said Laura Dunn, the executive director of SurvJustice and a rape survivor. "These are actual criminals. A lot of schools will hold to the idea that we're going to educate those who committed these acts. Counseling isn't a sanction; it's an addition to a consequence. This is a crime; it should be treated like a crime."

Subhead

By most outside perspectives, the system worked in Ashley's case. MSU found her assailant guilty and kicked him out.

But that's not how Ashley feels.

"It was a horrible process," she said. "Once he sued the school to be allowed to keep going to class (he dropped the suit after the final decision was reached and the semester was over), I felt like it was more about protecting the school's reputation.

"He was able to transfer to a different school and go on with his life."

She said the injustice came back to haunt her in May when she received an e-mail from MSU administration warning her that the man was being allowed back on campus for the weekend to attend his brother's graduation. She said she was never consulted about that decision.

"The only way I can describe how I feel right now is my life rebuilding at MSU was like sandstone, and receiving that e-mail my life fell apart into sand."

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj.

Which schools always call the police?

Michigan's public universities have the ability to decide how they will respond to reports of sexual assault, within guidelines set up by the federal government. The universities are split on whether they automatically involve the police if the report comes into an university employee.

The following universities automatically notify police: Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Oakland University, Eastern Michigan University, Lake Superior State University, Michigan Technological University and Saginaw Valley State University.

The following universities do not automatically notify the police unless the student tells them to: University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Central Michigan University, Northern Michigan University, Grand Valley State University and Ferris State University.