James Goodman and Neeti Upadhye

Staff writers

When the University of Rochester begins its new school year next week, a 21-year-old senior will be attending a different school — unhappy with how the college handled her sexual abuse case.

The student was sexually assaulted in April 2013 at a fraternity party on the UR campus. In accord with longstanding policy, the Democrat and Chronicle is not identifying a victim of sexual assault.

While a UR disciplinary proceeding resulted in the suspension of the UR student accused of the assault, the woman was frustrated by what she felt was an unfriendly grievance process and harsh questioning by UR officials.

"I had no idea what I was doing. The school did not make anything clear about the process of reporting," the student said.

That's the kind of frustration local colleges need to prevent if they are to gain the full confidence of students — who depend upon such proceedings to provide justice — and encourage other students to step forward with their complaints.

A Democratic and Chronicle examination of how local colleges handle allegations of sexual misconduct found that accountability to the public is often lacking.

Local colleges comply with basic legal requirements of the primary federal law — the 1990 Clery Act — that calls for an annual disclosure of the number of forcible sexual assault allegations.

But if Clery is the sole tool for measuring sexual misconduct on Rochester-area campuses, the picture would be incomplete. Even though Clery extends to property leased by a college and federal law now requires the posting of statistics on allegations of date rape, domestic violence and stalking, the reporting requirements fail to cover off-campus housing not under college control. Nor does all sexual misconduct on a campus fall under the forcible sexual assault that must be reported.

Under Clery, there were 38 allegations of forcible sexual assault on 11 local campuses during 2012 — the latest year that such data must be made public.

Colleges, including UR, are doing more outreach to their students — making a greater effort to inform them of the complaint process for filing grievances about sexual assault and trying to dissuade victims from blaming themselves for an assault.

These same colleges, however, provide little data to evaluate the handling of sexual misconduct on their campuses, often not being forthcoming about what — if any — sanctions have been administered for misconduct.

St. John Fisher College, for example, responded to the question of whether there were allegations of sexual misconduct other than the three reported between 2010 and 2012 by saying by that: "The college fully complies with the law and all Clery incidents are reported."

The college, in response to a follow-up question, said that sexual harassment and other like violations would not be reported under Clery, so there might be some other sex-related misconduct not reported to the college.

Fisher, like many of the colleges, cites the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in declining to provide information, even bare-bones numbers about cases.

As a result, the overall effectiveness of the administrative process for handling complaints of sexual misconduct remains a mystery.

But Robert Freeman, executive director of the state's Committee on Open Government, said that statistics alone, without any personally identifiable characteristics, could not possibly reveal someone's identity.

A sign that victims aren't being heard and aren't stepping forward is the wide gap — here and nationally — that exists between the low number of reported incidents of sexual misconduct on campuses and surveys that show widespread sexual misconduct on campuses.

"The perception among survivors is that justice is impossible. They see other survivors get blamed. They watch perpetrators get off. They are retaliated against," said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who is a sponsor of legislation that requires such steps as providing confidential advisers to victims of sexual abuse.

When it comes to the low reporting of sexual misconduct, Rochester-area colleges are not alone, according to Anne Hedgepeth, government relations manager at the American Association of University Women.

"You are identifying an issue that is happening nationally," she said. "It's certainly not unique to the Rochester area."

Hedgepeth said schools need to make it clear to students who become victims of sexual assault what they should do — the people to contact and the importance of having staff who are trained to handle reports appropriately so survivors are not re-victimized.

"Reporting can be tough for survivors," she said. "When it's handled poorly it's less likely that a culture of trust around reporting will develop on campus."

Issues of concern

The case of Anna — the Hobart and William Smith Colleges student who said she was raped — put a national spotlight on the workings of the internal grievance process. Anna, who was a first-year student, told The New York Times the details of an assault last September by three members of the Hobart football team.

Among the missteps of the three-member panel, according to the Times, which had obtained transcripts of the proceedings, was the failure of the panelists to question two of the accused football players about why they changed their accounts to police.

The three students reportedly assaulted her at a fraternity party and were cleared of wrongdoing.

But the three-member panel that reviewed the case has come under fire — with a student petition demanding the appointment of "qualified individuals" to serve on the panel and others calling for an overhaul of the entire complaint system.

"There needs to be a place for survivors to go for advocacy," said Aly McKnight, president of the William Smith Congress, which is the student government for the women's part of these colleges.

New policies at Hobart and William Smith are expected to be in place for the start of the academic year, with one of the issues under review being what constitutes "consent."

Questions of consent

UR has already issued an update of its sexual misconduct policy, saying it is moving toward an "affirmative consent" model, which requires explicit consent from both individuals engaged in sexual activity.

The college also tries to hammer home the importance of consent with a skit, "Red Light, Green Light," which will be performed as part of this week's orientation for first-year students.

Depicting a group of students partying with alcohol, the skit leads to a dorm room where a male student is making advances on a female student who has been drinking.

"I say, 'Red light,' and I stop the actions. I interact with the crowd — talking about what they just saw, talking about consent, talking about incapacitation and people's permission," said Kyle Orton, the UR official who oversees the college's sexual misconduct hearings.

If the audience doesn't seem to understand, Orton clearly defines what amounts to affirmative consent.

Longtime UR English professor David Bleich, who also teaches courses on gender issues, said that despite the changes in policy and greater attention being paid to sexual assaults, UR does not sufficiently police fraternity parties.

"It seems to be a common practice for fraternities and other groups to provide free alcohol to incoming first-year women, presumably as a gesture of welcome," Bleich said.

He went on to say that, as a result, "more than a few" students have been "harmed, sexually used, raped, while they had no ability to either give or deny consent."

File Video: Students stand up against excuses

A victim's perspective

The 21-year-old senior who was dissatisfied with the way she was treated by UR's grievance process went on to help establish the group SEGway to improve UR's advocacy efforts for survivors of sexual assault.

UR, she said, did not give her the support she needed.

She was not drunk when the attack on her happened, but had been left alone when the friend she arrived with decided to go home early.

"It wasn't about me because he didn't know me well," she said of the fraternity member who attacked her. "It was clearly an act of convenience."

The student immediately reported the assault to UR's Department of Public Safety but felt uncomfortable and confused during the college's investigation and the disciplinary process that followed. She was never offered the option to speak with a female investigator and was critically questioned by campus security on multiple occasions, she said.

In November of last year, she decided to go ahead with a disciplinary hearing that was held in mid-December. She won her case — and the accused faced a year and a half of suspension. She spent winter break healing, but a lack of communication about the appeal process reopened wounds.

"I was so excited to come back," she said. "But the second I got the appeal email, I melted and just started bawling."

While the college finally closed the case in her favor in early February, the painstaking process broke her trust with UR, prompting her to transfer to a school outside of New York state.

UR said that it could not comment on the case because of privacy concerns but noted that all incoming students are told about the grievance process.

Its Public Safety force, UR added, will have more female officers available because it is currently training six such officers who will be able to investigate and respond to complaints of sexual misconduct.

File Video: Sexual assault victim pushes for law

What surveys say

While the numbers published under Clery are small, a 2010 survey by State University College at Geneseo professor Jennifer Katz provides a fuller picture of the problem.

About 25 percent of the 1,701 SUNY Geneseo students who participated in this survey said they had experienced what could be considered sexual assault.

A broad category of nonconsensual contact was the most common type of sexual misconduct reported. But 158 of the respondents said they were raped, and 114 said they were victims of attempted rape.

"The survey results suggest the need for campus-wide educational programs aimed at reducing collective tendencies to minimize assault and blame victims," says the resulting 38-page report.

President Barack Obama's task force examining sexual assault on college campuses, which was formed in January, said in defining the problem that one in five women is sexually abused in college.

One source for this estimate is a 2007 Campus Sexual Assault Study. Its survey of 5,446 undergraduate women at two large public universities found that about 20 percent of those interviewed said they had experienced attempted or completed sexual assault since entering college.

But prosecution of cases involving sexual assaults on college campuses is often difficult, especially if the victim does not want to go ahead with the case.

In Monroe County, potential cases can be referred by police to the District Attorney's Office for possible prosecution.

"We really don't get a lot of cases out of colleges," said Assistant District Attorney Mary Randall, who is division chief of the special victims unit that handles felony sexual assault cases.

The unit, said Randall, has reviewed about 12 complaints concerning college students since it was formed in January 2012, but none of those cases resulted in felony prosecutions.

A small number of cases are handled as misdemeanors in city and town courts.

The District Attorney's Office, local law enforcement and representatives of colleges last year developed a model memorandum of understanding that reaffirms that police have primary law enforcement jurisdiction on college campuses and should investigate any serious criminal incident.

Since then, variations of this memo have been signed by individual colleges and law enforcement. For instance, the April 2014 memorandum that St. John Fisher President Donald Bain signed says that the college's Safety and Security Department will notify the Sheriff's Office to investigate any serious criminal incident.

Under Clery, colleges must disclose their disciplinary policies. The annual security report of a college should be found on the school's website.

Networks of support

Some area colleges, such as Rochester Institute of Technology and The College at Brockport, have taken steps similar to Gillibrand's call for confidential advisers to help victims of sexual abuse.

Dawn Soufleris, associate vice-president for Student Behavior and Critical Incidents at RIT, told of the college's advocacy program that provides a faculty member to both the accused and the complainant to provide ongoing support. "It continues as long as the student is here."

Sandra Vazquez, a trauma counselor at Brockport, told how she tries to combat the misplaced feelings of "shame" and "blame" among victims.

"Students blame themselves for not being able to stop the incident from happening," she said. "First and foremost, I want to let them know it's not their fault."

In addition to providing emotional support, Vazquez informs victims of sexual assault about their various options.

Support for victims goes beyond campuses.

Annie Clark, co-founder of the national group End Rape on Campus, supports survivors who want to hold their colleges accountable for their handling of sexual misconduct.

Her organization walks survivors through how to write a federal complaint, assists in identifying other survivors and provides emotional support by a team of women who were victims of sexual assault.

"We are finally putting a face to something that happens to one in four women," said Clark.

In February, End Rape on Campus connected Anna, the survivor from Hobart and William Smith, with The New York Times. The group also helped her to file Title IX and Clery complaints against the college.

Clark played a part in creating a secret Facebook group for survivors — a group that now has over 800 members nationally.

Clark said that while colleges might take pride in the low number of reported sexual assaults, a school that has higher numbers might more accurately show what is happening.

"If you are seeing a zero I see that as a red flag," Clark said. "There needs to be a cultural shift that gets schools to see zero as a bad thing, instead of something to be proud of."

JGOODMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/Goodman_DandC

NUPADHYE@Gannett.com

Twitter.com/NeetiU_DandC

Staying safe

Assistant Monroe County District Attorney Mary Randall's offers these tips on how to stay safe:

• At parties, stick with at least one friend.

• Don't go into bedrooms at fraternity parties.

• When meeting someone you don't know personally, meet at a public place.

• If you are sexually assaulted, report to campus safety and/or police right away to preserve DNA evidence.

• Ask for victim advocate to help support you through the reporting process.