COLLEGE STATION — Kendra Bailey wasn't a drinker. But at a party one night in December, she took her turn in one of Texas A&M University's most popular traditions: the Aggie ring dunk.

One by one, she and her friends in the school's Corps of Cadets military program dropped their new class rings into pitchers of beer. Then they chugged until their wide grins showed the glinting gold rings between their teeth.

Later, Bailey said, a fellow cadet and ring-dunker who was engaged to one of her friends walked her to her dorm room. He locked the door and assaulted her, penetrating her violently, she said.

"I said 'no' and pushed him away," said Bailey, who thinks she was weakened from the unaccustomed alcohol. "He forced himself on me over and over."

What happened next, she said, was a series of failures by Texas A&M administrators to take her seriously and make her feel safe as she dealt with one of the most traumatic and common crimes affecting college students.

Kendra Bailey, 22, a student at Texas A&M, poses for a photograph at her home in Fort Worth. Bailey says she was raped on campus, and with the help of an attorney, the university found her offender responsible. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

Her case is not unique. Ten women told The Dallas Morning News that A&M — Texas' oldest public university, with an enrollment of 68,000 — responded inadequately to their sexual-assault cases and protected the accused over the accusers. Earlier this month, some women launched a social media campaign, #MeTooTAMU, after a student protested on Twitter that A&M allowed the man found responsible for sexually abusing her to compete on the university's swim team.

Though many of the women took part in an official school process to resolve their complaints, they say the university seemed at every turn to put its own interests, and most of all its image, above their safety.

"You have chosen to prioritize the university's brand over justice for victims," Abbie Hillis, 28, told the A&M chancellor and president Monday, according to prepared remarks she shared with The News. Hillis, who reported being raped in 2010, was among a group of students and alumnae who met with administrators to advocate for change at A&M.

Texas A&M University alumnae Meghan Romere (left) and Abbie Hillis wear their class rings while showing the school's "gig 'em" sign. They are fighting for change in the university's handling of sexual assaults. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

In response to the women's complaints, President Michael Young recently ordered two reviews of the school's handling of sexual assault cases — one by top university officials and another by the Husch Blackwell law firm. The findings of both will be made public.

"The safety and security of students at Texas A&M is our number one priority," Young said, promising improvements in the way the university handles sexual assaults. "It is hard to see Aggies hurting."

Texas A&M University President Michael Young has ordered two reviews of the university's handling of sexual assault complaints. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

A&M is a nationally recognized research university whose proud graduates have won the Medal of Honor, become astronauts, and served in the highest levels of the military, business and government. Former Gov. Rick Perry not only went to A&M, but was an Aggie Yell Leader, leading crowd cheers at football games.

But now the school joins a long list of universities nationwide that have struggled with the difficult task of adjudicating serious sex-related crimes in an academic setting. The sexual-assault scandal at Baylor University in Waco has roiled that school for several years and led to the ouster of the head football coach, Art Briles, and the university president, Ken Starr.

At schools, these cases — which are often complex and murky — are often decided on one person's word over another's. Rulings are based on a lower standard of evidence — whether something "more likely than not" occurred — than the standard used in a criminal court of law, of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

The Academic Building on the Texas A&M campus in College Station on June 20, 2018. The school joins a long list of universities nationwide that have struggled with the difficult task of adjudicating serious sex-related crimes in an academic setting. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

The U.S. Department of Education, which requires that universities investigate and resolve complaints of sexual assault, offers general guidelines but not specific standards. Experts said A&M's actions, as described by the women to The News, may have run counter to best practices.

The Houston Chronicle reported on Saturday that 20 of 51 A&M students found responsible for sexual misconduct -- sexual abuse, sexual contact or sexual assault -- over more than a decade were not suspended or expelled. The lighter sanctions included warnings and attendance at workshops on alcohol use or ethics and decision-making.

A&M declined to comment on specific students' experiences, citing federal privacy laws.

"We believe overall that a good, fair and lawful process is in place, but we also know we can do better," said Kelly Brown, a school spokeswoman. "Like universities across the country, we hear claims of unfairness from both the accusers and the accused."

At least two men have sued A&M, claiming it treats men unfairly. The Department of Education is investigating.

A 2015 survey found that 1 in 14 undergraduate women said that she had been sexually penetrated without consent since starting at A&M, by force or while asleep or incapacitated due to drugs or alcohol. Though that rate is lower than average at universities in the study, it would translate to roughly 1,680 alleged assaults based on the number of female students at A&M that year.

The latest allegations — which have circulated online and in the news media — have divided the Aggie nation, which is fiercely loyal to A&M and its culture of historical traditions steeped in public service, the military and athletics. Students have invoked their deep Aggie pride both in support of, and in opposition to, the women speaking out.

"I hope you enjoyed your 10 minutes of fame while trying to drag such a wonderful institution through the mud #attentionseeker," one man wrote on Instagram to Meghan Romere, who fought for six months to get the school to punish a football player who she said masturbated in front of her while she tutored him in the athletic center.

"Aggies do not tolerate rape," a woman posted on Twitter, adding a picture with the slogan "Consent is an Aggie value."

Female students who spoke to The News described attacks that took place during the day, at night, on campus, just off campus, in private apartments, in public places. The common thread: what the students called a tepid response from A&M administrators and local law enforcement. The women say the university didn't prepare them for hearings in which they would often have to go up against the accused and their lawyers.

Bailey, 22, the cadet from Fort Worth, was a senior engineering student and well on her path to becoming an Army officer. She said the assault on the night of her ring-dunk party left her in despair.

She said she pleaded with A&M officials to help protect her against her attacker, who owned a gun, lived near her on campus, and attended the same mandatory Corps workouts.

Administrators ordered the two students to stay away from each other. But Bailey said she was told it was her responsibility to avoid him. That runs counter to best practices encouraged by the National Women's Law Center, which calls on schools to reduce the burden placed on victims, said Alexandra Brodsky, a lawyer with the group.

When classes began in January, Bailey and her parents said, they begged administrators to move her alleged assailant off campus while they awaited the hearing three weeks later, but officials said no. Then her family hired a lawyer, Patricia Davis. After Davis met with officials, A&M found a way to suspend the man from campus until the hearing, Bailey said.

"We had to spend $12,000 on a lawyer to get them to treat us correctly," Bailey said.

Bailey's case was decided by a university conduct panel composed of three faculty members who reviewed investigative records and questioned both sides. The panel found the man responsible for 21 charges including sexual abuse and sexual contact, disciplinary records show. He was expelled.

Reached by phone in southeast Texas, the man declined to comment. Because law enforcement has not charged him with a crime, The News is withholding his name.

Bailey said she hopes the university police will pursue a criminal case. An officer told her it could take a year for the results of a DNA test to come back because of a backlog of rape kits.

Hannah's experience

It was Hannah Shaw, a 20-year-old biomedical science major from Plano, whose experience reporting an assault and subsequent viral tweet sparked the #MeTooTAMU movement.

In September 2015, she opened Tinder looking for a date and found a sophomore named Austin Van Overdam.

They chatted briefly and it was clear that both were interested in hooking up. He invited her to his on-campus apartment.

The White Creek Apartments at Texas A&M University campus in College Station. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

When she got there, he led her straight to his bedroom, she said. Both were sober, and they barely exchanged words before clothes came off, she said. He did mention that he was a swimmer who'd just transferred from the University of Arizona — she'd later find out that he was a nationally ranked athlete.

They started having sex, and Shaw was fine with that. But then Van Overdam started having anal sex with her, which she did not want, she said.

She told him "No" and tried to pull away, she said, and he held her down by the wrists. She grew scared, she said, realizing how strong he was and how far away the door seemed.

To appease him, she performed oral sex on him, she said, because "I could tell that was what he wanted from his body language and I remember him kind of moving my head and my shoulders."

Afterward, Shaw said, she didn't know what to think about what had just happened. She felt terrible.

She thought she'd feel better if he turned out to be an otherwise nice guy, she said. She asked if he was going to let her spend the night. He said no. At the door, she asked him for a goodbye kiss. He said no.

Hannah Shaw, 20, a student at Texas A&M University, says Texas A&M University mishandled her sexual assault case. She accused swimmer Austin Van Overdam of raping her. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

At home, Shaw felt overcome with shame, she said, blaming herself for going to his apartment, for not saying "no" forcefully enough, for not fighting harder to break free. For months, she said, she struggled with suicidal thoughts, flashbacks and insomnia.

In April 2016, she told a doctor on campus what happened. The doctor sent Shaw to student assistance services, where she reported that she had been raped.

A panel of three faculty members found Van Overdam responsible for sexual abuse, one of four charges he faced, records show.

Van Overdam told the panel a suspension would ruin his life and possibly hurt his swim career, Shaw said. The panel asked her what she wanted his punishment to be, she said; she didn't know what to say and felt it was unfair to put her in that position. There is no settled best practice for universities about how much say victims should have in deciding sanctions.

Shaw said she decided a one-semester suspension would be enough — but didn't realize she had to specify that he should be removed from the swim team.

"It was basically like he had no punishment at all," Shaw said. "It was like he took a break, and resumed his life — but I didn't get to take a break and go back to normal."

An attorney for Van Overdam, Gaines West, said the entire encounter was consensual. Van Overdam should never have been found responsible for sexual abuse, West said, adding that Shaw seemed to be seeking attention and sympathy.

"If you look at a woman who was involved in those three sex acts and then claims seven months later that the middle sex act wasn't consensual," West said, "that is an unbelievable story at best."

Van Overdam last week sued A&M, claiming it violated his rights — and those of other men — by lending more credibility to the words of accusers.

Sexual assault experts say it's not uncommon for victims to delay calling authorities after an assault, and that it's possible for nonconsensual acts to occur during an encounter that began consensually.

After his suspension, Van Overdam returned to A&M and to the swim team. The team tweeted out a photo of him March 12 to promote his breaststroke race.

A since-deleted tweet by Texas A&M University's Swimming and Diving team promoted Austin Van Overdam's upcoming swimming competition. (Twitter / @AggieSwimDive)

Shaw grew increasingly angry. On June 4, she typed out an email to the head swimming coach, Jay Holmes. Even if he didn't do anything, she hoped to receive a sympathetic response.

"Howdy," she began, using A&M's official greeting. She said that Van Overdam was found responsible for sexually assaulting her. "I think it's unethical for him to be competing," she wrote. "He is representing a school that is also supposed to be MY school."

Shaw received an email back from Lori Williams, a senior associate athletics director who also holds the title "Sr. Woman Administrator."

Williams wrote to Shaw that she recognized her "courage and strength," adding: "I regret your displeasure with the perceived impact, and I wish you all the best as you continue to seek healing."

The email felt like a slap, Shaw said. On June 7 around 4:15 p.m., she tweeted a screenshot of the email, saying "Me: I'm unhappy the boy who r*ped me is back on the swim team

Me: I’m unhappy the boy who r*ped me is back on the swim team

Texas A&M: pic.twitter.com/PJROvrdURb — hannah 🍌 (@hannahslol) June 7, 2018

Texas A&M: ..."

She figured just her closest friends would see her tweet and care. But it turned out a lot more people did — 16,000 people retweeted it and 39,000 liked it.

Meghan's side

In October 2016, Meghan Romere, then a junior, worked as a tutor in the A&M athletic department. In a tutoring room within the Bright Football Complex one Monday morning, she was going over American history with Kirk Merritt, a promising wide receiver on A&M's football team who had just transferred from the University of Oregon.

While talking about the French and Indian War, Romere looked up mid-sentence and realized that Merritt, who was sitting about a foot away from her at a table, had his hand down the front of his shorts. The head of his penis was exposed and he was rubbing it up and down and mumbling while looking at his phone, she said.

About a minute went by. Romere tried to act normal as she ended the session early, she said. That night, she reported the incident to her supervisor.

The next day, she learned Merritt had done the same thing to another tutor that very morning — only this time, the other tutor reported, he pulled his shorts down.

As Romere recounted the experience recently, she sobbed as she remembered that day feeling violated and scared of the 205-pound athlete. She said she has lost some trust in men in general — and in the university that her parents, both Aggies, raised her to love.

At the time, both tutors went to the A&M police, and 10 months later, Merritt pleaded no contest to two counts of indecent exposure. In the meantime, Romere sought action from student conduct officials.

No one prepared Romere or her father — who accompanied her — for what the hearing would entail. She was surprised to learn she had to answer questions from Merritt and pose her own.

"We were making up questions on the spot," Romere said.

Meghan Romere, 22, a former student at Texas A&M University, poses for a photograph in Round Rock. Romere accused former A&M football player Kirk Merritt of masturbating in front of her while she was tutoring him in the athletic center. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

Merritt's defense was twofold, Romere said: that he had a bad case of "jock itch," and that he had shaved his pubic hair, which led to itching.

The panel believed Merritt and found him not responsible for the charge of sexual exploitation — which includes the intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire of any person present, records show.

"We believe the vigorous scratching, which is a biological response to a skin condition, led to the exposure of his penis," the panel wrote.

Romere was granted an appeal hearing, which she said was supposed to be a re-do of the original case. On Jan. 19, 2017, the morning the hearing was scheduled, she and her father waited for three hours. Officials explained they were talking to the university's office of general counsel.

Eventually, the officials said they were downgrading Merritt's charge from sexual exploitation to disorderly conduct — which requires only that the person was reckless about others who might be offended or alarmed by their actions. The maximum punishment would be campus probation, Romere said.

The new charge also meant that Romere and the other tutor were no longer considered victims, but witnesses, she said.

In the hearing, Merritt accepted responsibility for both counts of disorderly conduct and declined to answer questions. He was reinstated to the football team on Feb. 1. A no-contact order between the tutors and Merritt meant they wouldn't be allowed to attend any football games, Romere said.

Romere and her father, Bill Romere, said they believed the university lowered the charge to keep Merritt playing football.

Bill Romere posted on Facebook about his frustrations with his alma mater. A Houston Chronicle reporter saw the post and wrote in April 2017 about what had happened. After the story ran, A&M's athletic department dismissed Merritt from the team and he lost his scholarship. He couldn't afford to stay there so he dropped out, said Rick Davis, his lawyer.

Davis, in an email, said Merritt "flatly denies that he was masturbating." Davis said the university did the right thing in lowering the charge and should not have "capitulated to the public criticism."

Bill Romere filed a federal complaint in April 2017, which led to an investigation. A&M agreed to revise its student code of conduct to ensure that indecent exposure is treated as seriously as other types of sexual harassment.

"I thought the university was going to come out on my side," Meghan Romere said, "but they only cared about winning."

At A&M, tradition holds that students stand through each football game from start to finish. They call themselves the "Twelfth Man," to show they're always ready to support the 11 players on the field.

Romere and the other women who want change from the university have launched a website. It's called Twelfth Woman.