A University of Georgia student was in the campus library in March when she saw the classmate she said sexually assaulted her six months earlier.
The university had suspended the male student for one year after investigating and finding that he was responsible for unwanted sexual contact. He should not have been on campus, said Nancy Syrop, the female student’s attorney. She declined to give details, saying the act was not consensual, but it did not include intercourse.
“It’s shocking,” Syrop said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It makes you not feel that you are safe.”
“There was no procedure to make sure that the sanctions were implemented,” Syrop added.
Syrop contacted UGA administrators, who told the male student he could not be on campus.
UGA officials declined to discuss the case and a similar one the AJC looked into, citing federal privacy guidelines. The university can keep a student off campus if it believes a student poses a threat.
The Georgia Board of Regents last year updated its policy to better investigate sexual misconduct complaints, but some attorneys and students interviewed by the AJC as the spring semester ended say there are still problems.
The complaints include: it takes too long to make rulings; some accused offenders are skirting the rules; penalties aren’t severe enough; and some aspects of the investigative process are insensitive to alleged victims of sexual misconduct, such as allowing a complainant to view paperwork in a file only with a university employee present.
University System of Georgia officials who, under the guidance of the Board of Regents, oversee policies at UGA and about two dozen of the state’s public colleges, say they’re constantly looking for improvements to the policy and frequently visiting campuses. For now, no changes are in the works, officials said.
Atlanta Women for Equality executive director Lisa Anderson, a vocal critic of USG policy, said one of her many complaints are that alleged victims must pay to have an advisor to assist them at campus hearings.
“If students have to find trained advisors outside of the school, they will likely need to pay for an attorney, a strong disadvantage for low-income students. Overall, this illegal policy will…chill reporting and exacerbate the trauma survivors already face,” said Anderson.
She is an attorney advising a first-year, female University of Georgia student who said she was sexually assaulted by a male classmate in August.
The student said in an interview that she has been dissatisfied by the university’s investigative process. The AJC does not identify alleged sexual assault victims without their consent.
The student said she went partying with friends in downtown Athens and returned to campus with a male student, falling asleep in his dorm after having too much to drink. The male student later told her they had sex, which she said was without her consent. She was a virgin, she said and thought she would be safe with him.
She said the male student apologized at the hearing, and she is appealing a decision to put him on probation, saying the penalty wasn’t severe enough.
“It made me feel like the school was taking it as a joke,” the student said of the punishment, which she felt should have been suspension or expulsion.
An estimated one in five female undergraduate students and one in 16 undergraduate male students nationwide are sexually assaulted in college, according to a 2017 report on campus sexual violence published by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. However, about one in four of the students actually come forward with their claims, according to that report.
The USG defines sexual misconduct as dating violence, domestic violence, non-consensual sexual contact, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment and stalking. Alleged sexual assault victims have the option of reporting their claims to police.
There were 74 reported rapes on USG campuses, according to U.S. Department of Education data in 2016, the most recent year available. There were 72 in 2014 and 62 in 2015. USG officials weren’t able to provide statistics about the number of cases reported this school year.
Some national victim-rights advocates say they’re hearing more complaints from students that it’s taking campus officials longer to investigate claims, said Laura Palumbo, communications director of the Pennsylvania-based National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Additionally, there are concerns about a lack of coordination among campus officials during investigations as many colleges have more employees involved in the process, Palumbo said.
Nationally, it takes about 60 days for campuses to complete a sexual misconduct investigation, according to some federal research. Anderson said cases she’s been involved in take about about 90 days before a hearing.
UGA officials said their focus is to get the results right, rather than done quickly.
“Conducting a thorough and impartial investigation can take time, dependent on a variety of circumstances, many outside the university’s direct control, including the number of witnesses, responsiveness of the parties and witnesses, the need to gather additional information, requests by criminal investigators, and time given to the parties to review and respond to draft investigative reports,” said UGA spokesman Greg Trevor.
Palumbo raised another concern, the university system’s policy change made last year which includes penalties as severe as expulsion for students who intentionally file false statements.
“For students who are already fearful about bringing a complaint forward this can add to their fear of the process,” she said.
How campuses investigate sexual misconduct allegations has been more closely scrutinized in recent years due to changes in state and federal guidelines, complaints from victim-rights advocates that many complaints haven’t been thoroughly investigated, and concerns from others that students who are accused aren’t treated fairly during the investigative process.
A series of AJC articles in recent years found many cases weren't thoroughly investigated, the review process was often confusing to accusers, the accused and parents.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos last fall overhauled how schools investigate sexual misconduct, saying Obama administration guidelines used standards of proof that were too low. The new guidance allows schools to move from a model using a preponderance of evidence to a more stringent "clear and convincing standard" of proof in order to find the person responsible.
By updating its policy a month before the federal overhaul, USG administrators wanted more control over how campus complaints of sexual misconduct are handled.
Balancing sensitive matters like sexual misconduct on a college campus is fraught with concerns from both sides. In particular, there are concerns about accusers and the accused living and taking classes on the same campus during an investigation and after an initial ruling.
The female student represented by Anderson also saw the the young man she alleges assaulted her on campus during the investigative process, although they had a no-contact agreement.
The student said she dropped a class because of anxiety over the case.
“A lot of times, I’m thinking about the case when I should be thinking about class,” she said.
Helen Robinson, the Greater Atlanta YWCA’s advocacy director, got involved in such issues a few years ago and occasionally talks to some involved in the process. She hopes campus officials are able to candidly share information about what’s working and how the policy can be improved.
“It’s important for them to be able to be honest about how it’s going,” she said.
How sexual assault cases are handled by the University System of Georgia
Accusers file complaints with the college or university. The complaint can be referred to campus police or law enforcement if the accuser wishes. Both sides can have an advisor, who may or may not be an attorney. An investigation must be done within an unspecificed “reasonable timeframe.” The school can order no contact between the accused and the alleged victim. A panel of officials or a hearing officer conducts a hearing and issues a ruling based on the “preponderance of evidence.” The punishment can be as severe as expulsion. The alleged offender can appeal a decision, first to campus administrators, and potentially to the Georgia Board of Regents.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has closely followed how Georgia’s colleges and universities handle sexual misconduct investigations in recent years.
The AJC published a special report on sexual misconduct investigations in 2014 that found many cases weren’t thoroughly investigated, the review process was often confusing to accusers, the accused and parents and the lack of criminal prosecution of many rape cases.
The Georgia Board of Regents updated its sexual misconduct investigative guidelines in March 2016 and August 2017. The AJC obtained drafts of the 2017 changes.
The AJC took another look at the impact of the changes at Georgia’s largest public colleges and universities after hearing concerns about how some cases have been handled.
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