Comments

1
"The department said this is the first comprehensive look at which campuses are under review for possible violations of the law’s requirements for the handling of sexual violence, but the new list does not include details about exactly what the department is examining at each school."

sensationalist title.
2
Wow, that is a really distressing list. So many of the largest universities are on there, I know people who went to or taught at almost all of these.
3
US News should incorporate this into their rankings.
4
WSU is on there, naturally.
5
My school is on there. We have had a number of high-profile cases where parents were unhappy with the legal/judicial results and have gone after the school, hammer and tongs. There is so much he-said/she-said that it's very hard to know if "beyond a reasonable doubt" existed in each of these cases and in a couple, the accused fought back at the institution, hard.

There are too many of these cases to pretend this isn't a huge problem, but it's not as simple as some think it is to resolve.

@3 - that's actually a really good idea, if you want to create intense pressure to get administrators to actually pro-actively address the problem.
6
Cal Berkeley -- wow.
7
Are serious crimes on campus considered jurisdiction of campus police, or are they referred the city or county police/DA? I hope to god it's not the former.
8
So Ms. Henderson already knows what the outcome of the investigations will be. Sweet! What a time-saver.
9
This seems more like "high profile prestigious schools that have a poor track record" than "the worst 55 schools at sexual assault." It's largely big-name schools. Unless there is something that makes rape much more likely to happen at prestigious schools than average schools (what would that be?), you would expect to see more average schools on a "top 55 offenders" list.
10
@9: I think what we may be seeing is that the big-name schools have more incentive to hide rapes so that they can protect their reputation.
11
@7,

A school that takes sexual assault seriously would encourage the victim to go to police. Part of the problem with the worst offenders is that they go out of their way to dissuade the victim from going to the hospital or the real authorities.
12
Aheh...@7 - yes of course it is hte former; this is, in large part, why the former exists. Regardless of the investigating agency, the prosecution takes place in the regular courts, not a college-campus-court.

Yes, these issues are everywhere, and yes, high profile schools have more of an incentive to hide it. But more importantly: the people - in particular the accused - at high profile institutions generally have huge resources to combat charges - like the rest of the country, it's the best defense you can afford. At my institution there have been a few high profile cases where the institution has stood up and been hamstrung by a lack of a conviction in the criminal system. "I was acquitted...how can you accuse me?". They're not the same system but people blur this.

The fact that the campus and local police have been happy to grab random African American males off the street in over-zealous response to assaults hasn't helped the cause of vigorous prosecution.
13
It's an interesting list, from the party schools you might expect (Hello, WSU!) to small, liberal schools like Sarah Lawrence and Swarthmore as well as a handful of Ivy Leaguers.

Guess that speaks to just how pervasive the problem is.

Of course, at this point these are just investigations, but don't let that stop you from make broad and damning conclusions, Danielle.

14
#1 and #8 are making valid points. This list cannot be called a list of the most egregious offenders. These are institutions being investigated under Title IX to determine how they handle sexual violence and harassment complaints. The investigations very well could have been prompted by a complaint, but not necessarily.

At Dartmouth, the investigation was initiated as a compliance review and didn't have anything to do with a complaint. Dartmouth has come under scrutiny lately, mostly focused on the behavior of its fraternities (natch), so the administration said it's openly welcoming this review, working closely with the DOE and hoping that it provides some strategies to improve its responses. According to the college, of course.

At any rate, it does a massive disservice to readers to call this something like a list of worst offenders. It's merely a list of institutions where an investigation is currently underway. Calling these "the worst" distorts what the list is and gives a semblance of integrity to those institutions that are simply not on the list at this time.
15
@3, there is actually a petition going around to get the Princeton Review to incorporate sexual assault responsiveness into their rankings.
16
@14, most of these institutions, especially the higher-profile ones, have been in the news recently for Title IX complaints being filed against them for alleged mishandling of sexual assault cases. That's pretty much the definition of 'most egregious offender' unless, of course, there are other schools with worse track records where the victims just haven't filed Title IX yet. Which is sadly entirely probable.
17
@14, @16: even if the investigations were sparked by complaints, complaints alone prove nothing. Occidental College, for one, is pushing back against allegations that it mishandles sexual assault claims.
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/14/…

When you hear that so-and-so had a complaint filed against him/her/it for such and such, or is being investigated for this-and-that, and appropriate response is, "Hmm, I'll be interested to see how that comes out." Not "A complaint?!? Being investigated?!? He/she/it is an egregious offender!"
18
As a Maroon (BS 2013), my impression of how the University of Chicago handled the specter of sexual assault was by allowing the cultivation of a stigma against women going anywhere near the local Phi Gamma Delta chapter, which was notorious for disrespecting women and had some more serious allegations leveled as well.
19
My college is not on there :) I remember being in some situations that if I didn't have good friends and a really good system in place in the school could have been disastrous for me. Even the nurses in the school went out of their way to get to know every student and follow up with a few who needed some extra care. They took really good care of us.

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