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A freshman at the University of Portland says officials at the school dismissed her allegations of sexual assault by a fellow student at least in part because she'd had prior physical contact with her alleged attacker, the school's student newspaper reports this week.
"I was told that it was my fault," the student told The Beacon.
The student, who gave the student newspaper permission to publish her name and photograph, is speaking out against the university's handling of her complaint, which was upheld on appeal. WW is declining to name her because it typically doesn't name victims of sexual assault.
"To turn to the university that I trust and that I love," she told the paper, "and have them tell me, 'No, this didn't really happen to you.' It's scary."
This isn't the first time the University of Portland's response to an alleged sexual assault has drawn the scrutiny of students.
Eight years ago, WW reported the story of then-student Amy Kerns, who alleged she'd been raped in her dorm room by a fellow student. (Kerns gave WW permission to name her.) UP officials declined to discipline her alleged attacker. And at the time, the UP judicial coordinator suggested that Kerns could have faced student discipline charges herself, because she was 19 and had been drinking when she says she was attacked.
The student in the most recent case and several witnesses told university officials that she was far too intoxicated to give consent, but the committee apparently disagreed, the student newspaper reports.
UP students are organizing an event Sunday night to call attention to sexual assault, the student paper writes. Some alumni are also voicing concern.
After the administration's response to Kerns' attack in 2008, students fought to improve UP's policies on addressing sexual assault.
Malori Maloney, a friend of Kerns who graduated from UP in 2009, wrote her thesis on barriers to reporting sexual assaults on college campuses.
"It's disheartening — but not completely surprising — that not much has changed," Maloney says now.
In a statement emailed to The Beacon, John Donato, UP's vice president for student affairs, writes that the administration follows the guidelines of federal Title IX regulations, which detail how schools respond to cases of sexual violence. "Please know that we strive to promote a safe campus for our students," Donato told the paper. "The work of Title IX is an ongoing priority of this University, and one that we will continue to address in a proactive manner."
A spokeswoman for UP, Beth Sorensen, tells WW that federal student privacy rules prohibit the university from responding to the specific criticism leveled by its current student. But she said the university has taken strides since 2008 to improve its handling of sexual assault on campus, including with workshops for students on consent and substance abuse.
"We regard the safety of our students as one of the most important issues on our campus," Sorensen wrote in an email, "and any type of incident is addressed with the utmost integrity, compassion, and fairness."