Students Respond to Alleged Rape
Rape Charge Sparks Discussion of Sexual Offense Policies

by Ariella Cohen

Responding to an alleged rape on campus Friday night, a “Take Back the Night” bonfire took place on Tappan Square Saturday night. That morning, anonymous people wallpapered campus with posters announcing that on the previous night “A Rape Occurred on Our Campus” and calling for an 8 p.m. mobilization. Approximately 100 members of the Oberlin community showed for the event, gathering around four tea candles and engaging in open dialogue.
Hostile objections set off what would later become a calmer discussion of sexual offenses and their treatment. From the onset participants questioned the legitimacy of rallying around an unconfirmed rape.
“I was the principle witness to the incident and it didn’t happen,” said one male student, setting off a cacophony of yelled objections and commentary.
Someone at the scene of the alleged assualt reported hearing the involved party say “I have been raped.” The witness said that the involved person appeared to have been violated and that there was blood on her face.
Earlier in the evening, campus security officials had told students that the posters were “misleading” in the nature of the alleged rape. Currently the Oberlin City Police are conducting an investigation into the case. As in line with policy, the College is conducting a parallel investigation.
“In the case of sexual offenses, the survivor always has the option of going to the police and then the police are involved, but that never prevents the College from doing an investigation. Our sexual offense policy often holds community members to a higher standard than state or local laws, such as is the case with sexual harrasment cases and consensual issues,” Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith said.
The meeting was organized independently of any campus group; the Sexual Assault Support Team (SAST), a campus group specializing in sexual offense activism and education, voiced opposition to the event early on.
“SAST questioned this because the organizers did not get consent of the person involved. Also, sometimes dialogue is not constructive, it hurts,” former SAST leader Rachel Barret (OC ’01) said.
Following the objections many students left, creating a smaller, quieter group more conducive to discussion. Once students agreed that the alleged incident should not be explicitly addressed, a discussion of rapehow to define it, and how to prevent it - grew. A variety of voices came from the dim-lit circle to question each other, speak on personal experiences and offer insight into societal treatment of sexual offenses.
“I organized this because last night I had to call Safety and Security. And after the way the rape at Drag Ball was handled last year –-how we found out in the Review a week later. We don’t know for sure what happened last night, but we didn’t want to keep silent,” said one of the organizers when asked why the posters had been put up. “Often rape and sexual abuse have this expectation surrounding them that the incident has to be explicit. There is a lot of gray though. And because everything is not totally clear it doesn’t mean that the incidents or discussions aren’t valid. Now we can talk about how to speak to each other about these issues,” sophomore Rebecca DeCola said.
One student cautioned others to “Take care of your own shit,” and many others advised safety precautions such as looking out for friends at parties, staying in groups and paying attention to alcohol intake.
“Be careful if you are alone or intoxicated. My sister was a victim of rape in that way and I was too, in a way,” one student said.
At points in the dialogue, students felt that too much emphasis was being put on the role of the victim in the crime and how to keep one’s self safe and out of high-risk situations. “No one invites rape. You cannot tell people to be responsible for their own bodies; that is blaming the victim. No one can prevent rape except the perpetrator,” sophomore Rachel Lockman said.

“I think it is good to talk about ways to keep safe, but it makes me sad that we are talking about safety because that is what we always end up talking about. We know how to keep safe. What I want to know is how to make this stop. I want to know how to hold perpetrators accountable. I want to talk about how to make this stop,” junior SAST organizer Brianna Cayo-Cotter said.
The accountability of institutions such as Oberlin was challenged, and grievances with the College policies governing sexual offenses were touched on. “This is not an isolated incident. The campus is not here to support survivors. It is because of a bad sexual offense policy and there are ways to get involved in changing that policy,” Cayo-Cotter said.
A hearing board arbitrates sexual offense cases on campus. In cases involving no College faculty, three members of the respondent’s employee/student group and two members of the employee/student group of the complainant sit on the panel. In cases where faculty members are being accused, five members of faculty sit on board with one non-faculty representative. Another board, the Sexual Offense Review Committee (SORC) mediates sexual offense policies. Two representatives from each of the groups of students, faculty, administrative and professional staff; and at least one member each from OCOPE and the UAW are included on the committee.
“I think that our Sexual Offense Policy is effective; however, I also think that we are learning a lot about issues of rape and sexual offenses on campuses. I think it is clear that the main purpose of our policy is adjudication. It spells out standards. It spells out that all sexual encounters need to be consensual but I think, as everyone at SORC does, that we need to do much more in educating and preventing this from happening,” College President Nancy Dye said. “We also need to come to look at, and honestly come to terms with, the role of alcohol on the campus and the presence of alcohol in many, in most, sexual offenses.” The Administrator of the College’s sexual offense policy, Camille Hamlin Mitchell, declined comment while investigation of this case is underway.
One student spoke out with a specific case where she felt that the College had not acted supportively.
“I had a friend here who went to the panel that decides sexual offenses with a case. The panel ruled in her, the victim’s, favor but then Nancy Dye overruled the decision because of process. I do not know the [exact facts] but I do know that the accused rapist did not have to leave the school, but my friend did,” junior Kerstin Ahlgren said.
President Dye acknowledged that in that case procedural deficiencies had caused her to remand the decision.“The person was found neither guilty nor innocent,” Dye said.
Lorain County Rape Crisis Center organizer Kay Jones came to campus in support of the event, encouraging students to come forward and share personal experiences. “This week we have had a lot of calls of survivors having flashbacks. When heavy emotions come up then traumatic experiences come back. We are here to let people know that there are places to go and people to talk to,” Jones said.
Students cut Jones’s comments short when the local activist brought recent international politics into her message.
“I was trying to give hope that maybe today in Afghanistan a women felt sun on her arms for the first time as the Taliban hid from U.S. retaliation. I apologize. I was not trying to offend anyone or anyone’s culture; I was just trying to bring a message of hope to the women of the world,” Jones said.
“We are here to recognize that rape happens, not to hear offensive comments about other cultures,” sophomore Shahana Sidiqui said.

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