Last year, WW reported on an allegation of sexual assault at the University of Portland that had a curious twist for the accuser.
According to the Catholic university’s student handbook, alleged victims of sexual assault (such as the subject of last year’s story) could be punished for underage drinking after they had come forward to report allegations of rape. This was rather unusual; Catholic institutions such as Gonzaga, Santa Clara and Notre Dame all had clearly established immunity clauses preventing this kind of punishment on their campuses.
Riffing off the headline from last year’s story, several students held a protest at UP today holding signs accusing the university of being “Screwed UP.”
They learned today, however, that the University of Portland has officially revised the language of its sexual assault policy. (Though those changes did not make it into copies of this year’s student handbook, according to students.)
As of January 2009, the handbook now reads:
“To foster the safety and security of the entire community, the University of Portland encourages reporting of all instances of sexual assault. However, no disciplinary action will be taken without the consent of the survivor. To remove barriers to reporting, the University will not pursue potential policy violations of the survivor which occurred in the context of the sexual assault. Likewise, the University will not pursue potential policy violations of a person who comes forward to report sexual assault.”
A spokesman for the university says the new language reflects what was already informal custom at UP. “The revised language more clearly articulates the University’s values and practices regarding sexual assault that have been in place for many years,” Joe Lang writes WW in an email today.
Photo of today’s demonstration courtesy Ashley Covell
- Sexual Assault Survivors now able to Sidestep Police in Evidence Collection As of Jun
- JUICY SUITS: Sex Discrimination Alleged at the University of Portland The Unive
- Cops Respond to Criticism of NW Portland Sexual Assault Investigation Some of t
- Screwed U.P. University
- University of Portland Censors Student Newspaper for Writing about Suicide Officials
Tags: Update
_2.jpg&contenttype=jpeg)
Thank you for covering this story! Though the revised policy is now officially in effect, it is not in the current handbook (2008-2009). The excerpt quoted above actually comes from a supplementary document that was made public and available for student, staff and faculty consumption for the first time yesterday, March 2nd, 2009. It will be printed in the 2009-2010 handbook.
To remove barriers to reporting, the University will not pursue potential policy violations of the survivor which occurred in the context of the sexual assault. Likewise, the University will not pursue potential policy violations of a person who comes forward to report sexual assault."
So….what I get from this, is that now, women can do whatever they want in violation of policy, then claim they were sexually assaulted, and have no repercussions for their actions.
Does this hold true for men on campus? If they have had too much to drink and have sex with a woman, can they claim they were raped the next day and face no disciplinary actions by the school? And will the woman be held just as accountable as a man would be in that situation?
This policy is ripe for abuse.
If the truth were to be told the University has a history of attempting to conceal sexual assualt incidents. The Public Safety Department should have immediatly contacted Portland Police once they became aware of the incident. Instead they reported to Student Services.
While the case on which this was primarily built on is faulty and lacks hard evidence, I do believe an Immunity Clause may protect future actual rape victims (although I highly doubt a university would actually pursue such actions against a victim–has UP actually done so in their history?).
However, I agree with Steven that this policy can be extremely one-sided. But in relation to sexual assault, that is unfortunately always the case. I do think the circumstances should be heavily considered (especially if drinking or drugs were involved). Sometimes either party may be unaware at how "gone" the other person may actually be in which case it sucks for both parties. Missing memories can lead to the formation of false memories along with pressure by peers. It is especially easy to implant or alter memories when the person is in a vulnerable or unsure state.
As for concealing sexual assault incidents, that is true for all Universities, not just Portland, since it effects their funding (which of course is terrible).
[...] U.P. also made headlines this year for pulling copies of its student newspaper and revising its sexual assault policy. [...]