The summer after her first semester as a transfer student, Lena Sclove ’15.5 was allegedly choked twice and raped by a fellow Brown student. Two weeks later, she reported the incident to the Office of Student Life. In October, he was found responsible for four separate offenses under the Brown University Code of Student Conduct — possession of illegal drugs, non-consensual sexual misconduct, physical harm to other students and sexual conduct including penetration. The university imposed a single sanction: suspension for one year.
While her alleged rapist took classes until Thanksgiving, Lena took a reduced course load so she had time to go to exhaustive meetings with administrators. Often encountering the alleged rapist between classes, she was forced to move into a one-bedroom apartment off campus. Months later, the University received a letter from another woman who was allegedly assaulted by the same student.
“Brown University takes issues of sexual assault and sexual misconduct with the utmost seriousness,” wrote Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations, in an email to The Herald.
We are all asking the same question. How seriously does our university actually take sexual assault if next semester the student who allegedly assaulted two students will return to campus? In September 2014, Lena Sclove and her alleged rapist will both return to Providence. They will attend Brown simultaneously for the next two years.
How could this have happened?
First of all, this is not an isolated incident. As evident by the 1996 Adam Lack case, Brown, like most universities, has a terrible history dealing with rape cases internally, a crime more violent and serious than most others. Like at most elite universities, few students are ever expelled.
During a press conference, Lena said, she was “encouraged that reporting to the University is much safer than going to the police and pursuing a criminal case,” The Herald reported.
But Brown made Lena feel everything but safe.
Lena, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, saw her alleged rapist everywhere — in the dining hall, the library and the campus center. Allen Ward, senior associate dean for student life, imposed no separation or probationary period. When her alleged rapist finally left campus, she wasn’t notified until a week later.
“In cases where a crime may have been committed, the reporting student is counseled about criminal justice options and may be encouraged to file a criminal complaint,” Quinn wrote to The Herald. But Lena didn’t file a police report until months later, and at that point she realized she had suffered a cervical spine injury from being choked. She couldn’t walk for two months and was forced to take medical leave.
I wonder if the University actually encouraged the filing of a police report. I wonder why an alleged rapist was allowed to take classes until Thanksgiving, even though he was suspended. More than that, I seriously question if Brown cared at all about protecting Lena Sclove, or if it was more concerned with protecting its own public image.
In January, President Obama announced the creation of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. According to a report by the White House Council on Women and Girls, an estimated one in five women are sexually assaulted in college.
Last semester, when Lena’s appeal of the sanction was denied, she received a letter from Margaret Klawunn, interim dean of the College and vice president for campus life and student services, claiming that the “precedent of similar cases needed consideration.” Sexual assault on college campuses is a widespread problem. If anything will ever change for young women in this country, Brown cannot use the precedent of past cases in its disciplinary process. Anyone found responsible for sexual assault should be expelled.
If this is not possible, if the University’s disciplinary process is ill-equipped to deal with sexual assault internally, then it should base its decisions off criminal court decisions, where the consequences for rape would be much more severe. After all, no one is asking Brown to assume legal liabilities, to give out prison sentences. That power under the law is not within Brown’s jurisdiction, nor should it be. However, determining who is allowed to be a Brown student is within Brown’s legal jurisdiction. And Lena’s alleged rapist will return to campus next year.
Meanwhile, Lena has nowhere else to go. She has already missed a semester of classes. This type of halfway justice — allowing an alleged rapist to attend Brown at the same time as a victim — shows that Brown does not take sexual assault or the protection of its students seriously.
On April 22, Lena Sclove returned to Brown to share her experiences as a college rape victim. After she spoke to 50 students, she went to the library to go to the bathroom. However, because of the University’s medical leave policy, she couldn’t even swipe her ID card to go inside.
On Aug. 2, Lena Sclove was allegedly raped. Now, nine months later, the process of victimization is not over. She is just as suspended as her assailant.
Cara Dorris ’15 can be reached at cara_dorris@brown.edu.
A previous version of this column incorrectly stated that President Obama announced the creation of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault last January. In fact, it was this January. The Herald regrets the error.
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