U. S. senators criticize UA sex- assault panel over video
FAYETTEVILLE — Hiddencamera footage to be televised tonight led two U. S. senators at an advance screening to criticize the way a University of Arkansas at Fayetteville panel questioned a student who had reported a sexual assault.
“They came across as extremely uninformed, not trained,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D- N. Y., at a Monday preview of the report to be aired on Vice, an HBO news program.
“Ignorant questioning,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D- Mo., during the event held at George Washington University in Washington, D. C.
The Vice video shows the UA student — after being outfitted with hidden equipment — answering questions during a university hearing. At UA, the hearing panel in such cases is a mixed gender three- person committee of university hearing officers, “all of whom have been trained in sexual assault and prevention,” according to UA’s Code of Student Life.
Less critical of the panel but still finding fault with UA’s handling of the disciplinary case is Laura Dunn, an adviser who attended the full hearing in support of the student. Only a few snippets of hidden video air on
the program, which includes footage and interviews from other campuses.
“Quite frankly, I thought it was better than a lot of panels that I have been before,” Dunn, executive director and founder of SurvJustice, said. SurvJustice is a nonprofit organization that assists survivors of sexual assault.
UA spokesman Laura Jacobs wrote in an email that “without the benefit of seeing what Sens. McCaskill and Gillibrand have commented on, it’s difficult to determine how they formed their impressions.”
Jacobs wrote that the hearing process “does require the determination of consent, which is not ‘ ignorant questioning,’ but purposeful and specific to determine the facts in the case — and required by federal guidance.”
Students may report sexual assaults to police and seek resolution through the criminal justice system, but in cases involving other students they also can go through a university judicial process separate from criminal proceedings.
Jacobs said two people are responsible for overseeing training for panel members: Rachel Eikenberry, director of the UA’s student conduct office, and Monica Holland, executive director of academic initiatives and integrity and interim Title IX coordinator.
Title IX refers to a civilrights law prohibiting sexbased discrimination in education programs receiving federal funds.
Jacobs in an email listed what kind of training is done for staff in UA’s student conduct office, although a roster of panel members provided by Jacobs included one person who works in UA’s housing office.
The Vice video did not identify the UA panel members, blurring their faces.
Jacobs said UA has “gone above and beyond the federal guidance provided for training in the investigation and adjudication of Title IX cases,” noting internal training and attendance at a national conference for the Association for Student Conduct Administrators.
Nationally, annual training for panel members who hear sexual violence cases was written into federal law with the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, said Dunn, with the requirement to be enforced beginning July 1.
Both Gillibrand and McCaskill are pushing for legislation known as the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, which calls for a training program to be developed by federal authorities for those who resolve complaints of reported sex offenses.
McCaskill, a former county prosecutor, criticized a question from a man on the UA panel about whether the student had bruises on her arms or elsewhere on her body apart from her pubic area.
“The guy tried to intimate that clearly she didn’t fight hard enough when her arms weren’t bruised; it wasn’t enough that the thighs were bruised or the pubic area was bruised,” said McCaskill, describing the question as “just ignorance.”
The Vice program includes an interview with the UA student in her dorm room and details of how UA handled the case. The details make it clear the accused student was former Razorback track athlete Raymond Higgs, who was identified in February news reports.
Police documents state Higgs told an investigator he had a consensual encounter with the other student.
UA found Higgs responsible of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment, specific violations of its student conduct code, and he was expelled. A Washington County prosecutor declined to file criminal charges.
The student interviewed by Vice, who was 19 when reporting the rape in October, attended UA the spring semester but will not return, her mother told the Democrat-Gazette in April. Dunn criticized UA for issuing an appeal decision letter dated Jan. 29 — later retracted — that would have allowed Higgs to receive his degree, with the expulsion dated May 10 after degree conferral but with Higgs not allowed to participate in commencement ceremonies. Asked in February by the
Democrat- Gazette about the appeal decision letter that was retracted, UA issued a statement saying Chancellor G. David Gearhart — who signed the letter — had been out of the office and had not seen it.
“In reviewing the recent inquiry, university officials learned that a decision letter on a student appeal, which the chancellor had not seen or approved, was mechanically signed and transmitted in error while the chancellor was out of the office,” the statement said.
But Gearhart’s calendar for Jan. 29 shows he had several campus meetings and events for that day. UA law dean Stacy Leeds and Senior Assistant Director of Admissions for Diversity Rafael Arciga Garcia confirmed meeting with Gearhart on that date.
Asked how to reconcile Gearhart’s appointments with the statement that he was out of the office when the Jan. 29 letter was transmitted, Jacobs responded in an email that “the chancellor was out of the office when the January 29 letter imposing May 10 as the effective date of expulsion was formatted and autopenned.”
She did not respond to a question about what date this took place.
UA’s February statement went on to say that Gearhart, upon learning of the letter sent in error, “immediately issued a letter” with the final decision of making Higgs’ expulsion immediate. That letter was dated Feb. 10.
However, Dunn noted that UA in a Feb. 4 letter signed by attorney Tamla Lewis stood by the decision reached in the initial appeal letter.
As first reported in the Huffington Post in February, the university issued a different decision after being contacted by a reporter.
Dunn also said she sent an email Feb. 2 copied to Gearhart and left a phone message Feb. 2 with Gearhart’s assistant. The email provided by Dunn states she is seeking clarification on whether Higgs would be allowed to receive his degree.
UA spokesman Jacobs wrote in an email that after an inquiry from the Huffington Post, Gearhart met with a UA attorney.
“When Chancellor meets with Counsel to review the decision letters, they discovered they were looking at 2 different letters,” according to the email from Jacobs, which states Gearhart “thought the student had been expelled immediately.”
Dunn said universities need to do more than say they care about sexual assault.
“We need to stop minimizing this because there are students like [ the UA student interviewed by Vice] who literally have their entire college careers ruined,” Dunn said.