SFU mishandled assault case: prof
Student wasn’t expelled after three allegations filed, complainants dropped out
VANCOUVER— Simon Fraser University says it acted swiftly on sexual-assault allegations against a male student, but a professor is accusing the school of mishandling the case and causing two young women to drop out.
Officials at the Vancouver-area university said Tuesday that RCMP are investigating after three allegations of sexual assault were made last semester by three female students against a male student.
Jon Driver, vice-president of academic and provost, said the male student who is the subject of the allegations is not on campus, but he did not say if he was suspended or expelled.
“As soon as university personnel became aware of these allegations, the university took action to support the students concerned without interfering with the police investiga- tion,” he said in a statement.
“In addition, both the RCMP and the university conducted safety assessments. Measures were taken to ensure the safety of the campus community.”
But Marjorie Griffin Cohen, a professor emeritus of political science and gender, sexuality and women’s studies, said not nearly enough was done. She said she knows one of the complainants. The young woman reported her alleged assault to campus security and police, but the university did not remove the male student from campus at that time, Cohen said.
“Everywhere she went, she was seeing him, which was quite terrifying to her,” Cohen said.
Later, Cohen learned that another young woman had earlier reported being sexually assaulted by the same student. That woman dropped out of university, Cohen said.
After the second complaint, she said representatives of the faculty association, its equity committee and a group of female professors called Academic Women met with senior ad- ministration to discuss the issue and were told they had determined the male student was not a problem.
A meeting was held with the complainant’s mother and some of her friends, and the university ultimately moved the male student to another residence, Cohen said. The young woman dropped out of university as well, Cohen said. The professor is calling on the university to do something to restore the two complainants’ academic years.
She also said recent legislation passed by the B.C. government doesn’t go far enough. The law requires universities to develop policies to prevent and respond to sexual assaults, but doesn’t stipulate what those policies should look like.
Cohen said universities should be under similar legislation to that of employers, who have been mandated by the Supreme Court of Canada since1985 to protect their employees from sexual harassment and abuse.
Kurt Heinrich, director of university communications, said he could not comment on Cohen’s allegations.