Opinion | Op-eds

On the failure of Columbia's sexual assault policy

I never imagined that the sanctions would be struck down, pared down to the mere removal of the respondent from housing and a mark on his record.

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By Anonymous • May 3, 2010 at 5:35 AM

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Editor's note: Due to the deeply sensitive and personal nature of this piece, we have allowed the following to be published anonymously. We recognize that this is one account of the following events and hope it will be read and discussed as one person's experience and opinion of Columbia's policy.

UPDATE, 5/16: In light of the extensive debate generated by this op-ed, we felt it necessary to provide additional contextual information. The adjudication process that the anonymous author writes of falls under the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law intended to protect the confidential records of all students. FERPA legally prohibits the University from commenting on all individual cases, including the one described below. This protection of privacy also means that certain factual assertions cannot be subject to the same scrutiny that they would have been had this story run as a news article in the Spectator. As we originally emphasized, this is a personal perspective expressed as one individual's opinion.

We plan to further address and investigate the issues raised by this op-ed in the coming semester. However, for the present, we would like to publish the following statement by Dean of Student Affairs and Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Life, Kevin Shollenberger:

"We know that, in response to the Spectator's recent opinion column, some students have expressed concerns about whether they should report incidents of sexual assault through the University's Disciplinary Process. The University has a dedicated core of both professionals and student volunteers who are deeply committed to assuring that Columbia is a safe space for all members of our community, and especially with respect to protecting against sexual assault. We want to convey in the strongest possible terms to our campus community that the safety and security of our students is our highest priority and we treat any reported incidents with the utmost seriousness. We all hope that any and every person believes that they can and should report such incidents and we urge them to utilize the University's resources if they feel they have been victimized."