Dartmouth enters the school year amid two federal probes, high turnover in staff who deal with sexual assault and a new sexual misconduct policy.
The Department of Education began investigating Dartmouth’s compliance with the Clery Act on Aug. 18, and a Title IX investigation launched in May 2013 is ongoing.
During the Clery investigators’ visit in August, Dartmouth officials provided documents and scheduled meetings, associate general counsel Kevin O’Leary said.
The College has not heard from investigators since they left campus, O’Leary said.
Dartmouth Title IX coordinator and Clery Act compliance officer Heather Lindkvist wrote in an email that the College is “cooperating fully” with the Department of Education. Lindkvist did not respond to multiple requests for further comment.
The Clery Act, signed in 1990, mandates that colleges and universities report campus crime. Institutions that violate the act may be fined or see federal financial aid terminated.
The investigation comes after more than 30 students and alumni filed a complaint against the College in May 2013, alleging Clery violations related to sexual assault, LGBTQ, racial and religious discrimination, hate crimes, bullying and hazing.
Later that month, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation into the College’s handling of sexual harassment and violence complaints. Office for Civil Rights officials conducted campus interviews in January and February, and their investigation is currently ongoing.
Under a Title IX investigation, the government determines whether schools are compliant with federal law barring gender-based discrimination. The 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter issued by the Department of Education clarified institutions’ obligations under Title IX.
Compliance investigations are underway at colleges and universities across the country. In May, the government named Dartmouth in a list of 55 institutions under investigation for possible Title IX violations.
Clery Act investigations can take more than 18 months, 32 National Campus Safety Initiative director Daniel Carter previously told The Dartmouth. If a college is found in violation, a negotiation process with administrators typically follows to determine the final penalty.
That process may take more than four to five years — making it nearly certain that it will not be completed before student complainants have graduated, Carter said. He added that the department has received more complaints than it can investigate as quickly as it would like, which he called a “very significant issue.”
The College reported 24 counts of forcible sex offenses in 2012 — with 11 occurring on campus property — in its 2013 annual security and fire safety report. Data for 2013 will be released on Oct. 1.
O’Leary said he believes the College has been clear about its commitment to Title IX and Clery Act compliance, adding that the College had begun changing its treatment of sexual assault before either investigation.
In June, the College implemented a new sexual misconduct policy that mandates an external adjudicator and sets expulsion as the punishment for rape.
A number of administrative positions related to sexual assault have recently seen turnover or are in flux.
Lindkvist took on the role of Title IX coordinator and Clery Act compliance officer this August.
Director of health promotion and student wellness Aurora Matzkin resigned Aug. 31, leaving a vacancy in the leadership of the office that houses the SAAP program and peer advisor groups.
The position of SAAP coordinator is vacant according to the office’s website. One former coordinator, Amanda Childress, is now the assistant director of health promotion and student wellness. The other, Rebekah Carrow, has left the College.
Benjamin Bradley began working at the College as survivor advocate on Aug. 1. In the new role, he helps sexual assault survivors navigate reporting options and resources.
Associate Dean of the College Liz Agosto, who serves as an administrative advisor for the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault, said this turnover will not affect Dartmouth’s ability to provide services, indicating that the SAAP team continues to “function highly” under Bradley and Childress.
Agosto said she does not believe turnover is connected to the ongoing Title IX and Clery Act investigations, emphasizing that staff changes are not unexpected in such high-stress positions.
The College has yet to name a director for the new Center for Community Action and Prevention, announced in February by former Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson. Some faculty criticized the College’s approach to the center following the announcement, which came after a rape guide was posted on Board at Baker.
The center was initially scheduled to open July 1, but its launch was postponed and a new date has yet to be set.
A search for CCAP director is underway, and interim Dean of the College Inge-Lise Ameer said she asked Agosto to form a student and faculty advisory committee, citing a desire for campus involvement in the new center’s development.
Ameer said she has also asked Agosto to determine how the Health and Wellness Office can work with the Center for Gender and Student Engagement.
Now that provost Carolyn Dever has assumed her role at the College, Dartmouth is in a position to address initial concerns surrounding CCAP’s announcement and build the program, Agosto said.
“I don’t think we are in a place where we are at a loss,” Agosto said. “I think we are continuing to gain footing.”
POLICY DEBRIEFING: SEXUAL ASSAULT
The College implemented a new sexual misconduct policy, titled the “Unified Disciplinary Procedures for Sexual Assault by Students and Student Organizations,” in June.
The new policy gives a trained investigator responsibility for examining sexual assault cases and mandates expulsion for students found guilty of rape. In addition to substantially modifying Dartmouth’s adjudication process and imposing stricter sanctions on perpetrators, the policy clarifies the College’s definition of certain terms such as consent.
Under the policy, the investigator will research sexual misconduct complaints, conduct interviews and review available evidence and documentation. Following this investigation, the investigator will draft a report that includes a factual assessment of the case and a conclusion about whether the alleged perpetrator assaulted the alleged victim.
If the investigator finds an individual responsible for sexual assault, a sanctioning panel consisting of the director of judicial affairs, a tenured or tenure-track faculty member outside the academic fields of both the reporter of the violation and the alleged perpetrator and an appropriate dean will convene to impose a punishment. The representative dean will be an associate dean responsible for student affairs if the perpetrator is an undergraduate student, or the dean of the perpetrator’s school if the individual is a graduate or professional school student.
Either the student charged with sexual assault or the complainant may submit a request for review within seven days of a decision.
The proposal mandates expulsion for a student found guilty of sexual assault involving sexual penetration, oral-genital contact or oral-anal contact through force, threat or purposeful incapacitation of a survivor.
The sanctioning panel will also impose expulsion if the student in question committed the same acts motivated by bias based on various social factors including race, religion and sexual orientation or if the student possesses prior records of sexual assault.
The likely sanctions for all other cases include a fine, warning, College probation, no-contact order and restriction from specific College programs, activities or housing.
Standard of Proof: “Preponderance of the Evidence”
The “preponderance of the evidence” standard, which Dartmouth also used in its previous policy, means that the investigation has to find only that it is “more likely than not” that sexual assault occurred.
In 2011, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights mandated this standard instead of the “clear and convincing” evidence standard, which requires a higher burden of proof.
Six other Ivy League institutions — Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University — use the “preponderance of the evidence” standard to determine sexual assault sanctions.
Princeton University’s standard of proof mandates that the complainant put forth a “clear and persuasive case.”
