Universities Keep Failing to Actually Punish Rapists

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/314-18/24216-universities-keep-failing-to-actually-punish-rapists

This week, two universities at opposite sides of the country announced incredibly lenient punishments for male students found guilty of sexual assault: one at Stanford will have his degree withheld for two years, and another at Brandeis will simply need to attend “sensitivity training.”

The Stanford case, in which the accused male student who claims to have “sexsomnia” (a supposed sleep disorder that he said makes him sexually aggressive while sleeping) was found to have taken advantage of fellow student Leah Francis, has led to wide protests on the Stanford campus. At a rally on June 5, students demanded mandatory expulsion for students who are found guilty of sexual assault and an expansion of services for victims. Though Francis has appealed Stanford University administrators’ decision, the administration reportedly responded that her attacker was not a threat to the campus.

“That makes no sense,” Stanford law professor Michele Dauber told San Jose Mercury News. “A student who is responsible for sexual assault by force is a danger to the Stanford community by definition.”

In the Brandeis case, rising senior and reported victim Joseph Babeu got a letter from the university saying that although the person he accused was indeed guilty of sexual assault, harassment and inflicting physical harm, the assaulter would get off with a warning and just have to go to “sensitivity training” classes.

“Honestly, I thought it was a joke,” Babeu told the Huffington Post. “Did they send me the wrong letter? I read the charges and almost nothing was happening — just a slap on the wrist.”

A petition this year at Brandeis calling for the establishment of a rape crisis center and a crisis response counselor got 2,600 signatures, but even though the administration says it is committed to “fairness, integrity, and proportionality” in combating sexual violence, three of the five students found guilty of sexual assault in 2013 were not expelled.