Dive Brief:
- A first-person account of an alleged sexual assault and its aftermath, published in Harvard University’s student newspaper, condemns the school for its response to victims of sexual misconduct.
- The Crimson op-ed's anonymous writer also asks Harvard to re-examine its policies on sexual misconduct, which were written in 1993, and provide guidelines to its administration for responding to incidents.
- The letter writer said she was treated with contempt. Her resident dean told her that her alleged assailant could not be punished because he didn’t know what he was doing, and Harvard’s health services suggested that her drinking was to blame for the assault.
Dive Insight:
Harvard will have to respond to this issue with care and concern. The writer said she was assaulted nine months ago after she entered her assailant’s dorm room while drunk, and although he verbally pressured her into sexual activity and physically hurt her, the incident didn’t fall within Harvard’s narrow definition of sexual assault. She said she met with several counselors and administrators, but they didn’t investigate or move her assailant out of the residence hall that they shared. She continued to live in the same residence, and suffered from fear and depression. Her resident dean compared living in the same place as her assailant to a divorced couple working in the same factory. Since the letter was published, Harvard’s Undergraduate Council has formed a Sexual Assault Policy Task Force to re-evaluate school policies.