The Women's Faculty Caucus wants to thank the faculty for their input
regarding the proposed resolution on acquaintance gang rape. The discussion
is indeed good. We will take President Rice's suggestion, and bring the
revised resolution before the Faculty Senate, which was 

our original intention, anyway.

 

We also thank Professor Stuart, and others, for support, and for
acknowledging in his comments on Raven that his perspective comes, in part,
from gossip from a defense attorney in the October rape case, and is not a
balanced view. In our view, the Hamilton County District Attorney's office
would not have brought a case to court that it did not believe had merit, so
if a judge's ruling was so unusual in this case, we maybe should reflect on
other possible causes.

 

For an alternative view, we have the "godmother" of Title IX federal
legislation, Dr. Bernice R. Sandler, Senior Scholar at the Women's Research
and Education Institute in Washington, D.C. I am attaching email I received
from her this week (see below).

 

In an earlier email to us, she acknowledged how difficult it is to obtain
good statistics on campus gang rape, for obvious reasons, but she stands
behind two major national studies. However, locally, as several UTC students
have noted in the media, specifically on TV Channels 3 and 9, "pulling a
train" is not uncommon at UTC.

 

I note as an aside, that much as rape victims now have to defend how many
vaginal tears they have, how long the tears are, and how "drunker than
drunk" they were, etc., the Women's Faculty Caucus, whose common desire is
only to prevent exploitation of UTC students and support the Chancellor's
efforts to change a campus culture, has had to defend that we are NOT
opposing either fraternities or athletics or consensual group sex. The
sufragettes were falsely labeled as "hysterical" a century ago, and look how
silly that seems to us today.

 

Again, thanks to all for your input, criticisms, and the many supportive
emails we have received-- please continue to send your comments to either:
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask], and the Faculty Senate.

 

H. Lyn Miles, UC Foundation Professor of Anthropology

Women's Faculty Caucus

 

BERNICE SANDLER LETTER TO WOMEN'S FACULTY CAUCUS----

 

From: Bernice Sandler [[log in to unmask]]
Sent:  Sun 1/29/2006 2:33 PM

 

To: Lyn Miles, Women's Faculty Caucus

Cc:

Subject: Re: campus rape

 

 

Dear Lyn --

 

I will try to send you a fresh copy of Party Games, my article on
acquaintance gang rape, later this week when I am back in my office.

 

I read the story of what happened at UTC and can only say that it follows a
fairly common scenario.

 

Part of the problem is the way in which most people define "consent" and
also, the definition of rape.  As you know, rape is defined by each state,
and for most, the way to prove that a rape occurred was to show that the
person actively resisted.  Of course many people don't resist because they
are often frightened for their life, or they are unable to resist for the
same reason that they could not give affirmative consent.

 

Sexual assault in Canada is a federal rather than provincial crime.  The
Canadians define sexual assaults occurring when affirmative consent is not
given.; in other words consent means the voluntary agreement of the
complainant to engage in the sexual activity in question.  Consent is not
given when:

 

 -When the agreement is expressed by words or conduct of someone other than
the complainant.

-When the complainant is incapable of consenting to the activity (such as
being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, being in a coma, being
mentally retarded)

-when the accused induces the complainant to engage in the activity by
abusing a position of trust, power, or authority.

-when the complainant expresses by words or conduct a lack of agreement to
engage in the activity.

when the complainant , having consented to engage in consensual activity,
expresses by words or conduct, a lack of agreement to continue to engage in
the activity.

 

The responsibility is on the accused to take reasonable steps to ascertain
that the complainant was consenting to the sexual activity.  

 

Thus, the responsibility of defending the accusation of sexual assault is on
the accused who must prove that consent was given, rather than the victim
having to prove that the rape was forced.  

 

Colleges would do well to adopt this definition of sexual assault since they
are not required by law to use the identical legal standard of the state.
Some schools have adopted a similar standard.  At Antioch College a number
of years ago, the students themselves adopted a similar policy whereby the
initiator of a sexual act had to ask to make sure that the person was
consenting.  Antioch took a lot of flack for having such a policy (A radical
idea!).  One first year male student, when he learned of the policy ,was
quoted in the press as saying  "If I have to ask I won't be able to get what
I want."

 

Additionally, when faculty  members or anyone else blame the woman such as "
she shouldn't have drunk so much" or  "she shouldn't have come to the
party," or "Look at the way she was dressed," the blamers are misapplying
the notion of contributory negligence, which assigns blame to a victim when
her or his negligent behavior (definite as careless but unintentional
conduct)  has contributed to the unintentional infliction of harm on the
victim.

 

For example, if someone runs a red light, the action relieves an inattentive
driver of at least some of the blame for hitting the victim.  But
contributory negligence does not relieve a driver who deliberately swerves
into a person who is crossing against the light.

 

Sexual assault is a deliberative act; the victim's behavior cannot be
considered negligence of her part because the harm done to her was not
unintentional.  It is as if the perpetrator says "Aha! she is drunk, so I
can do I want -- I'll have sex with her."

 

The judge's decision and reason are appalling, including his total lack of
understanding of how sexual assault victims respond to rape. 

 

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but perhaps it could be forwarded to
the legal committee.

 

If I can be of any more help, let me know.  

 

If you don't get the article by the end of the week, please send me an
e-mail to make sure that I did send it.  

 

Thanks for your concern on this issue.

 

Bernice

 

 

Bernice R. Sandler
Senior Scholar
Women's Research and Education Institute
1350 Connecticut Avenue, NW  Suite 850
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202 833 3331
Fax: 202 785  5605
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web site:  www.bernicesandler.com

 

 

 


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