The Brandon Vandenburg case is Exhibit A that for the most part, our culture view of women ranges from disdain, to contempt, to hatred: with the occasional breath of fresh air, this time in the form of Nashville Metro PD and Detectives John Mayo and Chad Dish.
In my blog (having worked with great defense attorneys) I touched on the defense case. The title is, "Is it too soon to talk about malpractice" and explains how ego likely trumped basic common sense. The case is fascinating on several different levels, including Coach Franklin's sudden departure.
I only wish the Times would interview the two guys who stopped an in-progress rape at Stanford last Friday, at the hands of a highly recruited swimmer. They stopped the crime, and then chased him down and held him until the police arrived. After Marc Priolleau of Vanderbilt testify he saw what was happening, sober, from his top bunk, then rolled over and pretended to be asleep, and that he still, today, doesn't know if he would do anything differently, those two guys chasing down the Stanford swimmer, made my day!
In my blog (having worked with great defense attorneys) I touched on the defense case. The title is, "Is it too soon to talk about malpractice" and explains how ego likely trumped basic common sense. The case is fascinating on several different levels, including Coach Franklin's sudden departure.
I only wish the Times would interview the two guys who stopped an in-progress rape at Stanford last Friday, at the hands of a highly recruited swimmer. They stopped the crime, and then chased him down and held him until the police arrived. After Marc Priolleau of Vanderbilt testify he saw what was happening, sober, from his top bunk, then rolled over and pretended to be asleep, and that he still, today, doesn't know if he would do anything differently, those two guys chasing down the Stanford swimmer, made my day!
10
Women make up the majority of college students, yes? Parents want their daughters to be safe and to get the education that they paid for, right? It's time to demand zero tolerance for sexual assault. Until that time, parents, do not pay for your daughters to attend schools with a large "Greek" presence or where sports rule the campus culture. Odds are, your daughter won't be raped.
3
The college culture that supports alcoholism and rapists sends these "sports" men who rape and get away with it out into our wider culture. They start and run businesses, run for office and make decisions that affect us all. They support and grow the highly lucrative, money-machine sports culture (football, basketball) that dominates our schools and broader culture from junior high to the NFL and the NBA. As a country and individually, one by one, let's make choices like the first step made in this case at Vanderbilt - to make perpetrators accountable. Please, can it happen faster? It is not just college students at stake. We all suffer when we lack the courage to stop college alcoholism and rape. Are profits from high income college sports really more important than our moral integrity? I see a glint of hope but i want to see much more action, much faster. The discussions are good but we know what needs to be done, as so many wise commenters note. Let's stop feeding rapists from colleges into positions of leadership and responsibility in our country.
5
It has been overlooked that this crime took place in the summer. Vanderbilt's "student body" was not present on campus - the spring semester ends in early May. This doesn't change the severity of the crime, but many comments have generally disparaged the Vanderbilt student body as a whole. I don't know whether the football team only was living in Gillette, or whether non-Vanderbilt students (summer camps, high school programs, etc) were living there. My point is that those individuals who saw and did nothing have to live with themselves, whoever they are. To label the Vanderbilt student body as uncaring is an unfair generalization.
2
So many comments here focus on swift justice. That is important, but perhaps more important, and more difficult, is the need to improve education of young people to respect the other gender and to understand the psychological impact of unwanted sexual contact on both victims and perpetrators. At the very least young people need to understand there is a huge gulf between casual attitudes and banter about sexual situations and crossing the line of unwanted contact. Such understanding can save their lives and education about it needs to be more of a priority.
Unfortunately, this story misses Vanderbilt's complicity in this case suggested by the timeline of events. Rape occurred at 2:30am on 6/23, football team met late that same afternoon of 6/23 to discuss (no report to police even though photos and video seen by many in that meeting); Vanderbilt campus police discover suspicious activity while investigating vandalism on 6/24; Nashville police not involved and rape investigated until 6/26. The culture of "keep it internal" is obvious. In addition 3 players who came across helpless victim on the morning of 6/23 remained in school and some on the football team Party culture is the least of Vanderbilt's cultural problems.
6
Rapes at fraternities seem frequent and well publicized, yet young women still attend the parties. Why?
6
How naive are you? No always means no. Captain Obvious, have you ever heard of "boys" spiking their victims' drinks? Young women have every right to attend parties and NOT be disrespected by "testosteronic" boys.
6
The fact that crimes like this are so common is deeply unsettling. Where are the morals of these people, and the useless eyewitnesses? I am heartened to see that the criminals are actually serving hard time, rather than the usual wrist-slapping.
One of my personal issues---albeit an unpopular one---is that the entire premise of "college life" is flawed at its core. Taking kids this age away from adult influence, removing them from the obligations of adult life is a recipe for disaster. College aged kids need to be socialized in mixed-generation groups, not solely with their own peers. They need to have the checks and balances of a job, their family, and older adults. An antidote to "party culture" is the obligation to show up at work Saturday and Sunday mornings. Older, wiser adults could model decent behavior. Not saying it would fix this rape epidemic, but I think it could help counter this immoral "pack mentality."
One of my personal issues---albeit an unpopular one---is that the entire premise of "college life" is flawed at its core. Taking kids this age away from adult influence, removing them from the obligations of adult life is a recipe for disaster. College aged kids need to be socialized in mixed-generation groups, not solely with their own peers. They need to have the checks and balances of a job, their family, and older adults. An antidote to "party culture" is the obligation to show up at work Saturday and Sunday mornings. Older, wiser adults could model decent behavior. Not saying it would fix this rape epidemic, but I think it could help counter this immoral "pack mentality."
8
Justice was served! Amen
3
These young men are monsters. The alcohol exposes the entitlement they have around women, and that's the reality of them. That the entitlement is cultural is no excuse. We're all responsible for our behavior and for becoming aware of and overcoming the evil influences of our society.
As for the other students who saw the victim lying unconscious and weren't moved to want to help her, weren't outraged enough to be driven to call the police, they leave me speechless. How mindless and heartless can you get?
As for the other students who saw the victim lying unconscious and weren't moved to want to help her, weren't outraged enough to be driven to call the police, they leave me speechless. How mindless and heartless can you get?
7
The New York Times claimed today that Vanderbilt is oblivious to the horrific violent rape of a neuroscience undergraduate. I have many neuroscience undergraduates in my lab. I am not oblivious. I I am angry. I am embarassed. And I am crushed to my core. I am not oblivious.
I am keenly aware through the work of Kate Clancy and Hope Jahren that women face horrible violence in academia. And I would like to think that my daughter will never have to face harassment or violence because she is female. As a mother I want to believe that putting her in the best schools provides extra levels of protection for her when I am not there.
Statistics speak of a different reality - one that doesn't care how high you have moved up the ranks in academia. Friends who are professors, please talk to your graduate students and post docs about how you trust them to talk to you and will have their back. Most graduate students interact with undergrads every day. Bring in HR to help you if you need to...that's what they are there for.
Parents, believing that being in a good school or around well educated men means your children are safe is something you do at your peril. Catcalls, harassment, violence, discrimination, pay inequality are all very real.
I don't have all the answers but I'm deeply committed to doing better for all the amazing women I have had the priveledge of mentoring. But please, don't believe the The New York Times when they say Vanderbilt University doesn't care. I care.
I am keenly aware through the work of Kate Clancy and Hope Jahren that women face horrible violence in academia. And I would like to think that my daughter will never have to face harassment or violence because she is female. As a mother I want to believe that putting her in the best schools provides extra levels of protection for her when I am not there.
Statistics speak of a different reality - one that doesn't care how high you have moved up the ranks in academia. Friends who are professors, please talk to your graduate students and post docs about how you trust them to talk to you and will have their back. Most graduate students interact with undergrads every day. Bring in HR to help you if you need to...that's what they are there for.
Parents, believing that being in a good school or around well educated men means your children are safe is something you do at your peril. Catcalls, harassment, violence, discrimination, pay inequality are all very real.
I don't have all the answers but I'm deeply committed to doing better for all the amazing women I have had the priveledge of mentoring. But please, don't believe the The New York Times when they say Vanderbilt University doesn't care. I care.
14
What reflects poorly on Vanderbilt students is less the actual incident - horrifying as it is we can assume it is not representative. However, the bystanders who did nothing and the students who are more concerned about reputation than this incident reflect VERY badly on the school.
7
On the news tonight, the lead defense attorney announced he will file a motion for a mistrial because one of the jurors indicated that she had never been a rape victim in the jury selection process, but an investigation into her past revealed that she had been raped 20 years ago. Therefore she is not impartial; she had an axe to grind. More importantly, she lied in the court of law.
1
Your handle "Southern Boy" is well chosen.
7
Well some folks don't think that this behavior grows up and turns into a pathology, but I have read enough biographies of Joe Kennedy to think otherwise. I have sat and watched ten, twenty, thirty women, come forward and deliver very similar stories of being given a 'mickey' by some comedian who they thought might have taken a paternal interest in promoting their career. I have read enough defamatory rhetoric by proud defenders of guilty rapist male innocence. I agree. Time to take the funding from American sports and Frat culture. Let's emphasize intellect and cultural achievement. Really think the world will be a worse place for it? I'm not saying be a repressive theocracy like Iran, mind you. I'm saying let's be America, but without the fascism, football and gang rape. Gosh can we take it?
13
A particularly odious wrinkle to this crime is that the ringleader,
VAndenberg, was obviously someone the victim trusted, dated, went places with. She did not suspect him of doing anything wrong until she saw the videos herself. He didn't have to rape her to have sex; apparently she'd had sex with him while fully conscious.
But obviously he knew she wouldn't consent to the sadistic, humiliating stuff he had his friends do to her--nor to being filmed during their S&M fun. (I won't repeat what they did; read the list of charges.)
I don't see this as being about Vanderbilt particularly. They pursued the case once it came to light. And the defense's claims that these poor innocent little football players lost their bearings in proximity to VU's extra wild culture, booze and loose women is completely ludicrous. (VU is certainly less of a party school than any other school in the SEC; if you're looking for a staid place to send your kids to school, don't come south.)
That said, college students need to understand that sex without consent is not sex, it is rape. Sex with an unconsicous person is rape. And rapists belong in prison, not college.
VAndenberg, was obviously someone the victim trusted, dated, went places with. She did not suspect him of doing anything wrong until she saw the videos herself. He didn't have to rape her to have sex; apparently she'd had sex with him while fully conscious.
But obviously he knew she wouldn't consent to the sadistic, humiliating stuff he had his friends do to her--nor to being filmed during their S&M fun. (I won't repeat what they did; read the list of charges.)
I don't see this as being about Vanderbilt particularly. They pursued the case once it came to light. And the defense's claims that these poor innocent little football players lost their bearings in proximity to VU's extra wild culture, booze and loose women is completely ludicrous. (VU is certainly less of a party school than any other school in the SEC; if you're looking for a staid place to send your kids to school, don't come south.)
That said, college students need to understand that sex without consent is not sex, it is rape. Sex with an unconsicous person is rape. And rapists belong in prison, not college.
15
I followed this story every day in The Tennessean for the last two weeks. It gave me nightmares and stomach aches. What happened is the result of hypermasculinity run amok. To understand it, I read Jackson Katz's book, The Macho Paradox, which explains how guy culture has ramped up in the last twenty years or so, in part as a reaction to, and backlash against, feminism. This is very disheartening to me. I thought that younger men were more sensitive to the realities of women's lives; I thought they had been raised by feminist mothers. Not so much.
Another book I recommend to understand the campus rape epidemic is Rape is Rape by Jody Raphael.
Alcohol, date rape drugs, fraternities, and idealization of athletes are all factors in the campus rape epidemic, but at its very root is the culture of patriarchy, which teaches boys that to be a man, you have to prove your contempt for women to other men. These guys did it with their phones. That's what provided the evidence to the prosecution and the jury.
Men are going to have to accept eventually that women are citizens, fully human, and equal to them. This may be hard, but it is long overdue. Fathers need to lead the way, providing an example of respect for women to their growing sons.
Another book I recommend to understand the campus rape epidemic is Rape is Rape by Jody Raphael.
Alcohol, date rape drugs, fraternities, and idealization of athletes are all factors in the campus rape epidemic, but at its very root is the culture of patriarchy, which teaches boys that to be a man, you have to prove your contempt for women to other men. These guys did it with their phones. That's what provided the evidence to the prosecution and the jury.
Men are going to have to accept eventually that women are citizens, fully human, and equal to them. This may be hard, but it is long overdue. Fathers need to lead the way, providing an example of respect for women to their growing sons.
13
Shame on the students at Vanderbilt who saw what happened and did nothing. They also should be expelled!!!
I can't imagine how stupid a lawyer would be to excuse rape based on the environment. His client should sue him for incompetent representation.
As for the rest of the student body, they should be worried about how this reflects on them, not the institution. It shows how little integrity they have. You can bet they lie and cheat . They don't belong in college and should never be hired by a professional organization.
At least the institution did not ignore rape or try to cover it up!
I can't imagine how stupid a lawyer would be to excuse rape based on the environment. His client should sue him for incompetent representation.
As for the rest of the student body, they should be worried about how this reflects on them, not the institution. It shows how little integrity they have. You can bet they lie and cheat . They don't belong in college and should never be hired by a professional organization.
At least the institution did not ignore rape or try to cover it up!
10
i am so very sad to see Vanderbilt's reputation being tarnished like that...this is gonna hurt the school a lot in the future. I am afraid there are going to be many applicants and parents who will avoid the school after this and it will create a bad perception that will follow for years, like the duke scandal....At least justice has been served tho.
What bad perception about Duke?
1
Dear Vandy,
Poor poor pitiful Vanderbilt .....where is your heart .....such misplaced grief. A young woman was tortured and defiled and you are so so sad for the "institution" with an afterthought for justice and nothing for the human being victim. Frankly I see Vanderbilt as an institution coming out strong here for having taken right action from the very beginning. You the alumnus I wonder about. I hope I read you incorrectly.
Poor poor pitiful Vanderbilt .....where is your heart .....such misplaced grief. A young woman was tortured and defiled and you are so so sad for the "institution" with an afterthought for justice and nothing for the human being victim. Frankly I see Vanderbilt as an institution coming out strong here for having taken right action from the very beginning. You the alumnus I wonder about. I hope I read you incorrectly.
8
objectification and de-humanization of any person other than self. We are One entity, despite the illusion of diversity of form. the first lesson of science and liberal arts is quantifiable, shared human experience. the stage is set within a privileged elite anything. to call these creatures animals defiles the good, blessed name of animals. one of the few ways, albeit unintended, the criminal "justice" system works will be that these guilty will be as debased and dehumanized in and by the penal system as was their victim. perfect justice. karma.
1
I am no stranger to sexual assaults on campus.
I attended an excellent, large Midwestern campus in the 70's. Dorms were no longer supervised by older students or any kind of dorm visiting hour restrictions, and had not been for over a decade or more. Greek houses enjoyed complete autonomy. Students came and went as they pleased. Alcohol (and other drugs) were plentiful. Campus sexual assault did occur. I worked with organizations on campus attempting to curb it.
I am sure that there must have been, then, assaults that resembled these highly publicized recent ones--occurring during heavy, out of control drinking, while a woman is unconscious, and often, being conducted by multiple men.
Ugly stuff; it can't be unique to our times...
Despite my involvement in sexual assault prevention on campus, I do not recall many of these incidents.
What is one to conclude? That they took place then as often and as awfully, and that victims chose not to report? Or, that reports were made, but cover-ups occurred?
Or, that, somehow, despite decades of hard work and effort being made to improve the status of women in our society, in all respects, and a good deal of it successful, there has been an increase in drunken, gang-bang rapes on our college campuses? If this has happened, why? Is it alcohol? Let's be honest--there was a LOT of alcohol and drug consumption during the 70's.
What gives?
This article is so deeply distressing; how is one to understand this?
I attended an excellent, large Midwestern campus in the 70's. Dorms were no longer supervised by older students or any kind of dorm visiting hour restrictions, and had not been for over a decade or more. Greek houses enjoyed complete autonomy. Students came and went as they pleased. Alcohol (and other drugs) were plentiful. Campus sexual assault did occur. I worked with organizations on campus attempting to curb it.
I am sure that there must have been, then, assaults that resembled these highly publicized recent ones--occurring during heavy, out of control drinking, while a woman is unconscious, and often, being conducted by multiple men.
Ugly stuff; it can't be unique to our times...
Despite my involvement in sexual assault prevention on campus, I do not recall many of these incidents.
What is one to conclude? That they took place then as often and as awfully, and that victims chose not to report? Or, that reports were made, but cover-ups occurred?
Or, that, somehow, despite decades of hard work and effort being made to improve the status of women in our society, in all respects, and a good deal of it successful, there has been an increase in drunken, gang-bang rapes on our college campuses? If this has happened, why? Is it alcohol? Let's be honest--there was a LOT of alcohol and drug consumption during the 70's.
What gives?
This article is so deeply distressing; how is one to understand this?
7
It's time for more articles that highlight the punishment of college rapists. Maybe it will make future students think of the consequences for such actions.
Liquor and a party atmosphere is no excuse. Yes, many college students use liquor and party, but it does not give them a pass on criminal acts. Many people drink, but it no longer gives drunken drivers a pass on killing or maiming someone as it did in the past/
Liquor and a party atmosphere is no excuse. Yes, many college students use liquor and party, but it does not give them a pass on criminal acts. Many people drink, but it no longer gives drunken drivers a pass on killing or maiming someone as it did in the past/
9
One of the Holocaust survivors at Auschwitz the other day, said, respectfully, that if he could add a commandment to the Ten Commandments, it would be '"Never be a bystander".
The people at the university who approve of drunken partying, and engage in it, are also responsible for this crime, and they do not appear -- from the article, that is -- to be aware of any moral failing.
There is a kind of inevitable profanation involved in human action. For example, wine drunk very slowly over a long set of hours in good company and perhaps with music, or food, or nature, or dancing, can provide a sacred experience. The same with other (but not all) intoxicants, each in their own way.
But modern practice reduces this to "partying", "entertainment" "getting smashed", "laid" or "hammered" -- and thus profanes it.
With intoxicants, less is more. They are the very antithesis of the ethos of consumer culture.
And so, by these indulgences, civilization is falling into barbarism. At institutions of higher learning.
The reaction we need is not the reactionary reaction: forbid! control! report! be scandalized!
But education to learn what high really means.
People want to get high but just do not know how to do it.
Teach that.
The people at the university who approve of drunken partying, and engage in it, are also responsible for this crime, and they do not appear -- from the article, that is -- to be aware of any moral failing.
There is a kind of inevitable profanation involved in human action. For example, wine drunk very slowly over a long set of hours in good company and perhaps with music, or food, or nature, or dancing, can provide a sacred experience. The same with other (but not all) intoxicants, each in their own way.
But modern practice reduces this to "partying", "entertainment" "getting smashed", "laid" or "hammered" -- and thus profanes it.
With intoxicants, less is more. They are the very antithesis of the ethos of consumer culture.
And so, by these indulgences, civilization is falling into barbarism. At institutions of higher learning.
The reaction we need is not the reactionary reaction: forbid! control! report! be scandalized!
But education to learn what high really means.
People want to get high but just do not know how to do it.
Teach that.
13
Ironic, tragic, that at elite universities, superior schools with elite students as well, that young males are admitted with such pathological attitudes toward women. Alcohol appears to unveil underlying attitudes leading to rape. What were their relationships to their mothers, their sisters? What kinds of limits did they learn on their behavior in their families? Not all young men who get drunk are therefore likely to rape. But clearly, there's a group that is. I'm concerned that amid so much emphasis on alcohol (yes, it's a problem) and legal interventions (yes, these young men should be prosecuted) we are neglecting attention to how they were raised, how did attitudes toward women develop, why they feel entitled to rape. Very likely, younger males, right now, growing up similarly, are on their way to similar behavior.
11
"Vanderbilt is one of roughly 100 colleges and universities under investigation by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights for their handling of sexual assaults and harassment."
The lesson is clear: report any sexual assault (or any crime, for that matter) to real, not campus, police. Press charges through criminal courts, not college administrators.
The lesson is clear: report any sexual assault (or any crime, for that matter) to real, not campus, police. Press charges through criminal courts, not college administrators.
6
"...just as no one had intervened earlier after seeing Mr. Vandenburg giving drinks to the woman..."
WHY would anyone be expected to intervene??!! Is Mr. Blinder implying that women should not drink alcohol in public??!! I've followed this story closely and as far as I have read, no one is accusing Vandenburg of forcing alcohol down the throat of the victim.
NY Times -- watch your language.
WHY would anyone be expected to intervene??!! Is Mr. Blinder implying that women should not drink alcohol in public??!! I've followed this story closely and as far as I have read, no one is accusing Vandenburg of forcing alcohol down the throat of the victim.
NY Times -- watch your language.
3
Why would anyone be expected to intervene? Because "experts say the programs that are most effective at reducing sexual assault are those that persuade people that bystanders have an obligation to intervene, and teach them how to do it." Vandenburg did not physically force the victim to drink to unconsciousness, but he certainly encouraged her to do so. Have you never watched someone get too drunk and thought to yourself, "yeah, it's time that guy or girl stopped"? It's not that hard to recognize when someone is too inebriated to make safe decisions, including the decision of whether or not to keep drinking. Perhaps if a bystander had been brave enough to step up and say, "hey, she's probably had enough, let's get her home" instead of passively watching her become completely incapacitated, then perhaps Vanderburg would never have had the opportunity to incite his friends to violate her. At a basic level, being a part of any community implies looking out for each other. Even if she hadn't been raped, she could have died of alcohol toxicity, as far too many college students have in recent years, and bystander action is probably the best answer to that problem also. The author is not asking women to stop drinking in public, but for us to find the moral strength to step in to protect someone when he or she is unable to do so for himself or herself.
8
Well said Avarren!
2
Yes, intervene. You ask why? Someone who has their wits about them sees a person (woman or man) whose judgment is impaired being encouraged to drink to dangerous levels should certainly INTERVENE. To prevent death by alcohol poisoning, or to prevent rape. You say, "Hey, looks like she's had enough, let's find her friends to get her home." Not difficult to do, right? Just as you would intervene by taking the keys away from them. What kind of society do we live in where we think the concept of looking out for our fellow human being is strange?
1
Why is all rape prevention aimed at victims and bystanders, not perpetrators? Rape is a crime. Murder is a crime. Imagine the outrage if our campuses were running programs teaching about how not to be murdered. When can we address the core issue?
15
I thought Vanderbilt was supposed to be a top college.
If they admitted now-convicted gang-rapists, who were low enough to commit this crime on an unconscious person, and also dumb enough to video themselves perpetrating the crime, how selective could the place be?
Everyone makes mistakes, but this place looks like it attracts not only bullies but morons. What the hell were guys who would act this way doing in a "selective" college anyhow?
Was Vanderbilt selecting only for size?
If they admitted now-convicted gang-rapists, who were low enough to commit this crime on an unconscious person, and also dumb enough to video themselves perpetrating the crime, how selective could the place be?
Everyone makes mistakes, but this place looks like it attracts not only bullies but morons. What the hell were guys who would act this way doing in a "selective" college anyhow?
Was Vanderbilt selecting only for size?
9
Vanderbilt didn't know these guys were predators. If you asked a person, "are you a predator", you think they'll say "yes"? Once it became clear what had happened, Vanderbilt kicked them out and aided in their prosecution. I don't think you can reasonably ask more.
2
I'm pretty sure Vanderbilt's college application doesn't have an "Are you a rapist?" checkbox. Between college, medical school, residency, and fellowship, I've filled out more school applications than I'd like to remember, and none of them would be at all useful in weeding out sexual predators. Vanderbilt has slightly over 6,000 undergraduates at any given moment, and the vast majority of them aren't rapists. A single point in time does not evidence make, but assuming in 2013 there were 4 rapists in a population of 6000, that would be a rapist population of approximately 0.06%. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics for 2008, slightly over 200,000 people (all genders) reported being raped that year, which in a US population of about 320 million comes out to about 0.06%. The two numbers cannot be properly compared, as one is % of rapists and the other is % of rape victims, rape is an underreported crime, and the denominator populations are different in size by multiple orders of magnitude, but they're not so dissimilar that one could conclude Vanderbilt contains more rapists per capita than the general population. Casting associated guilt on the largely innocent student body of Vanderbilt is helping not at all in the fight against sexual crimes.
1
"Vanderbilt" is not a rapist. These men are!
2
Why are we surprised? Is not rape often the theme of for example of principal tv series and movies, with gross detail. I.e. entertainment? And the sick allure of victimized attractive women nearly in many scenes. Why is rape entertainment and what is the bestiality of gang rapes? Sex between two consenting adults is normal: rape and the loss of dignity is unpardonable.
11
Everyone of the men who were involved in the rape of the young woman have dishonored themselves, their families, their friends and least of all their school. That includes those who received videos and didn't report the rape as well as those who participated.
Everyone one of them deserves to do hard time in prison where they can contemplate their crimes while contemplating their real life peers in the adjoining cells.
The excuse of drinking, of a campus culture that centers on partying, the casual hookup atmosphere that seems to pervade these institutions are feeble rationalizations for the simple fact that the men are predators.
As predators, they should be caged with their fellow predators.
Everyone one of them deserves to do hard time in prison where they can contemplate their crimes while contemplating their real life peers in the adjoining cells.
The excuse of drinking, of a campus culture that centers on partying, the casual hookup atmosphere that seems to pervade these institutions are feeble rationalizations for the simple fact that the men are predators.
As predators, they should be caged with their fellow predators.
22
A certain newspaper only reports rapes among college age kids attending college. 60% of college age kids do not attend college. The rape rate among the non-college population is 20% higher. Colleges, relatively speaking, are safe havens. They are working to become safer in part because a certain newspaper has exposed their insensitivity. Now that we're done with UVA and Vanderbilt and Harvard, it's time to move on to Walmart and McDonald's and Target, don't you think?
7
I shared this with my high school senior daughter. And told her that though nothing of what those young men did to that young woman is excusable, the young woman could have prevented it all by not getting drunk in the company of young men.
There's a country music song with the line "tequila makes her clothes fall off". So it does. And even more so when the capacity to form intent passes from simply being uninhibited, i.e., drunk, to being passed out on the floor.
To a young man who thought taking advantage of this inebriated person was okay, I'd say ask him, "Would be okay were it your sister"?
That nobody stepped in to help the girl speaks to the state of gender relations these days. There was a time when chivalry was an admired trait amongst men, and decent men wouldn't dare think of taking advantage like this. But that was before the Pill and abortion on demand freed women from the oppression of treating sex as an act of bonding between two people who love each other. Now women can treat sex like men have always been biologically predisposed to treat it, and so men have no more respect for the average good girl in college as their dads might have had for the prostitute on the street corner.
It's the fault of these boys that they took advantage of the situation. It's the fault of the girl that situation arose in the first place. But its the fault of this vulgar society that these boys seemed unable to grasp the enormous cruelty of their actions.
There's a country music song with the line "tequila makes her clothes fall off". So it does. And even more so when the capacity to form intent passes from simply being uninhibited, i.e., drunk, to being passed out on the floor.
To a young man who thought taking advantage of this inebriated person was okay, I'd say ask him, "Would be okay were it your sister"?
That nobody stepped in to help the girl speaks to the state of gender relations these days. There was a time when chivalry was an admired trait amongst men, and decent men wouldn't dare think of taking advantage like this. But that was before the Pill and abortion on demand freed women from the oppression of treating sex as an act of bonding between two people who love each other. Now women can treat sex like men have always been biologically predisposed to treat it, and so men have no more respect for the average good girl in college as their dads might have had for the prostitute on the street corner.
It's the fault of these boys that they took advantage of the situation. It's the fault of the girl that situation arose in the first place. But its the fault of this vulgar society that these boys seemed unable to grasp the enormous cruelty of their actions.
4
You are wrong and your comment does not make logical sense. The girl was manipulated into the situation from the beginning. All this was orchestrated---see the comment about the boyfriend plying drinks.
While I agree there's plenty of blame to go around, I think the overall problem is that despite the supposed equality of the sexes, a lot of it is not accepted on many levels by many males. Women are still objectified and treated as inferiors by males. The reason these events are happening are because women are NOT treated as real equals to men, not because there is too much of it. You decry the rights women have gained as a result of the feminist (which in my book means equal treatment) revolution by saying it is those same rights responsible for men treating women badly.
With great freedom comes great responsibility, for everyone. Young adults in this country have a lot of freedom, and this includes the males. They need to learn to live in a peaceful, harmonious manner with respect to others around them.
While I agree there's plenty of blame to go around, I think the overall problem is that despite the supposed equality of the sexes, a lot of it is not accepted on many levels by many males. Women are still objectified and treated as inferiors by males. The reason these events are happening are because women are NOT treated as real equals to men, not because there is too much of it. You decry the rights women have gained as a result of the feminist (which in my book means equal treatment) revolution by saying it is those same rights responsible for men treating women badly.
With great freedom comes great responsibility, for everyone. Young adults in this country have a lot of freedom, and this includes the males. They need to learn to live in a peaceful, harmonious manner with respect to others around them.
14
Kudos to you for teaching your daughter to take some responsibility for her own safety. While we would love to do so, we cannot control what others do. Your daughter has every RIGHT to expect that she would not be assaulted if she went to a young man's room and drank herself into a stupor. However, that would be a dangerous right to exercise.
"I shared this with my high school senior daughter. And told her that though nothing of what those young men did to that young woman is excusable, the young woman could have prevented it all by not getting drunk in the company of young men."
Thank you. Good for you. We most likely won't be reading about your daughter in the newspaper unless it's about a happy accomplishment.
Thank you. Good for you. We most likely won't be reading about your daughter in the newspaper unless it's about a happy accomplishment.
Vanderbilt's students may well have given this gang rape little attention partially to preserve their idealized vision of their school, but the politics of victimization may better explain not only why this case failed to "mobilize a campus" but also why it failed to draw much national attention. On campuses and on MSNBC or in the pages of The Times, injustice is increasingly defined as what the privileged and powerful (white, male, affluent, and/or the police) inflict on the poor and powerless, especially minorities and women. Stories that fit that narrative get exhaustive--though not necessarily accurate--national news coverage and draw protests that then feed on each other. Stories that don't get neither.
Michael Brown's story--at least as most frequently told--fit the narrative; John Wrana's did not. The Duke lacrosse case fit the narrative and drew a candlelight vigil and Times' op-eds; the Vanderbilt case did neither. But imagine if the races had been reversed and an unconscious black student had been raped by two white "student-athletes" (with another one taking pictures and her black "boyfriend" cheering them on but not touching her), one of whom uttered racial slurs while urinating on her. Would there have been campus protests, with national civil rights leaders in attendance? Would you have heard more about the case in print and on TV? Would this article have identified the races of all involved? Would the judge have dismissed the slurs as irrelevant to the case?
Michael Brown's story--at least as most frequently told--fit the narrative; John Wrana's did not. The Duke lacrosse case fit the narrative and drew a candlelight vigil and Times' op-eds; the Vanderbilt case did neither. But imagine if the races had been reversed and an unconscious black student had been raped by two white "student-athletes" (with another one taking pictures and her black "boyfriend" cheering them on but not touching her), one of whom uttered racial slurs while urinating on her. Would there have been campus protests, with national civil rights leaders in attendance? Would you have heard more about the case in print and on TV? Would this article have identified the races of all involved? Would the judge have dismissed the slurs as irrelevant to the case?
12
Why bring race into this? Lemme guess.... white guy, right?
4
John. The duke lacrosse case is his proof, where is yours
The article asks a good question: with campus rape receiving so much national attention, how could this depraved tale, documented well enough in pictures and email to produce the rare guilty verdict in a case with an unconscious victim, remain unknown even to many students at the university where it occurred? The writers propose one plausible explanation; I offer another, non-mutually exclusive one based on privilege in general and race in particular.
Cory Batey, not I, brought race into this case. If you do not think race is frequently an important determinant of which wrongs, real or imagined, receive media and government attention in America today, you must not have followed the news last year. I am only requesting that The Times and other media cover such issues symmetrically, since at least with regards to interracial violent crime, the privileged race is more often a victim than the oppressed one is.
As for your second question, yes I am a white guy. What of it? Does that negate my argument? I have no interest in your race or sex, but since you apparently think race does not figure in this case and its reporting, I do wonder how you would answer the questions at the end of my original comment.
Cory Batey, not I, brought race into this case. If you do not think race is frequently an important determinant of which wrongs, real or imagined, receive media and government attention in America today, you must not have followed the news last year. I am only requesting that The Times and other media cover such issues symmetrically, since at least with regards to interracial violent crime, the privileged race is more often a victim than the oppressed one is.
As for your second question, yes I am a white guy. What of it? Does that negate my argument? I have no interest in your race or sex, but since you apparently think race does not figure in this case and its reporting, I do wonder how you would answer the questions at the end of my original comment.
4
“What’s different at really elite institutions is that the students will also do most anything to protect the reputation of the institution, because they think it reflects on them.”
Vanderbilt is tops for Tennessee, but not "really elite" on the national level. That being said, it's nice to see some justice finally served.
Vanderbilt is tops for Tennessee, but not "really elite" on the national level. That being said, it's nice to see some justice finally served.
5
The answer is simple--don't date jocks. Run from them as the plague.
6
Yes, that's the simple answer to all of this. Problem solved! You should win the nobel freakin' peace prize you goddamn genius! Can you solve world hunger next by just telling people to stop not eating?
2
Well, if offered a drink by a jock I would gratefully decline.
1
Grim and disturbing news from Nahville. And an unfortunate name for the student newspaper.
1
This story highlights so much that is wrong with our college culture...First the athletes...who more than ever live a life so far beyond the average student it's reminiscent of France during the aristocracy....just google the University of Oregon Football teams locker room and workout facilities...marbled bathrooms with tv in each bathroom stall is just an example..the athletes are college aristocracy and in many cases can do no wrong..in class or in outside of it...many of the athletes really don't even belong in college academically..Then there's the drinking..why is a 21 year old neuroscience student so drunk she can't even recall the horrific acts perpetrated by her "boyfriend" and others...Perhaps we need to discuss lowering the drinking age...because the drug alcohol abuse is clearly out of control...there's no personal responsibility being shown on any level here...it seems so normal that nobody does anything to help...unless they felt the athletes were beyond their control..or maybe it's like Penn State...and when it comes to Football...everything else be damned...but clearly "banning alcohol, or keeping sorority girls locked up..isn't going to solve the problem...it just makes it worse.
4
Yes--alcohol plays a major role in these crimes--and it's likely not just the alcohol the perpetrators and the victims consume--but the alcohol consumed by the expectant parents of the fetuses who grew up to be the protagonists in these crimes.
The subtle but pervasive, life-long harm caused by exposure to alcohol and other substances that alter brain chemistry, while in utero, may be a major factor in the appalling lack of judgment and impulse control that leads to reckless and criminal behavior. The aggressiveness, the risk-taking and the sense of invulnerability that are characteristics of successful student athletes--who often come from privileged homes--are also hallmarks of neurological damage almost impossible to diagnose.
That fine wine at dinner; those high-powered cocktail parties are the equivalent of ticking bombs whose shrapnel causes damage throughout the lifetimes of the children whose parents have indulged in them.
The subtle but pervasive, life-long harm caused by exposure to alcohol and other substances that alter brain chemistry, while in utero, may be a major factor in the appalling lack of judgment and impulse control that leads to reckless and criminal behavior. The aggressiveness, the risk-taking and the sense of invulnerability that are characteristics of successful student athletes--who often come from privileged homes--are also hallmarks of neurological damage almost impossible to diagnose.
That fine wine at dinner; those high-powered cocktail parties are the equivalent of ticking bombs whose shrapnel causes damage throughout the lifetimes of the children whose parents have indulged in them.
1
That's just another cop out. The booze my parents drank before I was even born made me do it. Are you for real? How about personal responsibility to help and not harm? Give and not just take? Those are lessons either learned or not learned in childhood that are separate and unique from a parent that drinks. Not all folks that drink are immoral or amoral. Not all people drink to excess or use it as your idea off a "teaching tool". Grow up, be a REAL man that LOVES women, and stop blaming everyone else for your disgusting behavior. The parents of these kinds of losers didn't teach them to respect women, and so here we are.
5
Finally. Campus rape is rape. It's a felony, that needs to be investigated and prosecuted through our legal system, not through a university.
17
Many seem to think that university procedures supplant the criminal system. That is untrue. Any on-campus victim can take a rape case to the police just like any off campus victim. But across the board, rapes are woefully underreported. So universities have been mandated to offer an additional forum that is supposed to be more victim friendly. What we are learning is that the campus alternative has proved woefully inadequate. Nonetheless, if you eliminate it, you're back to where you were, with a single remedy that is hardly ever utilized. The answer is not to eliminate the campus alternative. It is to make it work better.
6
Would you agree that "working better" means including due process protections for the accused? Right to face their accuser? Right to remain silent? Beyond a reasonable doubt rather than preponderance of evidence?
The current system denies rights to the accused in order to make a process more "victim-friendly". We should be very very very careful when taking away someone's rights.
How about we try to make the proper channel, genuine law enforcement, work better rather than to duplicate it on-campus?
The current system denies rights to the accused in order to make a process more "victim-friendly". We should be very very very careful when taking away someone's rights.
How about we try to make the proper channel, genuine law enforcement, work better rather than to duplicate it on-campus?
"In interviews, reactions mostly clustered around two poles: This is not the sort of place where such things happen, or they happen everywhere — and either way, no one should point a finger at Vanderbilt."
As a former Vandy undergrad, I'd say this is just another example that Vanderbilt is built on a foundation of privilege and denial. So much so, that even the student body now perpetuates the culture! People at Vandy may be smart, but too many choose to be blind, numb, and apathetic to the hard realities that inconveniently infringe on their bubble. They would rather remain silent than address the culture, because they can afford to and because it's in their best interest to protect the Vanderbilt name. That's why this headline is so disappointing and true. It's a culture problem, and students need to break their silence to make a change if they want to see a change. It is often said that life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. So if Vanderbilt students choose to remain silent, I'm afraid that is how they will be remembered.
As a former Vandy undergrad, I'd say this is just another example that Vanderbilt is built on a foundation of privilege and denial. So much so, that even the student body now perpetuates the culture! People at Vandy may be smart, but too many choose to be blind, numb, and apathetic to the hard realities that inconveniently infringe on their bubble. They would rather remain silent than address the culture, because they can afford to and because it's in their best interest to protect the Vanderbilt name. That's why this headline is so disappointing and true. It's a culture problem, and students need to break their silence to make a change if they want to see a change. It is often said that life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. So if Vanderbilt students choose to remain silent, I'm afraid that is how they will be remembered.
8
The cause of rape is lack of moral character. When one's ability to throw a ball, or to catch it, is the precursor to enrollment there will be problems. Just wait until four year universities are subject to Obama's educational whims. Real winners are on the march toward academic greatness. heheh
2
How is it that young men who are smart enough to be accepted to a college have no respect for the humanity of a woman? What else could they be capable of? Are there no standards of morality that these men have been introduced to? I hope they are put away for the vast majority of their reproductive lives. Furthermore, it seems there should be an entrance requirement for a statement regarding sexual morality, since it cannot be assumed that young men do not equate opportunity with the right thing to do. Are we a nation that breeds sociopaths?
6
This is the mirror of our attitude toward women in this country. Nobody seems to be shocked when semi-nude photographs of women are displayed in public places, as sexual objects with suggestive poses. This where our children and young people get their sexual education. And we do not allow mothers to breast fed their young in public places which is a common practice in "wild" Africa.
14
I am surprised that these men were not also charged with kidnapping, since for nefarious purposes, they transported this woman without her consent.
20
I would be interested to know the incidence of rape in colleges and universities with football and frat houses, versus those w/o. My guess is the latter have a much much lower incidence.
3
Why no punishment or expulsion for those, including roommates, who chose to look away? As awful as the people were who did the act of rape - the people who saw and understood what was happening and did nothing are worse. The perpetrators can only do what they do because of the passive observers.
20
No the first line of defense is a clear understanding of what rape is and that it is always wrong There is certainly no ambiguity about forcing sex upon an unconscious women.
I think, therefore, the bystander indictment falls short in a school with coed housing and sexual mores that accept the notion of the recreational value of sex. Sometimes the line is very thin between officious intermeddling and crime prevention and good manners would dictate not looking too closely.
I think, therefore, the bystander indictment falls short in a school with coed housing and sexual mores that accept the notion of the recreational value of sex. Sometimes the line is very thin between officious intermeddling and crime prevention and good manners would dictate not looking too closely.
1
The guys are pigs and that is pretty clear from the story. However the larger question is what kind of upbringing did they have that let them believe that those behaviors were OK? The ex "boyfriend" sounds like a sociopath.
Universities bear some responsibility for this by allowing drinking cultures to thrive on campus. They aren't responsible for negative attitudes towards women which unfortunately many young men bring to campus. No amount of "education" will change that.
Universities bear some responsibility for this by allowing drinking cultures to thrive on campus. They aren't responsible for negative attitudes towards women which unfortunately many young men bring to campus. No amount of "education" will change that.
27
"However the larger question is what kind of upbringing did they have that let them believe that those behaviors were OK?" That is a great question. "Raised by wolves" comes to mind but they weren't, they were raised (to the extent that they were raised at all) by humans.
3
Only criminal prosecution of "entitled" rapist-athletes will change this atrocious behavior. Our university sports culture encourages the image of disposable women and arrogant despicable behavior towards women.
6
Well done Vanderbilt. They are the first, of those institutions being investigated by DOJ, where campus admin saw a suspicious videotape and immediately called police. The men were expelled immediately; tried in a criminal court; found guilty; will serve time, and perhaps be victims of rape themselves.
This is a big problem, but not just for educational and athletic institutions. It is a problem for how we raise our kids, male and female. It's not just a problem of empathy, it is a problem of character. In this case, several people saw the girl in the dorm before, during and after the rape, and several saw the video of the rape, AND DID NOTHING.
I think they were intimidated, not directly, but tacitly. That's a question of character, courage and knowing the difference between right and wrong. Women who drink too much are not to blame for their rape. If a guy got drunk at a frat party and was gang raped, NO ONE would say it was his fault.
There is a strong indication that the victim in the Vanderbilt case may have been drugged, not all victims are. Women of this generation are certainly more trusting than woman of mine were. Are women so needy of social acceptance that they willing get intoxicated to the point of passing out or vomiting in public with practical strangers (whether or not they are assaulted)? Are men so insecure, that they won't stand up for someone being overpowered, drugged, or manhandled?
What's going on here? Don't they feel they have a stake in this?
This is a big problem, but not just for educational and athletic institutions. It is a problem for how we raise our kids, male and female. It's not just a problem of empathy, it is a problem of character. In this case, several people saw the girl in the dorm before, during and after the rape, and several saw the video of the rape, AND DID NOTHING.
I think they were intimidated, not directly, but tacitly. That's a question of character, courage and knowing the difference between right and wrong. Women who drink too much are not to blame for their rape. If a guy got drunk at a frat party and was gang raped, NO ONE would say it was his fault.
There is a strong indication that the victim in the Vanderbilt case may have been drugged, not all victims are. Women of this generation are certainly more trusting than woman of mine were. Are women so needy of social acceptance that they willing get intoxicated to the point of passing out or vomiting in public with practical strangers (whether or not they are assaulted)? Are men so insecure, that they won't stand up for someone being overpowered, drugged, or manhandled?
What's going on here? Don't they feel they have a stake in this?
18
Unfortunately, for the last few decades, we have had a culture which does not applaud anyone "telling on" anyone else or even making a judgement about their behavior. To some degree, the value-neutral attitudes of our schools, both public and private, bear a huge responsiblity for this culture. So do the parents, who grew up under the same attitude. We don't like rules and we ridicule religious groups who teach values that require some judgement about the behavior of others and encourage avoiding people whose behavior is highly inappropriate.
One reaps what one sows....
One reaps what one sows....
3
I'll just say that if I had a son starting college today I'd tell him not to date fellow students under any circumstances. Some of these folks are living in the sort of universe that you never want your kid to get involved with. Candace 108b should appreciate that a guy who interferes with an athlete's depredations is likely to end up beaten to within an inch of his life.
In this politically correct world that we live in, a man is ALWAYS guilty. Even if he thinks that any intimate interaction was approved by his partner, he's toast if she changes her mind. One of the reasons that not every he said/she said incident results in prosecution/expulsion/imprisonment is that there is an often ambiguous aspect to things.
One thing I've noticed while reading these comments is that college aged women are given a complete pass with respect to the way that they conduct themselves. Sometimes the victim is complicit in her own misfortune, but to even hint at such a thing is to '...blame the victim....". Go to places in NYC where young folks congregate some weekend and you'll see young ladies passed out on the sidewalk with their nether regions exposed to all and sundry. While they don't 'deserve' to be interfered with, nobody should be surprised when they are.
When a young man dates a young lady from town, rather than his university, it's less likely to be an alcohol-fueled debauch. It's more like a date and less like a conquest.
In this politically correct world that we live in, a man is ALWAYS guilty. Even if he thinks that any intimate interaction was approved by his partner, he's toast if she changes her mind. One of the reasons that not every he said/she said incident results in prosecution/expulsion/imprisonment is that there is an often ambiguous aspect to things.
One thing I've noticed while reading these comments is that college aged women are given a complete pass with respect to the way that they conduct themselves. Sometimes the victim is complicit in her own misfortune, but to even hint at such a thing is to '...blame the victim....". Go to places in NYC where young folks congregate some weekend and you'll see young ladies passed out on the sidewalk with their nether regions exposed to all and sundry. While they don't 'deserve' to be interfered with, nobody should be surprised when they are.
When a young man dates a young lady from town, rather than his university, it's less likely to be an alcohol-fueled debauch. It's more like a date and less like a conquest.
2
When I was a girl, "dating" meant "dinner and a movie" and a chance to get to know each other. No need for a boy to worry that "dating" meant consensual sex turned to rape. Have we entirely lost that? What a shame.
2
As long as college administrators continue to pad their six figure incomes at the expense of adjunct instructors, who teach 80% of the classes while living below the poverty level, they cannot be the ones addressing ethics or morality on any campus.
13
I'm sorry, DMS, but that is a total non-sequitor and one that is demeaning to victims of crimes.
While I agree that adjuncts are paid too little, they sign their contracts with consent. These victims have their bodies violated without their consent.
While I agree that adjuncts are paid too little, they sign their contracts with consent. These victims have their bodies violated without their consent.
4
Clearly, there is something very wrong in these young men's upbringing. Athlete or non-athlete, who inflicts such injury to an unconscious young woman or any other human being? And then record it and send the recording to others to see? These guys are utterly morally bankrupt. That they were admitted to such an esteemed institution as Vanderbilt says something about the school and others like it. I do think, however, that much more should be said about the role of alcohol in these rapes on campus. Alcohol, in my mind, plays the biggest role in these crimes. Take out the alcohol and these incidents very likely would not have occurred. Schools, parents, and the students themselves should focus much more on this part of the equation.
16
Their are many aspects of the situation deserving discussion but I cannot help wondering why young women choose to not only spend time with male chauvinist pigs but decide to drink with them let alone risk being drugged and drinking beyond one's capacity. Is this part of what "rape culture" means?
3
No, this is not what "rape culture" means, but what you're doing- "victim blaming"- certainly is. Maybe do a little reading on these concepts before you type. Heck, maybe even read up about the specific case, because one of the main perpetrators was the victim's boyfriend.
Let me make it simple for you: quit using passive voice. Women don't simply "get drugged", men drug them. Women don't simply "get raped", men rape them.
I can get drunk and pass out. At that point, no rape has been committed. The only way this scenario of me drinking too much and passing out changes from being nothing more than beginning of a bad hangover to the beginning of a rape trial is if... wait for it... a man makes the decision to rape me. This decision is independent from my decision to drink.
Quit relieving men of responsibility for their own actions. Got it?
Let me make it simple for you: quit using passive voice. Women don't simply "get drugged", men drug them. Women don't simply "get raped", men rape them.
I can get drunk and pass out. At that point, no rape has been committed. The only way this scenario of me drinking too much and passing out changes from being nothing more than beginning of a bad hangover to the beginning of a rape trial is if... wait for it... a man makes the decision to rape me. This decision is independent from my decision to drink.
Quit relieving men of responsibility for their own actions. Got it?
12
It is a complete mystery to me how anyone, male or female, will make themselves vulnerable like that. You wouldn't leave a purse or a laptop unguarded and abandoned among strangers.
4
Your victim blaming (why do "young women choose to not only spend time with male chauvinist pigs...") IS part of "rape culture" and it is grotesque. It's the same as blaming women for their rape because of how they were dressed. Do you blame a robbery victims for walking down a particular street or having their wallet out?
Your twisted attitude is way old, sexist and illogical. Rather, blame belongs with the man/men who commit rape.
Your twisted attitude is way old, sexist and illogical. Rather, blame belongs with the man/men who commit rape.
7
Rape among 18-24 year olds is more common among those out of school than those attending school (according to the Bureau of Statistics). Universities are safer than the country at large. Let's focus time, effort, and money on attacking the problem before we attack where it occurs.
4
As a Vanderbilt alumna who heard about a share of sexual assaults -- hushed up even more in those days than these -- I felt overjoyed to read of the conviction of these student-athletes. At last! At last, those who treat another students with disrespect, contempt, cruelty and ruthlessness have finally been brought to book.
I am sorry for the parents of these young men, but I am more sorry for the survivor and her parents and friends. They are the ones who deserve our empathy and pity.
I am sorry for the parents of these young men, but I am more sorry for the survivor and her parents and friends. They are the ones who deserve our empathy and pity.
50
The details of this crime are absolutely grotesque...neither of these men should ever leave prison in my opinion. This was planned and directed and documented.
17
As a Vanderbilt alum, I applaud the University's swift and proactive handling of this case and the move to encourage students to get involved when they witness anything suspicious.
Binge drinking, rape, and sexual assault are the black eye of college and university life, perhaps bred or encouraged by the whole college sports system in which athletes are exalted and the fraternity system. Certainly, not all athletes or fraternity members behave as such but during my days at Vanderbilt, I did see a pack mentality and a disrespect or women. I remember one fraternity flashing signs as female students walked by to reveal a woman's level of attractiveness.
Just as we need to teach our daughters and sons how to be proactive and safe, we need to teach our sons to not to objectify women and girls and that violence and rape are never excusable.
Binge drinking, rape, and sexual assault are the black eye of college and university life, perhaps bred or encouraged by the whole college sports system in which athletes are exalted and the fraternity system. Certainly, not all athletes or fraternity members behave as such but during my days at Vanderbilt, I did see a pack mentality and a disrespect or women. I remember one fraternity flashing signs as female students walked by to reveal a woman's level of attractiveness.
Just as we need to teach our daughters and sons how to be proactive and safe, we need to teach our sons to not to objectify women and girls and that violence and rape are never excusable.
14
I hate to introduce race here, but I'm happy to see that both the black and the white defendants were similarly charged and convicted. I suppose it's some measure of progress (at least on the racial front) that the white student's acts were judged just as harshly as those of the black student...
3
What is going on in our culture that churns our men like this? Over indulgent, permissive parenting resulting in a sense of entitlement? Easily obtainable hard-core porn? The degrading actions of these men - urinating on women, slapping and hitting, violating them with "objects" - seems to indicate, to me anyway, that this may be one of the reasons. I want to find answers because I am so puzzled at this depraved, inhumane treatment. No guy or groups of guys that I knew in high school (late 1970's) - nor those in surrounding high schools - to my knowledge, did anything like this. What is so different now?
20
Another great question. It's either sexual pleasure at seeing another degraded, or rage against women. Where does this come from?
7
Well, it is because nowadays parents are stripped from the right to discipline their kids literally. Kids can say that their parents are abusing them even though all the parents did is to correcting the kids. Then the Child Protective Services will show up with no questions asked. This is really sad.
2
Let's not be so quick to pat Vanderbilt on the back. I doubt this case would have been handled this way if it wasn't for the fact there was incontrovertible video evidence. If there wasn't video, I'm sure it would be a different situation. Many naysayers would be pointing to the UVA case, etc. The fact that these guys can behave in such an inhumane, vial way tells me that the culture at Vanderbilt probably permits this sort of thing. This brutality has probably happened before, except just not caught on tape. The fact that they actually recorded this heinous crime shows how emboldened these guys felt. I hope something good comes out of this event, beyond just warning criminals not to record their own crimes.
10
I agree, the case would not have been handled the same way without the videos. However, the videos prove their guilt, so it is OK to handle the case differently when there is an open question of guilt or innocence.
1
Absolutely! We don't make the world a better place by ignoring the rights of the accused. Google Brian Banks - accused and convicted of rape in high school and served 5 years in prison. Fortunately, someone taped his accuser admitting she falsely accused him for the monetary damages to be received from their high school. He's free now, but no one can give him those 5 years back. And at such a tender age! We must protect the rights of the accused, no matter how sympathetic we may be to the accuser.
1
Kudos to Vanderbilt for reporting this up the chain. Changing campus culture is called for and will take time. But an immediate and ethical response to events takes nothing except courage and a moral compass, and good on them for doing it.
But even with a culture of boozing and entitlement, I'd expect young adults to refrain from perpetrating assault. It shouldn't only be the university keeping students in check...they're old enough to be expected to exhibit self-control. Nothing less than I expected from my toddlers.
But even with a culture of boozing and entitlement, I'd expect young adults to refrain from perpetrating assault. It shouldn't only be the university keeping students in check...they're old enough to be expected to exhibit self-control. Nothing less than I expected from my toddlers.
5
I don't understand why someone thinks they have the right to rape someone just because they are passed out. That has always baffled me.
12
These types of acts are premeditated and blaming it on alcohol simply allows them to make excuses and deflect the focus from their choice commit sexual abuse. Alcohol as long been used as a tool to incapacitate and strip victim of the credibility. I witnessed this myself very often in undergraduate school during the 80's. That is not to say binge drinking is not a factor in dis-inhibiting some perpetrators but if they did not feel an underlying desire or justification to commit the sexual assault it is unlikely the alcohol "made" them do it. As others have pointed out, this is an issue of character, empathy, and to some degree moral stages of development. As to the last, stages of moral development are not progressed through without prompting, education, models of ethical choices and consequences for breaking the accepted codes of conduct. Parent, peers and society all play a role and it seems to me that increasingly we have seen a reluctance on the part of bystanders to intervene and challenge bad behavior. While I rarely refer to "the good old days" there was a time when parent routinely corrected and challenged children who were not their own, with little fear of retribution or conflict with the other parent. All adults were expected to act like leaders and not peers. Unfortunately, too many of my cohort are fixated on acting like the latter.
6
Thank you, this makes sense.
Bad things happen everywhere, a private college is no different. It is not what happened that separates us, but how it is handled. It seems to me that the college acted swiftly and without prejudice - they expelled the two males involved, without a second thought and without a court conviction. Bravo! It was obvious what happened with the video evidence.
Shame on the schools that hide rapes and assaults or discourage students from reporting such inciddences. Appears that Vanderbilt did the right thing here.
Shame on the individuals that know a rape has occured, have watched a video(!), and did not report the issue immediately. Appears that a lot of students at Vanderbilt did NOT do the right thing. It is the responsbility of those to report the incidence and they failed. That is what Vanderbilt needs to address now. That is what all of us must do.
The students involved should all be expelled, whether they committed the act or not, they were complicit and must be held accountable.
Shame on the schools that hide rapes and assaults or discourage students from reporting such inciddences. Appears that Vanderbilt did the right thing here.
Shame on the individuals that know a rape has occured, have watched a video(!), and did not report the issue immediately. Appears that a lot of students at Vanderbilt did NOT do the right thing. It is the responsbility of those to report the incidence and they failed. That is what Vanderbilt needs to address now. That is what all of us must do.
The students involved should all be expelled, whether they committed the act or not, they were complicit and must be held accountable.
6
Not a coincidence that so many of these cases involve football players.
You can hear the same underlying message almost every time a coach or player speaks about the game: Only those directly involved in the game truly understand how special we are.
When adults beat that sort of arrogance into a kid's head and then reinforce it through most of his young adult life, this is the result. An extreme one, but not an uncommon one.
Ask OJ or Rae Carruth or Aaron Hernandez or Ray Lewis or Terrell Suggs or Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson or the Steubenville High players or the Sayreville High players or Joe Paterno (oops, can't ask him) or Jovan Belcher (oops, can't ask him, either) or Darren Sharper or Pacman Jones or Ray McDonald or Jonathan Dwyer or...
You can hear the same underlying message almost every time a coach or player speaks about the game: Only those directly involved in the game truly understand how special we are.
When adults beat that sort of arrogance into a kid's head and then reinforce it through most of his young adult life, this is the result. An extreme one, but not an uncommon one.
Ask OJ or Rae Carruth or Aaron Hernandez or Ray Lewis or Terrell Suggs or Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson or the Steubenville High players or the Sayreville High players or Joe Paterno (oops, can't ask him) or Jovan Belcher (oops, can't ask him, either) or Darren Sharper or Pacman Jones or Ray McDonald or Jonathan Dwyer or...
13
Well, to be fair, the only reason you are reading about this ugly incident is BECAUSE the perpetrators were football players. If they were regular joes, it would not be in the New York Times, which seems to have a vendetta against football.
2
I am sick, SICK, SICK of all this whining about university "reputations". There is little more puffery in today's society than the obsession with university "rankings" and the supposed virtues of all who graduate from this or that school. It's all marketing fiction designed to justify ever higher tuitions, fees, and salaries. And now it's used to cover up vicious crimes. It's only the disgust created OFF these hallowed campuses that these worthies are confronting and now, at last, being forced to take action against these entitled creeps. I call that "disreputable" in the extreme.
8
That's the pitch to anxious parents and kids who naturally face becoming adults with a mixture of fear and uncertainty. Through the miracle of paying huge tuitions a young person will be instantly transformed into an elite - one of God's anointed on earth. If only it were that simple.
2
Preventing sexual assault depends on men who can confront sexist attitudes in themselves and others. We live in a culture where men can rape women and get away with it. Close to 70% of rape cases nationally are dropped for lack of evidence. Prime examples are Christian universities. Even worse, the Roman Catholic Church covered up the sexual assault of children for centuries despite what the Christian Savior said about not harming children or covering things up. The Church is still allowed to keep records closed despite the UN ruling. When the religious foundations of our society cannot be transparent and address their rape culture, how can they help their faithful or civil society? They can't. It comes down to each individual man as President Obama and Vice President Biden have called us to. http://www.whitehouse.gov/1is2many/about
From a psychology and religion standpoint, Jung confirmed what the Christian Savior taught in knowing what can come out of us and make us evil, if not face the Devil as Jesus did to be delivered. It is an evil that can never be cast out as Jesus warned to His dying day. He refused worldly power and wealth that we might also. That's all rape is, having power over women, mostly due to fear of the feminine, which women embody. St. Peter was jealous of St. Mary Magdalene whom Jesus loved most of all. Women have been marginalized since, especially for their knowledge or gnosis. Peter said he would never deny Jesus.
From a psychology and religion standpoint, Jung confirmed what the Christian Savior taught in knowing what can come out of us and make us evil, if not face the Devil as Jesus did to be delivered. It is an evil that can never be cast out as Jesus warned to His dying day. He refused worldly power and wealth that we might also. That's all rape is, having power over women, mostly due to fear of the feminine, which women embody. St. Peter was jealous of St. Mary Magdalene whom Jesus loved most of all. Women have been marginalized since, especially for their knowledge or gnosis. Peter said he would never deny Jesus.
1
"...Experts say the programs that are most effective at reducing sexual assault are those that persuade people that bystanders have an obligation to intervene..." Common sense tells us that a most effective program to reduce the prevalence of these crimes is having the campus community watch the perpetrators marched off to jail, thus ensuring that students stop thinking of themselves as being in an ivory tower environment immune from the reaches of the law. Decades of mishandling these situations as "student misconduct" or just plain ignoring them has failed to work. Treating them like crimes richly deserving of punishment might be a better idea. People notice when there is a stick as well as a carrot.
6
The article implies it will be hard to change the college culture of hard drinking and the criminal activities that sometimes result; in this case a horrific sexual assault. I disagree and I’ll use my own experience as a business owner.
We had a mandatory annual company wide meeting where we handed out copies of our personnel guide, and proceeded to review among other things our internal policies regarding sexual harassment, homophobia and racial discrimination. It was clearly written and reiterated verbally that we had a zero tolerance policy regarding these behaviors. It was clear that each and every person in the company was responsible for reporting violations of these kinds to upper management. All employees were required to sign a sheet of paper stating they had received a copy of the personnel guide, had reviewed it and agreed to abide by its terms and conditions.
We backed up the zero tolerance policy by firing anyone who was caught violating the rules of the personnel guide. We found this approach was a very effective deterrent and virtually eliminated these kinds of behaviors from our workplace.
I believe something similar could be done on campuses. These meetings could occur within the first week of freshman or new student orientation. Attendance would be mandatory. The message would be unambiguous; cross the line, and you will be ejected from school and possibly prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
We had a mandatory annual company wide meeting where we handed out copies of our personnel guide, and proceeded to review among other things our internal policies regarding sexual harassment, homophobia and racial discrimination. It was clearly written and reiterated verbally that we had a zero tolerance policy regarding these behaviors. It was clear that each and every person in the company was responsible for reporting violations of these kinds to upper management. All employees were required to sign a sheet of paper stating they had received a copy of the personnel guide, had reviewed it and agreed to abide by its terms and conditions.
We backed up the zero tolerance policy by firing anyone who was caught violating the rules of the personnel guide. We found this approach was a very effective deterrent and virtually eliminated these kinds of behaviors from our workplace.
I believe something similar could be done on campuses. These meetings could occur within the first week of freshman or new student orientation. Attendance would be mandatory. The message would be unambiguous; cross the line, and you will be ejected from school and possibly prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
5
Let's not pretend the actions at Vanderbilt were a quick and immediate response to a new problem. Rape has a long history at colleges and universities, rape victims of the past should step forward and stand by the sides of new victims. How else do we know the proportions of this problem and make sure that rape in the future never slips back into the shadows of shame and conventions of privilege? That punishment for such behavior is not the exception but the rule. If woman educated a such institutions don't have the courage and determination to fight back, then what is the valve of their education?
2
This is the first generation raised on porn, readily accessible 24/7. Are we witnessing a deranged view of sex among our young men as an outcome?
7
No. Rape was always a problem -- we just didn't talk about it as much in the past. Indeed, until 30 years ago in the US it was legally impossible to rape your wife. And if you live in South Carolina, there is still a higher standard for raping your wife than raping someone you aren't married to.
6
And as a society, we define rape differently than we did 30 years ago. What was considered a drunken hookup in my college days is now considered assault. I wonder if this is a healthier change. In my day, we woefully regretted sleeping with the annoying chatterbox with a bad haircut and worried we might have an STD, but we didn't feel violated. Today, young women are told they were taken advantage of if both parties get throwing up drunk on trash can fruit punch and have 90 seconds of unsatisfactory sex.
1
The important - and positive thing to take away from this - is that at least one institution did right by its students, reporting the incident to the police and expelling the perpetrators.
It is disheartening though, that fellow students aware of what happened - or while it was happening - did not take steps to prevent, or even easier - report it after the fact anonymously. Still a ways to go...
It is disheartening though, that fellow students aware of what happened - or while it was happening - did not take steps to prevent, or even easier - report it after the fact anonymously. Still a ways to go...
7
Too drunk to be responsible but not too drunk to publish images of the victim while the crime was happening! These behaviors (the rape and recording of drunk women) are absolutely no different from those reported in blue collar high schools in poor towns. Time kids in elite universities understand that it is their character and intellect - not their school - that confers elite status on them.
13
It wouldnt solve everything, but getting rid of a VU football team forever would go a long way to prevention. This will never happen of course.
8
PART OF THIS PROBLEM, an important part, came with the abandonment of the concept of "in loco parentis" by colleges. When voting was moved to 18 and full adulthood established at the same age, most colleges more or less washed their hands of supervision of student behavior. This simultaneously relieved the college of some of the legal responsibilities for what happens on campus and set off an era of unsupervised mayhem.
I visited a quiet, rather staid campus in Pennsylvania where our daughter went for a summer camp while in high school. The new dorm she stayed in had an innovation many now employ: a separate, isolation room at the ends on each floor where people can study, because the dorm rooms themselves can no longer used as quiet zones. During the academic year, music, loud, plays at all hours, talking and yelling, too, as well as random comings and goings of both sexes. Boyfriend wants to stay over in the dorm room? No problem, just ask the roommate to vacate or to put up with it.
When discipline breaks down, it keeps heading in that way, it doesn't stop at social norms.
Fathers can do a great deal with their sons growing up be teaching them to respect women and how horrible it is for anyone to take advantage, by rape or any other means. Families can teach moral values about the responsibility to stop crimes when possible or report them immediately. People can be taught to be alert, aware and responsible.
This needs to be a national, sustained effort.
Doug Terry
I visited a quiet, rather staid campus in Pennsylvania where our daughter went for a summer camp while in high school. The new dorm she stayed in had an innovation many now employ: a separate, isolation room at the ends on each floor where people can study, because the dorm rooms themselves can no longer used as quiet zones. During the academic year, music, loud, plays at all hours, talking and yelling, too, as well as random comings and goings of both sexes. Boyfriend wants to stay over in the dorm room? No problem, just ask the roommate to vacate or to put up with it.
When discipline breaks down, it keeps heading in that way, it doesn't stop at social norms.
Fathers can do a great deal with their sons growing up be teaching them to respect women and how horrible it is for anyone to take advantage, by rape or any other means. Families can teach moral values about the responsibility to stop crimes when possible or report them immediately. People can be taught to be alert, aware and responsible.
This needs to be a national, sustained effort.
Doug Terry
56
I have no idea what you are actually suggesting -- unless it is to make 18 year olds legally children in the USA so that colleges would be fully legally responsible for their students' every action. It is not 1940 anymore.
1
K Henderson: of course not. I am trying to elucidate how the problem developed. In my own beliefs, there is no such thing as education without moral values, but I am not suggesting that every college in America follow my thinking, of course. What I am suggesting is that colleges went too far, too fast. One simple example would be the enforcement of reasonable conditions for study in the dorms. If there are no rules, if people, in the protected campus environment, believe they can do anything and get away with it, guess what?
3
A friend of mine took her daughter to a prestigious college. The mother was getting ready to leave and went into the co-ed bathroom before leaving. To her astonishment, there was a heterosexual couple showering nude together and engaging in lots of touching and kissing. They did not appear to feel any embarrassment about her seeing this. As this was a freshman dorm, she assumed they had just met and were quickly becoming "acquainted" with one another.
With a heavy heart, she left, but said if her husband had been along, he would have packed their daughter up and taken her straight back home.
College-aged students need supervision. They do not need co-ed dorms and bathrooms and no rules about vistors of the opposite sex. Most are not mature enough to make decisions like this - WAY too much freedom, much too quickly.
I dread the thought of my grandchildren going off to college in a few years...
With a heavy heart, she left, but said if her husband had been along, he would have packed their daughter up and taken her straight back home.
College-aged students need supervision. They do not need co-ed dorms and bathrooms and no rules about vistors of the opposite sex. Most are not mature enough to make decisions like this - WAY too much freedom, much too quickly.
I dread the thought of my grandchildren going off to college in a few years...
6
I attended an elite northeastern college at the end of the 60s. The drinking age was then 18. Milder drugs had also begun to invade the campus. Fraternities played an important part in all aspects of campus life. However, it was an all-male campus back then, and the girls who attended various social functions were typically invited by specific students. While we had our share of "Animal House" characters, there was a civility that seems to be sorely lacking on today's campuses. Perhaps there was a greater wisdom at work when the genders attended same-sex schools.
8
I was an undergrad at Vanderbilt around 1980, and involved in student government. I remember that a group of us wanted to put together a little one-page brochure for freshman listing a number of resources in and near campus. I drafted one modeled on a similar idea at my boyfriend's college. Among other resources, I added a phone number for a local rape counseling service. The faculty advisor to our committee gently told me to take that off the brochure--that it would never be approved with that number included. The university did not want to acknowledge there was any possibility that students could get raped on campus, I guess. This was so many years ago, but I still remember my feeling of anger and shock that school leadership would be so clueless and in such denial. Rape is a horrible crime and just because a college or university is supposedly "elite" doesn't mean it can't happen there.
28
Vanderbilt is to be commended for alerting the police to what turned out to be a horrific crime. Institutions and other powerful groups should prioritize justice over fears about loss of reputation - but so often, they do the opposite. My alma mater, Penn State, decided to "protect" the institution, its employees, and the football program, instead of abused kids. How wrong, and how short-sighted they were.
The vice chancellor's comments,“The safety and security of our students is Vanderbilt’s top priority,” and “Sexual violence will never be tolerated,” are instructive. When you have your ethics straight, it's easier to do the right thing.
The vice chancellor's comments,“The safety and security of our students is Vanderbilt’s top priority,” and “Sexual violence will never be tolerated,” are instructive. When you have your ethics straight, it's easier to do the right thing.
51
Part of the reason this was taken in stride at Vanderbilt is that there was no doubt that an actual rape occurred. The defense "I was too drunk to be responsible" is laughable. This is very different from the Duke lacrosse case and the UVA case where the reported rapes were fishy from the start, and they turned out to be fraudulent.
Why haven't we gotten more information about the UVA woman who filed a false police report and caused so much trouble? A little NYT reporting would be appreciated.
By the way, I am a Vanderbilt graduate.
Why haven't we gotten more information about the UVA woman who filed a false police report and caused so much trouble? A little NYT reporting would be appreciated.
By the way, I am a Vanderbilt graduate.
4
Do you want to know why people believed the article in Rolling Stone about rape at UVa? Because it rang so true to many of us UVa alums, who know of actual experiences by actual women that were strikingly similar. Okay, so the women we knew were attacked by only one or two people, not 7, but exactly how many people forcing you to have sex makes it rape? Don't get me wrong, the article was likely embellished and false in particulars, which I do not condone, but your comment is just another form of denial of the problem of rape at universities. I have no doubt that administrators at UVa have plenty of knowledge that incidents like that portrayed in the article do happen at frats on a regular basis, and I am happy that they have taken the problem seriously notwithstanding the retraction of some parts of the RS article.
10
I'm not sure the UVA case was fraudulent. It appears that some of her story was not accurate, but other parts were.
4
"I'm not sure the UVA case was fraudulent. It appears that some of her story was not accurate, but other parts were. "
Then why doesn't she name the rapists? Why haven't they been arrested? How about her own friends who dispute what she said?
If a real rape took place (as I believe the evidence clearly shows in the Vanderbilt case), then I'm 100% in favor of arresting and prosecuting the rapists. But if this was a fraudulent rape claim -- as it appears to be -- then she needs to be arrested for filing a false police report, and a lot of people need to make sincere apologies to the men and fraternities of UVA.
Why hasn't this been investigated and reported in detail by the NYT?
Then why doesn't she name the rapists? Why haven't they been arrested? How about her own friends who dispute what she said?
If a real rape took place (as I believe the evidence clearly shows in the Vanderbilt case), then I'm 100% in favor of arresting and prosecuting the rapists. But if this was a fraudulent rape claim -- as it appears to be -- then she needs to be arrested for filing a false police report, and a lot of people need to make sincere apologies to the men and fraternities of UVA.
Why hasn't this been investigated and reported in detail by the NYT?
1
One commenter said this is not an issue on all college campuses? Where have you been? I am about to send a daughter to college in the fall and let me tell you this is a huge issue, everywhere. Where would you like to start? Anna at Hobart William Smith? The list of colleges being investigated by the federal government? It is an epidemic. It should be the single biggest news story of our time. If ISIS were bombing college campuses they could not be doing more damage than is already being done to our young women.
Finally, criminal convictions in this case. Finally, a school that brought evidence forward. Much more of that needs to happen. But in how many cases do things get swept under the rug? How many young girls are urged not to report? And how many universities are more concerned about alumni support and tarnishing admissions numbers than they are with what is happening right under their noses? And they know, believe me, they know. These young women have worked darn hard to get into these vaunted universities. Their parents pack them off with hugs and kisses and a matching pottery barn bedding set and then what, six months later they are dead? Debased? Scarred for life, physically or emotionally? And who is raising these monsters who would drag a comatose woman into a room and attack her mercilessly? While not too drunk to record it all on their phones. This is not an issue of the culture at one school. It is a huge issue for everyone.
Finally, criminal convictions in this case. Finally, a school that brought evidence forward. Much more of that needs to happen. But in how many cases do things get swept under the rug? How many young girls are urged not to report? And how many universities are more concerned about alumni support and tarnishing admissions numbers than they are with what is happening right under their noses? And they know, believe me, they know. These young women have worked darn hard to get into these vaunted universities. Their parents pack them off with hugs and kisses and a matching pottery barn bedding set and then what, six months later they are dead? Debased? Scarred for life, physically or emotionally? And who is raising these monsters who would drag a comatose woman into a room and attack her mercilessly? While not too drunk to record it all on their phones. This is not an issue of the culture at one school. It is a huge issue for everyone.
35
While not a perfect answer, as it doesn't eliminate all risk, we made sure that none of the schools our daughter applied to had a Greek system. It wasn't easy to come up with that list. "The party culture" so often overseen by misogynistic young men who rampage through these campuses is an ongoing train wreck that is devastating our daughters. Parents need to refuse to pay $240,000 for the privilege of having their children subjected to this kind of debased "academic" environment.
4
Lorraine, you wrote: "And who is raising these monsters who would drag a comatose woman into a room and attack her mercilessly?" THAT is the question. One I ask every time I read about sexual assault.
And my daughter attended a women-only college -- her choice. It never occurred to me that she might have been safer, but now I think she definitely was.
I myself attended a state university with no football team, and no fraternities and sororities. Maybe they should all be like that.
And my daughter attended a women-only college -- her choice. It never occurred to me that she might have been safer, but now I think she definitely was.
I myself attended a state university with no football team, and no fraternities and sororities. Maybe they should all be like that.
6
This is utterly disgraceful and all of the men deserve no mercy.
13
It is disgraceful, but we all deserve mercy.
I would love to know the statistics of punishments for rapists on the campus....not accusations or slaps on the wrists, but actual convictions....and how many were athletics.
9
Carrie,
You know and I know that rape is a huge problem at many huge colleges--among them some of the so-called "elite" institutions. Until and unless we TALK about rape and consent in middle school and high school, these occurrences will not go away. In fact, all this inappropriate coddling of the richest students in the "best" (meaning richest) colleges is sending exactly
the wrong message. That message is that the rich can get away with anything as long as they pay tribute (hush money). The secondary message is that women are fair game. We are better than this and we need to stay on the case!!
You know and I know that rape is a huge problem at many huge colleges--among them some of the so-called "elite" institutions. Until and unless we TALK about rape and consent in middle school and high school, these occurrences will not go away. In fact, all this inappropriate coddling of the richest students in the "best" (meaning richest) colleges is sending exactly
the wrong message. That message is that the rich can get away with anything as long as they pay tribute (hush money). The secondary message is that women are fair game. We are better than this and we need to stay on the case!!
1
It's not about supervision, it's not about football. It is, in part, about drinking. But mostly it's about a culture that looks the other way in order to retain the status quo.
And what has been that status? Men who choose to rape can do so at will, and women will submit in silence. Why would we want this to be the case? Could it be that to change the status quo would ask powerful people to take a long look at themselves?
And what has been that status? Men who choose to rape can do so at will, and women will submit in silence. Why would we want this to be the case? Could it be that to change the status quo would ask powerful people to take a long look at themselves?
11
When I was an undergrad at a small catholic liberal arts college in New Hampshire, (with NO greek system), there was an off-campus party in which, among other things, a fellow student got so drunk that she passed out. Her fellow students stashed her in a room to '...sleep it off...". Some time later one of her friends went to check on her only to see a male student attempting to 'interfere' with her. This student raised a hue and cry and the young ladies present beat the living daylights out of this guy. For the rest of the semester, nobody would talk to this guy, (female and male). He eventually transferred out to parts unknown. And he wasn't on the football team. He was on the debate team.
4
Brandon was recruited by Vanderbilt as a tight end and will now likely be recruited as a wide receiver by team-mates in a different institution. The latter however is not a game and is likely going to cause similar, long lasting psychological damage much the same as his victim will likely suffer. There are no winners here. I hope every parent with a son heading off to college discusses this incident with their child and points out the permanent damage that can occur from irresponsible behavior.
11
These young men did more than engage in irresponsible behavior. Rather, they systematically and brutally attacked an unconscious young woman, sexually violating her, raping her, and beating her. A jury found them guilty of many CRIMINAL acts of violence and for that our justice system provides for punishment. While I do not wish any of these young men to suffer as their victim has, and I mourn their ruined young lives, they brought their punishment and resulting damage upon themselves. As a mom to school-aged boys, I agree we need to be better about instilling in our sons a value and respect for all persons, at all times, and teaching them that boundaries, especially in a sexual context, are to be respected at all times.
6
"will now likely be recruited as a wide receiver by team-mates in a different institution."
Not if the prison administrators are doing their jobs. Even rapists aren't supposed to be raped in prison. In America we are not supposed to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. American courts and jurors do not send people who have broken the law to prison to be raped.
Not if the prison administrators are doing their jobs. Even rapists aren't supposed to be raped in prison. In America we are not supposed to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. American courts and jurors do not send people who have broken the law to prison to be raped.
1
The original story reported that Brandon was this girl's ex-boyfriend; she had broken up with him. That account suggested he orchestrated this gang rape as punishment. I don't know if that was true, but it was Brandon who took the pictures and sent them out.
2
There has been a lot of news reported about rape on traditional 4-year college campuses. There has also recently been a lot of coverage regarding the importance of community colleges. This got me thinking - is there any research comparing the levels of sexual assault on students at 4-year colleges or universities with those at community colleges? Would my child be safer at a community college?
4
Your child could be safer at a community college. . .IF you are paying attention to their attendance, their mid-term and final grades, and the company they keep. Going away to school should NEVER be a pass to hurting others.
1
Most community college students commute, and so don't live in dorms and I don't think there are many fraternities or football teams at community colleges. So I would say, "yes."
3
Sexual assault is probably less likely at a non-residential college (as most community colleges are).
This crime is appalling. The instigators, perpetrators, and witnesses who failed to report it rightly deserve to go to jail. Universities and our culture at large need to wake up and aggressively educate people that rape is a serious, violent crime and also actively prosecute those who commit rape.
Period - end of story.
Period - end of story.
11
It's an awful lesson, but parents do have to become proactive and stop assuming their sons know how to treat women, and that their daughters know what's unacceptable for them to put up with, the kind of men to stay away from. Parents have to teach their children about the dangers of engaging in dangerous behaviors. That even though they have "freedom" of being way from home, drinking to excess is not just dumb, but can be dangerous. Sit down with them while they're in middle and high school, teach them how to be good decent people. They learn this at home, and then it's supposed to be reinforced at school and by society. But nobody but you can teach them right from wrong. So many people's lives in this one incident are destroyed. The kids, their parents, their siblings, grandparents. None of them will ever be the same. It's tragic to say the least.
7
If the drink is spiked, one doesn't have to drink to excess. Or even drink alcohol.
Would never trust being given any kind of drink at a frat party unless it was in a pre-sealed containor. That includes water.
Would never trust being given any kind of drink at a frat party unless it was in a pre-sealed containor. That includes water.
5
In reading about this horrid situation in universities AND high schools, a nation wide situation, it occurs to me that most of the cases that seem to make it to the media are football players (in college, universities AND high school). Yes, some of the cases are non-football players, but most that make the news (all media) are football players. Am I reading this right and is there obviously a connection with this "attitude" on the part of football players AND students in general that gives the added impetus to pro-football players? We need to look even further at the "prized position" of athletes in high school and college. I've seen this in high school (40 years a teacher, 20 years a track coach) and as a part time journalist after retirement covering athletics in a small town in the west.
7
We need trustworthy methods to test the use of drugs/alcohol on campus. Those who are misusing their freedom as ADULTS at age 18 should be shown the door and their parents should hang their heads in SHAME!!
The coach of the Vanderbilt football team, four of whose members raped an unconscious woman in a Vanderbilt dormitory, leaves at the end of the football season to become the head football coach at ... Pennsylvania State University. Yes, that Penn State.! They couldn't sell a script in Hollywood with this unbelievable story line. Perhaps Vanderbilt and Penn State should merge; after all, they apparently have a common culture that extends far beyond a shared football coach to build upon.
33
I certainly do not intend to blame the victim but ,young ladies, you need to take care of yourselves. Young men ( old boys) cannot be trusted. Period.
Stay relatively sober, look out for one another. You are all you have.
Boys will be boys, disgusting as they can be. Many of them really don't like women.
Be careful. They cannot be trusted.
So don't.
Stay relatively sober, look out for one another. You are all you have.
Boys will be boys, disgusting as they can be. Many of them really don't like women.
Be careful. They cannot be trusted.
So don't.
9
"Boys will be boys"? Really? That's how you categorize rape? What generation, not to mention planet, are you from?
Robert, can your own daughters, nieces, granddaughters trust you? Or do you still have a little of that "boy" in you?
Robert, can your own daughters, nieces, granddaughters trust you? Or do you still have a little of that "boy" in you?
13
"Boys will be boys"! Please!! When will these men take responsibility for being MEN? Just as all men are not rapists so also should the "boyishness" of men not be condoned in any form. Let's stop infantilizing the minority of privileged self-absorbed menboys who dishonor male dignity. MEN, please help! Mothers and Fathers, please untie your various apron strings and tethers and insist on adult accountability.
1
What sad commentary that you believe all men are not to be trusted and are no better than animals! I have taught my two daughters to be safe and proactive but I would never want them to believe "boys will be boys!"
Rape is a violent crime, not some prank gone wrong. Anyone who commits sexual assault, whether against children, teens, women, men, the elderly, is a violent offender and a threat to society. To excuse a rapist's actions because, "Boys will be boys...and Many of them really don't like women" is doing a tremendous disservice to both sexes. No, rape is never an excusable action or the default!
Rape is a violent crime, not some prank gone wrong. Anyone who commits sexual assault, whether against children, teens, women, men, the elderly, is a violent offender and a threat to society. To excuse a rapist's actions because, "Boys will be boys...and Many of them really don't like women" is doing a tremendous disservice to both sexes. No, rape is never an excusable action or the default!
1
"Rape victims should just make the best of a bad situation", according to former GOP Presidential front-runner Rick Santorum. Clayton Williams (R-TX) added, "Rape is kinda like the weather. If it's inevitable, relax and enjoy it."
9
Dagwood, your Santorum quote is wrong and it is so out of context as to be positively dishonest. You can go to Snopes to see this. You don't have to be pro-life, as Santorum is, not to lie about him in this way.
MORGAN: And they are looking at their daughter, saying, how can I deal with this, because if I make her have this baby, isn't it going to just ruin her life?
SANTORUM: Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn't have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or doesn't, it will always be her child. And she will always know that. And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I've always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you.
As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can't think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.
MORGAN: And they are looking at their daughter, saying, how can I deal with this, because if I make her have this baby, isn't it going to just ruin her life?
SANTORUM: Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn't have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or doesn't, it will always be her child. And she will always know that. And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I've always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you.
As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can't think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.
2
Thank you. I'm not a fan of Santorum but would far rather deal with the real issues with which I disagree, than to allow a false claim against anyone to lie unaddressed.
1
One can't blame a university for the wrongdoing of people admitted to the school. The university did not cover the crime up, they reported it. The people who did not participate but failed to report the crime after being informed are guilty of a lesser offence, moral if not jailable.
6
If Vanderbilt University did not actually encourage the pervasive use of alcohol on campus, they certainly appear to have done nothing to curtail it. The Vanderbilt administrators certainly can be blamed for being, at best, blind to their responsibilities to maintain a safe campus and to obey Tennessee law prohibiting alcohol to anyone under the age of 21 (the age of the vast majority of Vanderbilt's undergraduate population). Why aren't all of the good "law and order" citizens of Tennessee up in arms that a private institution is allowed to so blatantly flaunt the laws that the rest of the state's citizens are expected to obey? Or is this just part of the entitlement mentality that the Vanderbilt community exhibits?
8
I am glad the rapists were justly convicted but I am unhappy about the sentencing: "facing the possibility of decades in prison," and this in the light of the victim not even remembering the gang rape. Murderers often receive lighter sentences.
In this instance, I do not believe this victim's life was destroyed and while the rapists need to be punished, their lives should not be destroyed by lengthy imprisonment. I oppose the arbitrary imposition of lengthy sentences in certain trials in order to send a public message. The sentence should fit the crime and the injury caused. Rape is a serious crime but loss of life, limbs, torture, serious disfigurement, etc. are worse.
In this instance, I do not believe this victim's life was destroyed and while the rapists need to be punished, their lives should not be destroyed by lengthy imprisonment. I oppose the arbitrary imposition of lengthy sentences in certain trials in order to send a public message. The sentence should fit the crime and the injury caused. Rape is a serious crime but loss of life, limbs, torture, serious disfigurement, etc. are worse.
2
Do you realize how many people there are serving long sentences who could make the same claim, that they barely remember what they did because they were so drunk or under the influence of another drug? Prison reform, sentencing reform are worthwhile causes, I definitely support generally shorter sentences, but it shouldn't be limited to perpetrators who generate sympathy for reasons distinct from the offense that they committed, such as being under the influence of alcohol.
1
Janetariana,
Loss of autonomy and loss of ones own power over those who are bound and determined to take that power away should rise to the level of a 1st degree crime PERIOD!
Loss of autonomy and loss of ones own power over those who are bound and determined to take that power away should rise to the level of a 1st degree crime PERIOD!
2
"I do not believe this victim's life was destroyed and while the rapists need to be punished"
Is this your call to make? Why do you think your opinion matters at all?
Is this your call to make? Why do you think your opinion matters at all?
4
Rape on college campuses is not about one particular school or another. It's not about athletics. Or drinking. It's about the widespread use of porn. Porn is a multi-billion-dollar industry in this country, and boys/young men who use porn regularly (and their numbers are legion) learn to regard women as 'other', as dirty, as worthy of ill treatment. If we are going to stop the world's oldest hate crime -- rape -- we MUST address porn.
11
"A few rotten apples spoil the barrel."
Vanderbilt should have not only expelled the rapist-football players but suspended the football program for a year. This kind of aberrant behavior doesn't just happen one night. The coaches were derelict in not spotting warning signs and in making sure that the players know that their behavior off the field is a reflection on the team.
Colleges and high schools should take their responsibilities for education of future citizens seriously. Coaches need to be more than just administrators. And student-athletes need to accept that the privileges of recognition and adulation also have accompanying responsibilities. They need to police themselves and proactively kick off the team athletes who drink to excess and engage in aberrant behavior. Too many schools have made excuses for their players and have occasionally encouraged aberrant behavior. Its time to be clear about the consequences of wrong choices.
Vanderbilt should have not only expelled the rapist-football players but suspended the football program for a year. This kind of aberrant behavior doesn't just happen one night. The coaches were derelict in not spotting warning signs and in making sure that the players know that their behavior off the field is a reflection on the team.
Colleges and high schools should take their responsibilities for education of future citizens seriously. Coaches need to be more than just administrators. And student-athletes need to accept that the privileges of recognition and adulation also have accompanying responsibilities. They need to police themselves and proactively kick off the team athletes who drink to excess and engage in aberrant behavior. Too many schools have made excuses for their players and have occasionally encouraged aberrant behavior. Its time to be clear about the consequences of wrong choices.
6
Hmmm...how do you determine what groups the perps fall into? Disband the football team for a year because they were football players? if they were taking art classes, should Vandy also disband the art history program? If they were volunteering at Meals on Wheels, should that activity be restricted for all students as well? Or, do you, as I suspect, just hate football and any big money sports and rejoice in any reason to disband them, even temporarily?
I can tell you know little (certainly less than I) about college football by your suggestion that the program could be suspended for a single year. You can't just put something like that on hold and start the next year. Players would drop out and attend another school. The following year would be brand new recruiting and would have implications for a decade at least. Then again, we're talking Vandy. It isn't like they'll be playing for the SEC Championship anyway. Heck, maybe they did disband for a year. Who'd know?
I can tell you know little (certainly less than I) about college football by your suggestion that the program could be suspended for a single year. You can't just put something like that on hold and start the next year. Players would drop out and attend another school. The following year would be brand new recruiting and would have implications for a decade at least. Then again, we're talking Vandy. It isn't like they'll be playing for the SEC Championship anyway. Heck, maybe they did disband for a year. Who'd know?
When I went to college in the late 1960's this was something that didn't seem to happen. Of course back then the majority of rape cases went unreported. I doubt human nature got that much worse in 50 years. It seems awareness has finally caught up to this shameful behavior.
6
Same here...and I was at a major, small, Animal House type party school. But it was at a time before co-ed dorms were introduced. As crazy as we got, there were still pariatals, and admonishment against this particular sexual slice of "partying." "Hooking up" was still an unrealized dream for college guys. The result? One rape, some years before I got there. The frat was tossed off campus and that was that. Shortly after I graduated, the dam burst on the old rules, the permissiveness in behavior that we all demanded in the 60s prevailed, both genders were put into close living conditions, hooking up became the norm...and Katy bar the door. Human nature hadn't changed, it just shed its shackles. Eek!
5
Also surveillance video, the omnipresent smart-phone, and the computer hard drive, things that did not exist 50 years ago, collected and preserved the information, the evidence, to ultimately toast these boys.
4
Vanderbilt is now off our campus visits list. Our sons deserve better than this.
10
And so do our daughters.
9
What do you mean by "this"?
One thing in favor of Vanderbilt is that they reported the crime.
One thing in favor of Vanderbilt is that they reported the crime.
2
I agree with you that Vanderbilt should be commended for reporting the crime. "This" referred to the rape itself and the campus atmosphere as described by the article. And SW, you are spot on!
I think it is a useful exercise to imagine this story happening at an party and perpetrated by inner city gang members of the same age. No one would question whether these long prison sentences were justified. To my mind, the crime is the same. These young men are adults who chose to perpetrate a heinous rape. I don't care that they found it funny nor do I accept that this is some form of youthful exuberance. A 20 year old man who rapes a woman forfeits their future and should be sent to prison. I hope that we see more prosecutions of this nature in the future.
36
The fact is that predators, including sexual predators do exist. In any and sadly all social environments. Like all predators they they hide their intent, select victims carefully & strike at the time of their choosing. Tragically, to ignore this fact leaves potential victims at high risk.
8
As shocking as this case is, it does not surprise me. In my senior year, , I started attending some frat parties. I was not inducted into any frats and I never personally witnessed anything happening, but I did see some very suggestive scenes: women coming downstairs form the football players' rooms crying and heard stories that were lurid and unsettling about public displays of sex and masturbation.
Later I heard personal accounts of gang rape in college from one of my female colleagues. She had drunk until she passed out and woke up naked in a manner that indicated that she had been abused by a number of men. She never reported it. By the time I heard the story, it was years later, she was my boss' wife and I really didn't know how to handle it except to offer my sympathy.
I now have a young son and daughter who will be entering college in the next few years. I do intend to relate this story to both of them as a cautionary tale.
There seems to be a strong undercurrent of rape mentality in some elements of college age men. I think that it should be exposed and prosecuted to the fullest extent in the hope that we can reduce and perhaps eradicate it.
Later I heard personal accounts of gang rape in college from one of my female colleagues. She had drunk until she passed out and woke up naked in a manner that indicated that she had been abused by a number of men. She never reported it. By the time I heard the story, it was years later, she was my boss' wife and I really didn't know how to handle it except to offer my sympathy.
I now have a young son and daughter who will be entering college in the next few years. I do intend to relate this story to both of them as a cautionary tale.
There seems to be a strong undercurrent of rape mentality in some elements of college age men. I think that it should be exposed and prosecuted to the fullest extent in the hope that we can reduce and perhaps eradicate it.
16
In past generations contact between men and women who were students at coed colleges was very closely supervised. Dorms were segregated by sex and measures were taken to prevent members of one sex from visiting a dorm for the other on most occasions. Now I think we can see the reason why these rules were in place. Today we assume that men and women of college age are mature enough to make reasonable choices without much if any supervision. Clearly, that is not true for many of them.
71
Perhaps we should raise them to take responsibility and make good decisions instead of trying to control them by making decision for them. Raising children is the process of fledging them into adulthood. By the time they are in college, they are old enough to make their own decision, just like they are old enough to drive, join the army and vote. We as parent just need to do a better job of preparing them to live responsibly.
6
And because they were separated, women were not raped. Right? Wrong. Very wrong and any 60+ woman can talk to you about it. Any time.
2
Excuse me we are talking about rape here which has nothing to do with segregating students by sex. Men are not turned into rapists because men and women live in close proximity. Most men are not rapists. Rapists are criminals not young men who didn't get babysat properly.
3
The fact that other students stood by and did not protect the woman is testimony to the fact that they saw this rape and violation of an unconscious woman as business as usual. Because there was no outrage, there are no excuses. The only saving grace is that Vanderbilt reported the tapes to police.
22
Sexual attacks without criminal consequences have allowed these violations to flourish for years, for decades and, in fact, now to become part of the social fabric of campus life. Women have not just been raped, but then drugged and often used as living corpses, rag dolls, upon whose bodies the perpetrators have inflicted degradation for their own shared amusement.
Campus leaders, knowing their universities are rife with rape and sexual assaults, have refused to acknowledge these as violent crimes. Instead they've sought to mitigate any scrutiny of these crimes, rarely even expelling the rapists.
Only when perpetrators understand that tolerance for sex crimes is over--that the Impunity Card has been taken off the table and prison await them--will perpetrators begin to weigh the gravity of their actions. Victims need to contact police authorities immediately, not university officials, and to press charges against their sexual predators. When young men realize that many decades of incarceration await them for crimes against the bodies and psyches of others will they stop.
Campus leaders, knowing their universities are rife with rape and sexual assaults, have refused to acknowledge these as violent crimes. Instead they've sought to mitigate any scrutiny of these crimes, rarely even expelling the rapists.
Only when perpetrators understand that tolerance for sex crimes is over--that the Impunity Card has been taken off the table and prison await them--will perpetrators begin to weigh the gravity of their actions. Victims need to contact police authorities immediately, not university officials, and to press charges against their sexual predators. When young men realize that many decades of incarceration await them for crimes against the bodies and psyches of others will they stop.
16
I don’t like to generalize but it seems to me that athletes, mostly football players, whether college or professional have this culture of entitlement, of being above the law. Could it be because most of the universities put a lot of misplaced emphasis on these sports? Can’t blame them- there’s money- a lot of money in it. Only recently, that the NFL organization has started to look at rape and domestic violence, really seriously due to some high profile athletes being involved in these serious incidents. But these are just baby steps and more need to be done. Maybe it’s time for the universities as well to put more emphasis on the purpose of their existence-- that is to provide real education to these kids.
The problem though is not limited to the sports program of the universities and the NFL- it’s with the American culture in general. Case in point- only about 10% of the total audience who watched the playoffs a week ago, watched the State of the Union. We tend to put these athletes on a pedestal that they could and would do no wrong. Sorry, I digress, but you get my point….
The problem though is not limited to the sports program of the universities and the NFL- it’s with the American culture in general. Case in point- only about 10% of the total audience who watched the playoffs a week ago, watched the State of the Union. We tend to put these athletes on a pedestal that they could and would do no wrong. Sorry, I digress, but you get my point….
8
If you don't like to generalize, then please don't. Is the rapist who is at college on a football scholarship more likely to be apprehended than the one who is getting straight As in physics? I wouldn't rule it out. The "culture of entitlement" certainly is not restricted to athletes.
1
You cannot compare the playoffs to the SOTU speech. The playoffs are entertainment. The SOFU should be an update to the citizens, but unfortunately, it has become just one more chance to say nasty things about the opposing political side. I'm not surprised that people don't want to spend their limited personal time watching it.
" Until the trial began more than two weeks ago, the episode seemed to elicit little sense of urgency — in fact, the student newspaper, The Vanderbilt Hustler, found that many students were not even aware of it." No its not very difficult once you understand the politics of race, gender, indoctrination and victimization on campuses. Three of the four perpetrators were black males and the victim white female. There have been other cases as such in NJ and NY that have received no coverage versus rape hoaxes such as UVA or the Duke Lacrosse, both of which stirred up mobs and violence. 88 Duke professors even signed a manifesto encouraging protests and demonizing whites. In those cases, the accused were straight white males, whose "boogeyman" status keeps the various demagogic groups of race and gender together in a united cause. Since African Americans are a designated "victim class", they will not receive the same nationwide demagoguery that white males will. In fact, any focus on this type of black-on-white violence or riots, which occurs far higher than the reverse, is itself considered racist, as is the focus on Islamic terrorism (not really Islamic) or illegal immigration (not really "illegal" since they are brown).
Now if three of the four perpetrators were white and the victim black...look out.
Now if three of the four perpetrators were white and the victim black...look out.
5
Ban football at Vanderbilt. In general, student athletes make up only 4% of the campus populations but are responsible for 19% of sexual assaults. Football is especially culpable in that it creates a gang culture among its players in which women are verbally denigrated in the locker room and physically abused outside of it. More broadly football creates a disgraceful co-dependence between the game and university fund raisers which has no place in academe. Finally, football is an extraordinarily dangerous sport causing concussions and permanent brain injury to those who play it. Ban football at Vanderbilt. Ban it at all colleges and universities -- as it will be in the decades ahead.
13
Football and other sports are the cash cows of most universities. They would be loath to bring an end to the stream of cash sports brings into their coffers. For this lucre, universities have been complicit in the egregious and violent acts of many athletes for decades. When universities stop protecting rapists, when sexual assaults are named as crimes, and when campus rapists are in prison instead of on class suspension, will campuses be safe environments for women. Until then, charge rapists, and let the legal process proceed.
University officials need to be willing to demand zero tolerance for such crimes, even if such a stance eats into their lucrative sports programs. If they cannot expect demand moral and ethical behavior of their players, then the sports programs should be shut down.
University officials need to be willing to demand zero tolerance for such crimes, even if such a stance eats into their lucrative sports programs. If they cannot expect demand moral and ethical behavior of their players, then the sports programs should be shut down.
3
Phoenix, this truism regarding football being a cash cow at "most" universities is simply untrue. It is a cash cow for a few, and many others are spending reams of money in a desperate effort to be one of the few. But for MOST colleges, including, I would bet, Vanderbilt, football is a money losing proposition.
2
Barbara, have a look at this from Wickipedia:
"According to William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland System and co-director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, "We've reached a point where big-time intercollegiate athletics is undermining the integrity of our institutions, diverting presidents and institutions from their main purpose."[18] Football coaches often make more than the presidents of their universities which employ them.[19] Athletes are alleged to receive preferential treatment both in academics and when they run afoul of the law.[20] Although in theory football is an extra-curricular activity engaged in as a sideline by students, it generates a substantial profit. There has been serious discussion that student-athletes be considered university employees to allow them to be paid."
"According to William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland System and co-director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, "We've reached a point where big-time intercollegiate athletics is undermining the integrity of our institutions, diverting presidents and institutions from their main purpose."[18] Football coaches often make more than the presidents of their universities which employ them.[19] Athletes are alleged to receive preferential treatment both in academics and when they run afoul of the law.[20] Although in theory football is an extra-curricular activity engaged in as a sideline by students, it generates a substantial profit. There has been serious discussion that student-athletes be considered university employees to allow them to be paid."
3
No institution is immune to this type of behavior if the circumstances exist for it to happen. Too many parents take the attitude that my child would not do that! Sorry Mom, under the right circumstances many of them will and do cross the line. In the long term those institutions that deal with the situation in a timely and forthright manner will do more to preclude future instances than those that try to cover up incidents. Cover ups just enable more of the same.
Banning football, eliminating fraternities, outlawing alcohol, etc. are not solutions, they're feel good cop-outs by people who don't want to take on the hard work of effecting cultural change. If and when universities take such draconian steps, they're abandoning their educational mission and becoming cops.
2
Huh? College football, drinking, fraternities, easy sex all combine to form a significant part of the foundation of the culture of campus life. If you wish to promote "cultural change" on campus, what better places to start than ... the campus culture.
6
SW, any data that colleges with no fraternities and football team and campus ban on alcohol have solved the problem? Did Prohibition work?
I hope you'll put your money where your mouth is and contribute to your alma mater to build alternative housing.
The legal drinking age in Tennessee is 21. The vast majority of undergraduates at Vanderbilt are under the age of 21. Any administrator that knowingly tolerates, let alone encourages, the campus culture that permits the serving of alcohol to these minors should be charged as co-conspirators and serve jail time in cells adjoining the convicted student athletes.
12
Indignant, you bet I am. This terrible, horrific crime was an organized brutal attack. It will lead many people to be infuriated, but for how long. Is this the flavor of the week, in many elite circles their own indignation lasts only so long. Witness Penn State and the re-awarding of Joe Paterno's records and even talk of bringing his statue out of moth balls.
A more permanent solution is strong adherance to a set of moral principles that has a strong and solid basis. Legal incarceration is of course a part of this solution. Yet it should be the goal of every educational instructor at a very early age to teach respect for family,country,and goverment. That also includes newspapers, magazines, television and of course the internet. These various media has turned youngsters into a hedonistic voyeurs delighting in every show of skin or sexual innuendo. Enough with the constant bombardment of sex. Lets try to reconsider where we are going and at what price.
Everyone and everything is now acceptable, I don't have a problem with inclusion, I do have a problem with making what is wrong glamouous.
A more permanent solution is strong adherance to a set of moral principles that has a strong and solid basis. Legal incarceration is of course a part of this solution. Yet it should be the goal of every educational instructor at a very early age to teach respect for family,country,and goverment. That also includes newspapers, magazines, television and of course the internet. These various media has turned youngsters into a hedonistic voyeurs delighting in every show of skin or sexual innuendo. Enough with the constant bombardment of sex. Lets try to reconsider where we are going and at what price.
Everyone and everything is now acceptable, I don't have a problem with inclusion, I do have a problem with making what is wrong glamouous.
9
To anyone who has followed the reporting on this case, largely out of The Tennessean in Nashville, it is rife with extremely disturbing facts. There seems to be such festering rot at the very heart of America and the many "ancillary" details of this case are indicators of that. The amorality so much in evidence in so many in this case is stunning when one considers this is the future of America and it is just one college campus among many where similar behaviors are common. What kind of humans has America raised that are in a state of debauchery so much of the time, celebrate it, take pictures of it and have no empathy or compassion or decency for someone being hurt, someone in trouble? When did "young people" in America become so aligned with pornography, with degradation, with predation, with cruelty, with utter decadence? Decadence, decay, rot. Nobody helped the female under attack of all kinds. Nobody tried to stop it. Nobody called authorities. People laughed, took pictures, participated. And afterwards, even when alcohol and drugs were not a factor, she was still lied to and horribly mistreated by the attackers. These are not just a few people; these are not people of one "type" (rich/poor, black/white, male/female) but are representative of many "categories" of people. The one thing that they all seem to have in common is the psychological status of sociopathy. This is not a case of "youthful indiscretion, poor judgment, alcohol."
31
Sadly, starting as early as elementary school, our children are taught that the most talented athletes among them - in particular football & basketball players and their cheerleaders - are "gods". By the time they reach high school these athletes are glorified with pep rallies, special jackets, and preferential treatment by everyone -- which escalates in college should they be lucky enough to play on a team and get a scholarship. No wonder they believe the rules don't apply to them.
33
I think it is important to note that this incident occurred during the summer when the football team was in "camp" residing in the student dorms. The vast majority of Vanderbilt students were home on summer break. It is safe to say that part of the reason students are having a difficult time "squaring" what happened with the university that they know and experience on a daily basis is because this did not occur under the dorm living conditions that they experience every day. In addition, the fact that the University discovered the rape and turned the investigation over to the police immediately has done much to reassure the students and the parents that this type of behavior was an aberration and is neither typical, nor tolerated on campus.
3
The circumstances surrounding a sexual assault should not —and do not— matter. Rape is never the victim's fault.
Keeping women and men safe on campus comes from creating an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.
To encourage victims to come forward —and support survivors— communities are developing and operating a Sexual Assault Response Team, referred to as a SART.
How a SART addresses the severity, complexity and impact of sexual assault—and seeks justice for victims--is powerfully portrayed in the video, “Break the Silence: Sexual Assault and the SART Solution.”
In the video, SART sexual assault victims in rural and Native American Communities, as well as SART members, share their experiences and how a SART has served them.
Watch the video. Download it. Share it. http://www.sane-sart.com/breakthesilence/
Learn more at sane-sart.com.
Keeping women and men safe on campus comes from creating an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.
To encourage victims to come forward —and support survivors— communities are developing and operating a Sexual Assault Response Team, referred to as a SART.
How a SART addresses the severity, complexity and impact of sexual assault—and seeks justice for victims--is powerfully portrayed in the video, “Break the Silence: Sexual Assault and the SART Solution.”
In the video, SART sexual assault victims in rural and Native American Communities, as well as SART members, share their experiences and how a SART has served them.
Watch the video. Download it. Share it. http://www.sane-sart.com/breakthesilence/
Learn more at sane-sart.com.
2
Never been more proud of my alma mater, Stanford, than this week.
When two Stanford students came upon the (alleged) sexual assault of an unconscious woman, they didn't whip out cell phones and start recording. They chased and caught the perpetrator and then called the cops.
Too often, people are pulling out phones to record all kids of human horror instead of learning how they can help. At Stanford, the (alleged) rapist is off campus, off the team, and hopefully headed for a long stint in a penitentiary.
Once this happens ten times, students will begin to learn that rape is a violent crime and that campuses need to be safe for all students.
When two Stanford students came upon the (alleged) sexual assault of an unconscious woman, they didn't whip out cell phones and start recording. They chased and caught the perpetrator and then called the cops.
Too often, people are pulling out phones to record all kids of human horror instead of learning how they can help. At Stanford, the (alleged) rapist is off campus, off the team, and hopefully headed for a long stint in a penitentiary.
Once this happens ten times, students will begin to learn that rape is a violent crime and that campuses need to be safe for all students.
24
Universities can insulate us from going to war or to jail. They should not.
I spent 5 decades as student and professor, and with colleagues often had to fight for justice to students when administrators would not -- young people hurt, embarrassed, lied to with impunity, and hurt again when the admin turned the other cheek, protected "reputation", empowering cruel students and teachers.
But we have seen worse now than I ever saw: pederasty tolerated at Penn State, lacrosse violence in other schools, black -faced dummies burned by Obama opponents on campuses, hazing on a crowded university bus blamed for a band member's death, and now, a mass rape by "privileged"athletes videoed as though it were musical comedy. Many administrators are professors who move upward and love the perks. Perhaps they feel "privileged", to BE the final court, the way country clubs feel insulated from common justice when they blackball someone. It is time to send all perps to police, court, and, after trial, to prison, and arrest their enablers. Fraternity houses are not Boko Harum camps. Girls are not lab animals or footballs. And universities are not Mad Max's world. "Privilege" is not restricted to white boys, athletes, or frat members. Justice, after all, is a woman, with honest scales, and she wears a blindfold.
I spent 5 decades as student and professor, and with colleagues often had to fight for justice to students when administrators would not -- young people hurt, embarrassed, lied to with impunity, and hurt again when the admin turned the other cheek, protected "reputation", empowering cruel students and teachers.
But we have seen worse now than I ever saw: pederasty tolerated at Penn State, lacrosse violence in other schools, black -faced dummies burned by Obama opponents on campuses, hazing on a crowded university bus blamed for a band member's death, and now, a mass rape by "privileged"athletes videoed as though it were musical comedy. Many administrators are professors who move upward and love the perks. Perhaps they feel "privileged", to BE the final court, the way country clubs feel insulated from common justice when they blackball someone. It is time to send all perps to police, court, and, after trial, to prison, and arrest their enablers. Fraternity houses are not Boko Harum camps. Girls are not lab animals or footballs. And universities are not Mad Max's world. "Privilege" is not restricted to white boys, athletes, or frat members. Justice, after all, is a woman, with honest scales, and she wears a blindfold.
13
Fortunately the reporters / editors managed to overcome their disappointment at there being no media-spectacle-friendly trial by "mobilization on campus," and instead present a reasonably complete summation of the basic facts on the case. Contrary to the preferred fashion for sensationalizing college rape incidents, this article shows (a) a system that has seemingly been working to effectively establish essential facts and prosecute and punish the guilty, and (b) that the combination of binge drinking and a penchant for amoral herd mentality amongst small numbers of students were central causes of the crime, not some deeply ingrained indifference at colleges as a whole. The guilty are long gone from the student body, will presumably spend considerable time incarcerated, and also more than likely also pay a price in other ways felt for the rest of their lives. That is a reality far from "denial" and probably more effective than "mobilization," even if there is less news copy that results.
7
Athletic teams and fraternities recruit players/pledges by implicitly offering the prospect of unlimited hot sex, and we're surprised when this kind of thing results?
2
"find it hard to square what happened with their views of this elite university as an oasis from a harder world."
Maybe not so elite if two men with such weak moral compasses were allowed in. But then they were both athletes.
When colleges hunger so much for the Saturday Game Glory, they cut corners on the consideration of these students. A review of most of the latest campus rape (including the Stanford one) shows that we need to assess the whole Athletic-Education Complex. (Like Eisenhower's Military-Industrial Complex it's perniciously dragging us down.) Pro sports need to field farms teams for their younger players and keep those unappreciative of their scholarship advantages out of these institutions.
Maybe not so elite if two men with such weak moral compasses were allowed in. But then they were both athletes.
When colleges hunger so much for the Saturday Game Glory, they cut corners on the consideration of these students. A review of most of the latest campus rape (including the Stanford one) shows that we need to assess the whole Athletic-Education Complex. (Like Eisenhower's Military-Industrial Complex it's perniciously dragging us down.) Pro sports need to field farms teams for their younger players and keep those unappreciative of their scholarship advantages out of these institutions.
12
Brandon Vandenberg was the victim's boyfriend. Two of the others knew the victim. One did not. Brandon appears to be reasonably well off, more so than the others. He is white they are black. The rape took place in a closed off room in a dorm. Brandon recorded the other three penetrating his girl friend with their fingers.
This is Nashville, far better off than Memphis, a relatively cosmopolitan city. The range of possible sentences is 15-30. In my opinion, Brandon is by far the worst offender and should get the stiffest sentence. (Two of the accused have not yet been tried.) It will be interesting to see how they all are sentenced. I bet the white kid will get less time than he should.
This is Nashville, far better off than Memphis, a relatively cosmopolitan city. The range of possible sentences is 15-30. In my opinion, Brandon is by far the worst offender and should get the stiffest sentence. (Two of the accused have not yet been tried.) It will be interesting to see how they all are sentenced. I bet the white kid will get less time than he should.
8
Let's not forget that this girl accepted drinks that were offered. Any one of *any gender* who believes they can go to a party or bar, drink until they can't see straight and come out unscathed are hopelessly naive. All the comments here calling for education and changing men's attitudes toward women are all well and good, but responsibility starts with one individual - yourself.
Should anyone - male or female - be able to drink themselves blind, pass out anywhere they please and be physically safe until they regain consciousness? Yes, but we don't live in that world. We live in a world populated with too many people who think their immediate needs trump the law or another's pain and suffering. When you leave your home, you lock the doors. You pay attention when you walk to your car after dark. Why would you abandon all thought of personal protection at a party?
Stop drinking yourself blind at parties! A single drink can be nursed all night, no one needs to know that there's no rum in that coke. During my sorority years I didn't put myself at risk by drinking or using drugs but had just as much fun, laughed just as hysterically as my tipsy sisters. Yeah, I was a science nerd and I wasn't popular like the party girls, unless of course someone needed a sober driver to take them home. I was REAL popular in that respect!
You're at college to earn a degree. Advocate for cultural awakening, but if you don't protect yourself the education you receive could be devastating.
Should anyone - male or female - be able to drink themselves blind, pass out anywhere they please and be physically safe until they regain consciousness? Yes, but we don't live in that world. We live in a world populated with too many people who think their immediate needs trump the law or another's pain and suffering. When you leave your home, you lock the doors. You pay attention when you walk to your car after dark. Why would you abandon all thought of personal protection at a party?
Stop drinking yourself blind at parties! A single drink can be nursed all night, no one needs to know that there's no rum in that coke. During my sorority years I didn't put myself at risk by drinking or using drugs but had just as much fun, laughed just as hysterically as my tipsy sisters. Yeah, I was a science nerd and I wasn't popular like the party girls, unless of course someone needed a sober driver to take them home. I was REAL popular in that respect!
You're at college to earn a degree. Advocate for cultural awakening, but if you don't protect yourself the education you receive could be devastating.
10
What if someone had slipped a date rape drug into that coke you were nursing all night? If you had been raped then would it have been your fault?
7
She was drinking with her boyfriend and two other men she knew, only one she didn't and I think that most of us would not expect to be gang raped by these same people if we imbibed too much.
Yes, women have to protect themselves, but if they don't, it doesn't excuse the grotesque behavior of the perpetrators. That was some boyfriend!
Yes, women have to protect themselves, but if they don't, it doesn't excuse the grotesque behavior of the perpetrators. That was some boyfriend!
10
Your comment about every student being responsible for his or her own level of intoxication is timely and important. It is not uncommon, however, for the drinks of women to be drugged in order for predators to gain female compliance, even into unconsciousness. Women absolutely need to be aware of their own intoxication levels. They also need to be vigilant that there are men who will drug them--friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike--in social settings. Being cautious and aware at all times will minimize the risk of being sexually victimized.
1
i'm definitely teaching my daughter how to drink before she's off to college.
the common denominator in almost all sexual and domestic violence episodes is too much alcohol.
the common denominator in almost all sexual and domestic violence episodes is too much alcohol.
11
You are teaching your daughter "how to drink" [responsibly, one assumes] before she leaves for college. Your comment raises the urgent question: what are the parents of sons teaching them?
Are they teaching them never to participate in sexual activity with an inebriated young woman? . . . That their own inebriation is not an excuse for sexual assault? That an inebriated person cannot give consent? These are the critical lessons that the parents of young men must teach their sons: not to rape and assault others, ever, whether alcohol consumption is involved or not.
Are they teaching them never to participate in sexual activity with an inebriated young woman? . . . That their own inebriation is not an excuse for sexual assault? That an inebriated person cannot give consent? These are the critical lessons that the parents of young men must teach their sons: not to rape and assault others, ever, whether alcohol consumption is involved or not.
7
Bravo for your reply. The teaching that needs to occur in America is that it is never acceptable for our sons to engage in anything but voluntary consensual sexual contact. Get that straight, and there will be no more rape.
4
Appalling. You wouldn't do to an animal what these men did to this woman, and be sufficiently proud of the deed to broadcast it on their phones.
No amount of excess drinking can account for this behavior. To abuse women as sport is built into these men's brains, and the culture at large. It brings to mind what soldiers used to do/still do to a defeated population. Is this really like war?
No amount of excess drinking can account for this behavior. To abuse women as sport is built into these men's brains, and the culture at large. It brings to mind what soldiers used to do/still do to a defeated population. Is this really like war?
20
I hope they rotten in jail. The girl was very naive and lost control of herself which put her in an unsafe position! No drinking the way these kids do is the solution to many problems. This article made me sick.
4
The girl was out with her boyfriend and remembers nothing of what happens. He probably spiked her drink. Only one spiked drink is enough.
What are you suggesting: that it's naive for a woman to accept a drink from a man she is dating (and thus knows and trusts)?
What are you suggesting: that it's naive for a woman to accept a drink from a man she is dating (and thus knows and trusts)?
7
She did not lose control of herself. The men raped her.
3
Why don't people understand the root cause of rape. What drives the heart of an individual to do this? No matter what university or college you attend, in the end you are a human and as others have stated, it can happen anywhere.
The key point again - is your heart - what is corrupting it that such a crime is being committed?
The key point again - is your heart - what is corrupting it that such a crime is being committed?
2
Ban alcohol on campus and surrounding area. Most of the student body cannot legally drink anyway so why are universities still allow alcohol on campus? It seems those admins remember their frat-boy times and want to preserve the tradition of treating female students as marely entertainment.
51
There is always the hip flask.
Vanderbilt is in the middle of Nashville. Alcohol cannot be banned in "surrounding area." In the case of this assault, the drinking was done at a bar, off campus.
5
Or legalize alcohol for all college students 19 years old (I advocate 19 to keep it out of high school). "Prohibition" (which still applies to most college students) works about as well as it did for everyone else back in the 1920s, namely it drives it underground but does NOTHING to change the behavior. In fact it elevates it. Do you think you drink more and/or faster when you have the opportunity when it is illegal or legal? Banning alcohol on campus will do nothing, it's technically banned for most college students already. It is high time we stop being so reactionary (ban it! ban it! ban it!) and start being realistic. I am tired of the same old tired arguments about this. Drinking has gotten worse on campuses over time because tolerance for alcohol has gone down. Why don't we start trying to channel college students into responsible adults instead of expecting universities to be proxy helicopter parents?
3
The evidence of these heinous acts was sent to others - who did nothing. I know that the phenomena of the guilty bystander is not new. That said, the young people who exempted themselves from the ethical responsibilities of being human in that instance deserve the opportunity to be held accountable so that this event does not become the hallmark of their moral lives. I sincerely hope for their sakes that their families have not simply excused them and instead have offered them that accountability.
9
And yet we're still not marching in the street stating Lives of Women MAtter.
12
Obviously this is much more widespread than people realize. If these guys hadn't recorded it on their phones and shared the video, they probably wouldn't be going to jail and it would be back to an old fashioned 'he said, she said'. Or maybe, with no way to record it, they wouldn't have done it at all (doubtful). In either case image sharing culture plays a role here. As a society we're just lucky that these guys are as moronic as they are monstrous - they provided all the evidence needed to convict.
12
I agree that the instant videotaping and image sharing is a new element in many recent cases. It would be worth studying whether it is indeed "doubtful" that "with no way to record it, they wouldn't have done it all." Also, I am struck by the fact that the videotaping seems to suggest the perpetrators and people around them don't realize a crime is being committed. I wonder to what extent the relatively recent normalizing/mainstreaming of porn, which is now more easily accessible than ever before and conflates rape and sex, is not a major cultural factor here.
2
This month at Stanford two men saw a unconscious woman (apparently) being raped by a student in the wee hours of the morning and intervened. The fact that students who received images of the assault didn't report it is frustrating. As this piece notes, teaching people that intervention in such cases is the right choice. From the moment new students step on campus that needs to made clear. I thank the young men at Stanford who refused to ignore what was happening and came to the aid of the victim. We need more of that behavior.
263
It would be nice to see those students that knew of the assault and did not report it charged with accessory after the fact.
7
Maybe I'm missing something but observing a woman being forcibly raped on the street and getting involved to stop it is merely being a proper decent man. There's millions of them out there.
8
I guess not reporting a crime is not a crime in and of itself, but it is certainly a moral trespass of both omission and commission. Perhaps the most cogent part of the article is the assertion that we need to teach witnesses and bystanders to intervene.
6
What seems to be so egregious here is the lack of outrage on the part of the University and its students. Granted, the University did turn the security tapes over to the police, fired the football coach (who is now at Penn State), and expelled the students who were then charged with the crime. But, I have yet to hear or read anything about any plans to stop things like this in the future. Clean up operations are too late. Here in Nashville, this story has been featured or covered in every news outlet, nearly every day since Summer of 2013 - it is impossible to ignore. Rather then hearing what changes the University is enacting to combat rape on campus or what changes the Students are demanding - or the outrage they feel - there has been almost complete silence .......and I find that terrifying.
76
Rufus,
I should correct you about the football coach. Franklin left Vanderbilt for a better head coaching job at Penn St. He wasn't fired by Vanderbilt for these crimes by football players.
Given how bad the Vanderbilt football team played this year, many Vandy fans wish that Franklin had stayed.
I should correct you about the football coach. Franklin left Vanderbilt for a better head coaching job at Penn St. He wasn't fired by Vanderbilt for these crimes by football players.
Given how bad the Vanderbilt football team played this year, many Vandy fans wish that Franklin had stayed.
3
The good-hearted students (male and female) at Vanderbilt need to SHOW UP
to the meetings of the Board of Trustees, demanding that this issue be confronted immediately. Any parents with daughters attending the school should transfer them to better schools with better ethics. NOW!!!
to the meetings of the Board of Trustees, demanding that this issue be confronted immediately. Any parents with daughters attending the school should transfer them to better schools with better ethics. NOW!!!
2
Lawrence is correct. Franklin was not fired. He left Vanderbilt to coach at Penn State. But an affidavit taken from the victim states that Franklin asked her to get some girl friends together to show the boys, some of whom were recruits, a good time. A good time. What does that mean? I'm sure it does not mean a pic-nic in Centennial Park in the shadow of the Parthenon across the street from the campus. No Franklin played not play a direct role actual assault, but he does bear some responsibility for encouraging the party culture that bred the incident.
2
Why? Why do young people want to, or feel they have to, drink to excess? What, really, is the fun in that? What is the joy? Binge drinking…drinking to pass out— what??? Why??? Is it to, in fact, achieve a level of inebriation that wipes out any sense of personal responsibility (as seems to be used as the prime legal defense)? I get that beer (in particular, but hard stuff, too) is part of the college “experience”. And I get that sowing oats and youthful rebelling and trying new things is as well. Or is it all simply the age-related “right of youthful passage”? But what is the joy of drinking to get sooooo drunk? There is a huge difference between enjoying a good beer (and there are now so many good ones to enjoy these days!) and consuming huge volumes in record time. The former is a pleasure, the latter a sad, stupid, misguided, nonsensical misbehavior. Those mature enough to go to college, go to war, get married, have babies— we consider them “young adults”. When does personal responsibility kick in? When should it? When people go to college, are they still just foolish boys and girls? Shouldn't they be young men and young women? What? When? Why?
3
My wife went to a Christian college in Western NY in the late seventies and she tells me that weekends during her first semester in college were spent getting falling down drunk with her girlfriends. It was apparently an act of personal liberation combined with the pressure of being expected to fend for herself in an adult environment - as opposed to the highly structured life of high schoolers.
I attended college in the city. However I saw and heard similar stuff while attending a Catholic high school in Queens, NY. Monday mornings consisted of listening to my peers bragging about how much drinking they had accomplished over the weekend. Mondays after Saturday school dances also included tales of huddling in dark corners of the gym while fondling girls that were at least as drunk as they were.
I would urge the editors of the NYT to send reporters into the high schools. I think they will find a lot of this already going on there.
I attended college in the city. However I saw and heard similar stuff while attending a Catholic high school in Queens, NY. Monday mornings consisted of listening to my peers bragging about how much drinking they had accomplished over the weekend. Mondays after Saturday school dances also included tales of huddling in dark corners of the gym while fondling girls that were at least as drunk as they were.
I would urge the editors of the NYT to send reporters into the high schools. I think they will find a lot of this already going on there.
Why does Vanderbilt need a football team anyway? Of course not all football players are rapists, but how much more evidence do you need to understand how the culture of entitlement and accommodation to athletes has become poisonous and pernicious to the mission of education, whether high school or college? It's also usually not, ultimately, all that edifying for the athletes either, who would probably be better served by understanding that it is important for them to develop academically to the best of whatever their abilities are instead of working as unpaid slaves so some coach can live in the lap of luxury for the rest of his life.
10
Though this article is about a horrendous crime on an "elite" campus, it describes why it is so hard to clean up higher education.
Many colleges have been taken over by con-men. It shows up everywhere. Rape and football are the most visible symptoms. I know. I'm a former professor. I taught at one of those "elite" schools.
Even as college kids think that violence can't happen to them, many are being robbed daily - by their institutions and professors.
Here is the famous sociologist, David Riesman, on the topic (25 years ago!) - followed by this article's great observations that show why what he describes is so easy to do.
“..advantage..be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions..the student estate often does not grasp its own interests..those who speak in its name are not always its friends..the 'wants' of students to which competing institutions, departments, and individual faculty...cater are quite different from the 'needs, of students..”
(To see schools doing this, read "A Tale Out of School", or, search for "deflation" on my blog, inside-higher-ed .)
These quotes from the article point out why it is so easy to scam students.
"..[students] find it hard to square what happened with their views of this elite university."
"..This is not the sort of place where such things happen.."
All of us better stop seeing colleges as our neatly dressed, respectable old British Uncle. He died long ago and his wayward son inherited his wardrobe.
Many colleges have been taken over by con-men. It shows up everywhere. Rape and football are the most visible symptoms. I know. I'm a former professor. I taught at one of those "elite" schools.
Even as college kids think that violence can't happen to them, many are being robbed daily - by their institutions and professors.
Here is the famous sociologist, David Riesman, on the topic (25 years ago!) - followed by this article's great observations that show why what he describes is so easy to do.
“..advantage..be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions..the student estate often does not grasp its own interests..those who speak in its name are not always its friends..the 'wants' of students to which competing institutions, departments, and individual faculty...cater are quite different from the 'needs, of students..”
(To see schools doing this, read "A Tale Out of School", or, search for "deflation" on my blog, inside-higher-ed .)
These quotes from the article point out why it is so easy to scam students.
"..[students] find it hard to square what happened with their views of this elite university."
"..This is not the sort of place where such things happen.."
All of us better stop seeing colleges as our neatly dressed, respectable old British Uncle. He died long ago and his wayward son inherited his wardrobe.
7
A few years ago, a young woman from my small town was raped during the fall semester of her college freshman year. She left school and came back home. A couple of years later, she committed suicide. She was completely broken, and her rapist never found. In my opinion, these guys got what they deserved; I wish all these cases could have similar results. These guys ruin real lives.
39
Local news in Nashville has been following this story since it first broke in 2012. I am glad it’s over and the boys got what they deserved. The evidence was not in their favor. Their attorneys argued that the boys were not responsible for their actions, that a campus culture of debauchery and promiscuity led them to do these heinous acts. (The lead defense attorney for the boys is the lead on a high profile murder case of a young nursing student who was kidnapped and raped several years ago.) When I was growing up my parents taught me to respect women. Is that still taught today by mom and dad? If there is a dad. Parents, especially those of privilege, have passed that responsibility off to the schools and universities. However, I also see this issue as a two-way street in that parents should teach their daughters to be more vigilant and not to get themselves in these situations in the first place. Again, parents have passed this responsibility off to the schools and universities as well. It was reported early in the development of this case, that the former football coach for Vanderbilt allegedly told the girl who was assaulted to get some of her friends together and show the boys, some were recruits, a good time. It that’s true, then perhaps the defense attorney’s argument has some merit, as a culture of debauchery and promiscuity may indeed exist on the Vanderbilt campus, which, despite the institution’s elite reputation, makes a bit of an unsavory place.
4
Well it's a blame continuum. Women who go to parties and are drugged and raped have a "responsibility" for the crime by virtue of drinking at a party. Black men who are shot and killed by police have a "responsibility" for their deaths by virtue of committing low level crimes, or having the APPEARANCE of committing a crime.
Men are not to blame, guns are not to blame, police training and tactics and racism are not to blame.
Poor people would not be poor if they weren't "Takers" always looking for a govt. handout either.
People with privilege can do what they want and if what they want damages the lives of others, well those others should have know better than to have gotten in the way.
Next we'll have kings! And Droit Du Seigner!
Men are not to blame, guns are not to blame, police training and tactics and racism are not to blame.
Poor people would not be poor if they weren't "Takers" always looking for a govt. handout either.
People with privilege can do what they want and if what they want damages the lives of others, well those others should have know better than to have gotten in the way.
Next we'll have kings! And Droit Du Seigner!
13
Get rid of "professional" college sports. Get rid of students who are at school to, first and foremost, play sports. Get rid of Fraternities. And then schools can BEGIN to address these issues in earnest.
15
Not surprised at all that this happened at Vanderbilt. It happens at other colleges where both sexes take it upon themselves to get totally smashed. This was a pretty toxic mixture: football players, max alcohol, and an inebriated woman passing out. Put these three things together anywhere else and expect about the same result.
Why expect anything different?
Why expect anything different?
3
Really? The expected result of a bunch of drunk kids is gang rape including urinating on an unconscious girl while others look on? What more do we EXPECT????
I expect a lot of drunk kids to not commit heinous crimes. Is impulse control literally the only thing that you believe stands between good behavior and horrible criminality? I can tell you that criminals commit crimes. If being drunk causes someone to commit a crime of that magnitude it is not the drink that did it.
Kids have stupid, and even dangerous, impulses, which is why you can probably blame drinking on dangerous driving or minor acts of vandalism or stupid stunts like climbing on roofs. When impulse control is eliminated kids can do dumb stuff,
If the dumb stuff they are driven to do is gang rape....they were criminals to start with.
I expect a lot of drunk kids to not commit heinous crimes. Is impulse control literally the only thing that you believe stands between good behavior and horrible criminality? I can tell you that criminals commit crimes. If being drunk causes someone to commit a crime of that magnitude it is not the drink that did it.
Kids have stupid, and even dangerous, impulses, which is why you can probably blame drinking on dangerous driving or minor acts of vandalism or stupid stunts like climbing on roofs. When impulse control is eliminated kids can do dumb stuff,
If the dumb stuff they are driven to do is gang rape....they were criminals to start with.
20
I've been drunk before, but I heroically managed not to rape anyone while I was drunk. I drink very rarely so I'm usually the sober one/designated driver at any given social occasion, and all the drunk people I've ended up having to take care of over through the years also have managed not to rape anyone while drunk. I'm past the age where my peers still actively play football, but none of the former players I do know raped anyone either. I expect a modicum of decent humane behavior from people, and most times they oblige. Giving up and simply accepting the behavior of the worst among us as normal is not at all helpful.
7
Saying this is a "Vanderbilt problem" or a "football problem" simply diminishes the problem of rape and sexual assault. This is a problem for our whole society and the first step towards stopping it is to acknowledge that fact and to stop trying to make ourselves feel better by saying it only happens there, over there, not in my backyard, only to other people.
152
I could not agree more.
It is not ONLY a Vanderbilt/Football problem.
But if we took the sexual abuse stats from Swarthmore and Vanderbilt (adjusting for size), I am confident we would find that the culture of Vanderbilt produces a far higher rate of rape and abuse than Vandebilt.
A similar experiment taking 1000 varsity football players at Division One schools and comparing them to 1000 non-football males would. I suspect, produce a similar result.
But if we took the sexual abuse stats from Swarthmore and Vanderbilt (adjusting for size), I am confident we would find that the culture of Vanderbilt produces a far higher rate of rape and abuse than Vandebilt.
A similar experiment taking 1000 varsity football players at Division One schools and comparing them to 1000 non-football males would. I suspect, produce a similar result.
1
I know you mean well, but saying "we should stop trying to make ourselves feel better by saying it only happens there" is not really what folks are saying in the comments.
This is how serious crimes should be adjudicated,through the established criminal justice system.Not kangaroo college courts.
33
"the woman lying unconscious in the hallway where the men had deposited her"
Deposited her? That one verb says more than I can handle.
Deposited her? That one verb says more than I can handle.
12
At first I thought the writers had used a very poor choice of words. Then, I realized their wording was correct. They "deposited" her like a piece of garbage. How can one human being do that to another?
22
I'm puzzled by the students' reactions. Why wasn't it, "Oh, what those football players did was terrible. I'm glad they were caught and punished."? I don't know what I would have thought back then; I don't remember ever worrying about being raped. I can understand perhaps not being aware of what was going on. But the reactions reported are callous and self-centered. Maybe that's because the students are 18-22 years old, ages known for their narcissism. Still, you'd think these kids would be able to focus on the act itself and understand that it was wrong.
12
When I was in college in the sixties, there was a rape on campus. The rapist(s) weren't identified. The reaction on campus was for the male students to patrol after dark and escort women to wherever they were going. And yes there were wildly alcoholic parties and I'm sure some date rape going on. It's just that everyone else didn't shrug it off. I think it's strange in this age where we supposedly take sexual violence more seriously that a lot more people casually blame the victim "for drinking too much." Now men can drink but women can't. Doesn't seem like much progress to me.
10
As a student here at Vandy, I'd just like to point out that this definitely is the reaction among every other student whose opinion I've heard about it. While I definitely understand the sentiments of the people quoted in the article, I feel like it also definitely downplays the sense of justice we're all feeling. I heard one person refer to the verdict as allowing the campus to breathe a "sigh of relief," and I feel that this is probably the most accurate of anything said so far concerning our general sentiment.
28
I don't think I would call what happened at Vandy date rape.
Typical response of the "head in the sand" generation. If it isn't directly about them, then it doesn't matter. Similar to the generation's actions on things like Occupy Wallstreet and the anti war movement. But take away their phones and the revolution is on!
9
I don't think sessions on alcohol and sex will have much effect. Most, if not all, young people are fully informed about both. This was a case of horrific proportions by jocks. A defense based on being drunk should result in disbarment for the lawyer. Of course, there was no defense. Should have copped a plea, but maybe that wasn't offered. A similar incident at the University of Texas awaits trial.
7
Some major media news briefly mentioned the rape conviction between talking about the weather and the superbowl. Women and the men who love them must let our outrage be known. One dedicated person can change things. One young woman or man on every campus who understands how ludicrous and socially unconscious the attitude about rape is can start a movement by handing out posters and circulating the videos of this poor woman, with her face blacked out or hidden, with the message to CALL THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY IF YOU ARE RAPED. There are some chilling statistics in the link below, including that 9 out of 10 college women who are raped do not report it so this is just he tip of the iceberg. Rape damages a man or woman's life forever and it is NEVER okay. We must stand up and shout NO.
http://www.crisisconnectioninc.org/sexualassault/rapestatistics.htm
http://www.crisisconnectioninc.org/sexualassault/rapestatistics.htm
10
I've been surprised at how little media coverage this case has gotten outside of Tennessee. On the one hand, I'm glad it has gotten little coverage because I think it would be covered for its lurid, sordid facts, rather than for the extremely important issues for our society that it embodies. On the other hand, because it does embody so many extremely important issues, it needs to be analyzed. It is a horrible case with horrific details at every turn and yet it seems to reflect so much of what is wrong in America and especially with younger generations. (I hope I don't get a lot of angry retorts about all the young people who "volunteer", all the student debt, all the youthful do-gooders, etc. etc.) Nobody - not one "young person" there - helped that human being under attack. They laughed, they took pictures, they dehumanized her, they used drugs, pornography, alcohol. They were all "categories" of America's young - and they all exhibited the behavior of sociopaths. It is sickening and frightening.
2
Various people and authorities in the case say that these convictions show that rape victims can come forth and receive justice now. But it seems that the main reason these rapists were caught is that they were arrogant and stupid and vicious enough to broadcast their acts. If that hadn't happened, there would probably be no case at all. Or if there were a case, the rapists and probably their friends would claim it was consensual, making it lots of voices against the victim's one voice. I'd like to think that the publicity around the case helps raise general attention to the problem of preventing rape, but I don't think the convictions really change the odds that overwhelmingly favor rapists over victims, once a rape has occurred.
71
Re. "rape victims coming forward": In this particular case, and therefore presumably in other cases, the victim did not know she had been raped. She was unconscious. It was only after she was shown the videos and pictures that she learned what had happened. It was strangely poignant to read reports of her testimony at the trial, when she viewed the videos of herself being attacked, she said, "that is me." It is not always a matter of a victim's disinclination to 'come forward', as this case shows. I know it is not a popular attitude to express, but I think that women must stop setting themselves up to BE victims, to the widest extent possible, and one major way is not to get drunk!
5
Please, please colleges and universities go back to having policies that protect better your students. I remember telling my children about some "rules" when I went to college which they thought were hilarious: all female dorms, 11 PM curfews for women, etc. etc. , at a college in a state where only 3.2 beer could be purchased if you were under 21. Also, if you were at the university library, male students were by convention to not let any woman student walk home alone. I understand that it is "Title Nine" we have to blame for the change because male and female students must be treated equally. I think, however, colleges can address the safety of their students, if they start to take a more serious attitude and start standing up to the football and Fraternity attitudes of exceptionalism. I also, told my children when they were at college, if they had any problem to call or report it to State or local authorities, not some college security force.
8
"Also, if you were at the university library, male students were by convention to not let any woman student walk home alone."
That does no good in situations like this one: When it comes to rape and sexual assault, the greatest threat to a female student is being alone with a male student.
That does no good in situations like this one: When it comes to rape and sexual assault, the greatest threat to a female student is being alone with a male student.
11
It's not "hilarious," it's backwards and sick to suggest that women should be forced to hide from the public sphere because men might rape them. Similarly, it's not "hilarious" but shockingly obtuse that someone would suggest a man escorting a woman home would prevent rape (since that's inevitably what these rapists would have claimed they did if there had not been video). It's the world view that women must cower to avoid rape that directly feeds the permissive atmosphere and attitudes towards sexual assault. One of the men was laughing-- he must have agreed with MLH that all of this is "hilarious." To survivors, it is anything but.
7
A greater threat is being drunk and not having previous agreements that a group of students sticks together and leaves no woman behind.
2
As long as colleges and universities create such a elite, privileged and separate environment for their athletes and there are girls who love to chase the "stars" we will continue to see these horrible incidents fueled by drugs and alcohol.
10
She was unconscious. That means she was in no position to "chase" anybody, or consent to anything. Putting any kind of blame on the victim of this crime makes no sense whatsoever.
31
"Girls who love to chase the 'stars'"? What case are you referring to? It certainly couldn't be the one at Vanderbilt.
The victim is a 21-year-old senior majoring in neuroscience and economics. She was dating Brandon Vandenburg, not an enthusiastic groupie throwing her panties at the football team. Seeing as how she was unconscious for the duration of the incident, incapable of even slurring an alcohol-and-drug-fueled interest in sex, it's highly disrespectful to imply that she was seeking out this experience, "chasing the stars" in any way.
The victim is a 21-year-old senior majoring in neuroscience and economics. She was dating Brandon Vandenburg, not an enthusiastic groupie throwing her panties at the football team. Seeing as how she was unconscious for the duration of the incident, incapable of even slurring an alcohol-and-drug-fueled interest in sex, it's highly disrespectful to imply that she was seeking out this experience, "chasing the stars" in any way.
11
Nobody is blaming the victim here...but clearly there was a lack of good decision making here...so she's a neuroscience and economics major who picked a football player boyfriend who enjoyed photographing her passed out body being urinated on by another player...nice boyfriend...good choice there...and obviously there was no shortage of drugs and alcohol available...I mean she was unconscious after all and couldn't remember a thing...good choice there as well....There's a reason it's not a good idea to walk through a dangerous part of town in the middle of the night...or go hiking on the Iranian boarder...not good choices..
1
Maybe if NCAA suspended teams from schools where athletes have been convicted of these crimes? (Let the wailing begin.)
59
Ha! That didn't even work for Penn State....an institution that protected a serial child rapist for years. Apparently the NCAA has "modified" sanctions against Penn State. Until football is synonymous with "sports" and not with making money nothing will be done from that angle.
6
Maybe that isn't within the NCAA jurisdiction. Maybe the NCAA shouldn't change rules mid-stream. Maybe no one should change rules mid-stream. Said in a calm, clear, deep voice. No wailing.
NCAA was sued by Penn State. NCAA had exceeded their jurisdiction. Good for Penn State for pushing for this. People who have made mistakes still have rights.
These convictions should be put front and center on every campus and especially in front of every football team because football players it seems are at the very heart of the campus rape rampage.
The story of these two men, who likely will spend as much as the next 20 years in prison, should be a caution to every male enrolled at a U.S. college.
This example is not about a flawed, one-sided Title 9 proceeding leading perhaps to a slap on the wrist.
It is about doing hard time in the kind of prisons where the rape victims are men, not women.
College administrators should welcome all new male freshman with a lecture using this case to ask them whether they want to graduate or go to prison because nothing is more likely to reduce the rampage than that stark choice now illustrated by this real life example.
The story of these two men, who likely will spend as much as the next 20 years in prison, should be a caution to every male enrolled at a U.S. college.
This example is not about a flawed, one-sided Title 9 proceeding leading perhaps to a slap on the wrist.
It is about doing hard time in the kind of prisons where the rape victims are men, not women.
College administrators should welcome all new male freshman with a lecture using this case to ask them whether they want to graduate or go to prison because nothing is more likely to reduce the rampage than that stark choice now illustrated by this real life example.
26
In this case, it is not just two men; there was a whole group involved, some directly and others peripherally. It is the utter lack of any moral sense in evidence anywhere in this case that is most disturbing.
4
The University of Virginia certainly clamped shut fast.
Their basketball team is doing very well at the moment though !!
Their basketball team is doing very well at the moment though !!
Underage drinking is frequently involved in campus crimes. Why don't Universities make a zero tolerance policy on underage drinking. University police departments should throw the book at anybody who serves alcohol to under 21, and students who consume under 21 should be expelled from campus.
6
As someone who went to school in Wisconsin, I'm not sure there would be many students left if that went into effect...
While smarter drinking practices could possibly help both potential victims or perpetrators, the cause of sexual assaults is not alcohol. It simply serves to complicate the narrative on both sides.
While smarter drinking practices could possibly help both potential victims or perpetrators, the cause of sexual assaults is not alcohol. It simply serves to complicate the narrative on both sides.
2
If people under 21 were allowed to legally drink, they wouldn't have to go drinking at frat parties and with other such unsavory characters as football players, lacrosse players, and the crew team.
1
It's very tough to enforce a zero-tolerance alcohol policy. I went to college on a so-called "dry" campus, where no one - over or under 21 - was permitted to have alcohol. All that did was move the parties with alcohol off campus, to rented houses and apartments generally within walking distance of the campus. If students were caught drinking or possessing alcohol, they would be held accountable, but short of breathalyzing every student who returns to their campus housing each night, I don't know how zero-tolerance could be reasonably and heavily enforced.
(And sadly, plenty of campuses see indirect and direct benefits from having a reputation as a "party school," so to speak - it's the sort of active, fun, busy, social atmosphere that prospective students perceive they will find at that school, which can sound all too appealing to a young adult seeking the exhilaration of freedom and independence at college.)
(And sadly, plenty of campuses see indirect and direct benefits from having a reputation as a "party school," so to speak - it's the sort of active, fun, busy, social atmosphere that prospective students perceive they will find at that school, which can sound all too appealing to a young adult seeking the exhilaration of freedom and independence at college.)
3
The brutal gang rape of a student could almost certainly happen at any college, but it DID happen at Vanderbilt. So like it or not, they will now be Exhibit A in the debate on sexual assault on campus. Rather than ignore this, perhaps students, faculty and other members of the Vanderbilt community can try to bring some good from this horrific crime and take the lead in addressing college rape. They will be known for this incident regardless, but perhaps they can also be known for the dignity, humanity and courage they addressed it with.
29
We could begin by ending the confusion about rape being in any way sexual. A National campaign towards educating men on the horror that is rape. That the violent, sick assault comes from a broken, pathetic man who should be seen as abhorrent and in need of professional help not a dude's dude.
15
I went to Vanderbilt University and I have to say that I am thoroughly annoyed with this article. What the article fails to mention is that the student body came to terms with what happened at the time of the actual assault, which was two years ago. This case is not an accurate representation of the student body and the campus should focus on moving on- not sitting back and dwelling on what happened.
Also, contrary to what Sarah O'Brien said, I never once felt like the University was discouraging people from reporting sexual assault. Yes- the Vanderbilt student body does like to party- but what 18-22 year old doesn't? Just because some students at Vanderbilt like to drink and go out at night doesn't mean that they are essentially supporting sexual assault.
Also, contrary to what Sarah O'Brien said, I never once felt like the University was discouraging people from reporting sexual assault. Yes- the Vanderbilt student body does like to party- but what 18-22 year old doesn't? Just because some students at Vanderbilt like to drink and go out at night doesn't mean that they are essentially supporting sexual assault.
29
It's probably worth noting that this comment manifests perfectly the attitude of Vanderbilt students alleged by the article. "Student," you have just proved the articles point.
25
Whatever happened to "studying"?
10
While the actions were reprehensible and there is plenty of blame to go around, the distinction between this case and others appears to be that the University came forward with evidence and swiftly kicked the wrong-doers out of school in spite of their "football" privilege. Maybe it was not as timely as it should have been, but it is a far cry from Florida State's and many other schools responses to such wrong-doing.
135
Common to all these stories is that the victim and the attackers are drunk. The victim is often helplessly drunk. As far as I know the drinking age throughout the USA is 21. From what I read there is always ample evidence to prosecute a lot of students for underage drinking and to prosecute the ones 21 or older for the more serious crime of providing alcohol illegally. Local police and university police need to get tough on "wild parties" now that it is proved they are the settings for rapes.
I would like to see an analysis of rapes and "wild party" arrests (police come & close down the party due to many complaints) among the big Catholic universities and others with particularly strong religious affiliation like Brigham Young, University of Utah, etc.
I would like to see an analysis of rapes and "wild party" arrests (police come & close down the party due to many complaints) among the big Catholic universities and others with particularly strong religious affiliation like Brigham Young, University of Utah, etc.
9
This should be a Ferguson moment for women. My stomach is churning after reading this. Our culture nurtures this type of attitude toward women and we need to face this head on. These men had to have had a low opinion of women and alcohol erased any self control they had left.
College women are going to have to step up, remain clear eyed, and demand fellow students examine their behavior to stop this madness.
College women are going to have to step up, remain clear eyed, and demand fellow students examine their behavior to stop this madness.
240
Lise...better yet, it should be a Ferguson moment for men.
9
Why, oh why, does it take a "Ferguson moment" for something to change? Violence against minorities and women is ingrained in our culture, and although people and movements have been trying to address this for decades and even centuries, it continues.
5
I like your comment, Lise P. Cujar, for its focus on the attitudes towards women ("low opinion") because not only was this unconscious woman sexually attacked but she was urinated upon, she was thrown on the floor, she was utterly dehumanized - and nobody, not one person - not male, not female, nobody - helped her in any way. Women need to stop getting drunk or letting others serve them drinks that might be drugged. That must be First Principle.
4
We drank PLENTY at college but neither I nor anyone I ever knew raped anyone, nor would they have as far as I know.
I have been at MANY college parties where women and men were drunk out of their minds--a real achievement, that one--and no one ever suggested or even hinted at raping any women. Maybe in our day people were brought up with a bit more education about interpersonal relationships and had more respect for others, but I doubt it.
As Dean Wormer so eloquently stated, "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."
Well, unless you are rich and entitled by being able to throw or catch a ball.
Given the role models we have today in almost any walk of life, lying, cheating, stealing, raping, doing whatever you want is fine unless you get caught and can't buy your way out of it.
I have been at MANY college parties where women and men were drunk out of their minds--a real achievement, that one--and no one ever suggested or even hinted at raping any women. Maybe in our day people were brought up with a bit more education about interpersonal relationships and had more respect for others, but I doubt it.
As Dean Wormer so eloquently stated, "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."
Well, unless you are rich and entitled by being able to throw or catch a ball.
Given the role models we have today in almost any walk of life, lying, cheating, stealing, raping, doing whatever you want is fine unless you get caught and can't buy your way out of it.
21
Conservatives like George Will will claim the woman was simply trying to achieve celebrity status through the cult of victimization.
But do you notice the trend among conservatives that somehow these woman are asking for it because they attend colleges where there is known to be drinking and the possibility of people having sexual intercourse?
The Rolling Stone article did not help the matter because it gave conservatives the chance to flog one of their favorite whipping boys: the media.
But we do see in this issue of campus rape the conservative tactic of blaming media and blaming the victim.
Hey, what can you expect from the culture of a Republican caucus loaded with Tea Party types who just two years ago winced at the loss of a sure Senate seat in Missouri over their candidate's use of the term "legitimate rape," while just last week on the floor of Congress that same party was trying to pass an abortion ban that excluded the procedure for rape victims unless the rape was reported to law enforcement; i.e. legitimate rape.
But do you notice the trend among conservatives that somehow these woman are asking for it because they attend colleges where there is known to be drinking and the possibility of people having sexual intercourse?
The Rolling Stone article did not help the matter because it gave conservatives the chance to flog one of their favorite whipping boys: the media.
But we do see in this issue of campus rape the conservative tactic of blaming media and blaming the victim.
Hey, what can you expect from the culture of a Republican caucus loaded with Tea Party types who just two years ago winced at the loss of a sure Senate seat in Missouri over their candidate's use of the term "legitimate rape," while just last week on the floor of Congress that same party was trying to pass an abortion ban that excluded the procedure for rape victims unless the rape was reported to law enforcement; i.e. legitimate rape.
29
Please don't broadbrush conservatives. I am a conservative woman who by no means blames the victim. I have many conservative friends ( moderates and liberal too) who are far from unfeeling and sympathetic. Three friends including myself, are victims of sexual assault, so kindly take us into consideration the next time you demonize conservatives.
8
The conservative's favorite whipping. uh, boy is women, judging by their legislation. You don't see legislation against health care coverage or controlling health care decisions for blacks or even gays.
4
Vanderbilt, by providing security camera images and subsequently expelling several of those involved, took at least some measures to stand up against this sort of behavior.
Now Florida State . . .
Now Florida State . . .
31
Yes, Florida State should have immediately expelled Winston, based upon the woman's accusation alone. I mean, he must have done it. False rape accusations are exceedingly rare. So just toss out due process and presumption of innocence.
One Brian Banks alone does not make up for the number of women who were raped and no one did time. Let's add more to his number.
One Brian Banks alone does not make up for the number of women who were raped and no one did time. Let's add more to his number.
An important documentary film, "The Hunting Ground," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week. It's by the same filmmakers who gave us "The Invisible War," which documented the issue of sexual assault in the military and was nominated for an academy award.
The Hunting Ground is an extensive study of sexual assault on American campuses. It includes disturbing statistics on campus rape, as well as an astonishing stat: 8 percent of men commit more than 90 percent of rapes. So most of these predators are serial rapists. Thus if authorities --both in the university and local law enforcement-- do not act to make sure these rapists are caught and punished, they will continue to violate women (and some men) with impunity.
The egregious failures of colleges and universities to support rape victims and make certain rapists are brought to justice shown in the film indicate how much serious work remains to be done.
Fortunately, a national conversation on campus rape is well underway. However, talk is not enough. Action is required on the part of the powers-that-be at our institutions of higher learning.
It's heartening that at many universities and colleges students are gathering in large numbers to demand change.
Let us hope the laissez-faire attitude of universities like Vanderbilt will soon be completely unacceptable to current students and prospective students and their parents.
The Hunting Ground is an extensive study of sexual assault on American campuses. It includes disturbing statistics on campus rape, as well as an astonishing stat: 8 percent of men commit more than 90 percent of rapes. So most of these predators are serial rapists. Thus if authorities --both in the university and local law enforcement-- do not act to make sure these rapists are caught and punished, they will continue to violate women (and some men) with impunity.
The egregious failures of colleges and universities to support rape victims and make certain rapists are brought to justice shown in the film indicate how much serious work remains to be done.
Fortunately, a national conversation on campus rape is well underway. However, talk is not enough. Action is required on the part of the powers-that-be at our institutions of higher learning.
It's heartening that at many universities and colleges students are gathering in large numbers to demand change.
Let us hope the laissez-faire attitude of universities like Vanderbilt will soon be completely unacceptable to current students and prospective students and their parents.
21
My wife and I went to college in the late 1960s. I had never heard of even one incident of sexual assault or rape involving students. The whole idea of rape seemed alien and baffling to me. Why would any guy commit such a violent, disgusting act, unless he's demented? For me, one of the joys of sex is the mutual feeling of being wanted. When i'd get rejected, it stung, but I accepted it and nursed my wounded young pride. And, I always got over it.
However, I recently asked my wife whether she thought sexual assault and rape happened very often during our era. She quickly answered , "Oh, my, yes". My wife isn't some uber-feminist, isn't given to hyperbole, doesn't hold ancient grudges and mistrust of men in general.
So, her comment really struck me. Maybe I've had my head in the sand over these 40+ years. Maybe we didn't hear much about it back then because women were understandably very reluctant to come forward. Shining a bright a bright light on this terrible phenomenon seems very right and very overdue.
Yet, I continue to be baffled. Why would any decent guy (drunk or not) do such a thing, even if he thought he'd never get caught. maybe the answer rests in the w ord "decent". A decent guy wouldn't do it..period.
However, I recently asked my wife whether she thought sexual assault and rape happened very often during our era. She quickly answered , "Oh, my, yes". My wife isn't some uber-feminist, isn't given to hyperbole, doesn't hold ancient grudges and mistrust of men in general.
So, her comment really struck me. Maybe I've had my head in the sand over these 40+ years. Maybe we didn't hear much about it back then because women were understandably very reluctant to come forward. Shining a bright a bright light on this terrible phenomenon seems very right and very overdue.
Yet, I continue to be baffled. Why would any decent guy (drunk or not) do such a thing, even if he thought he'd never get caught. maybe the answer rests in the w ord "decent". A decent guy wouldn't do it..period.
138
Yes, there were rapes then - and the fraternities were known as places that were demeaning to women then, as well.
5
Whenever alcohol was involved, it happened. I was date raped and didn't realize it until later. I know seven women who said the same man forced himself on them at different times over the years (part of the same social circle). He's now happily married with kids and several of these women really struggle with the idea that he was just "being a guy"...but he raped these women. It's an age old problem but we just kept quieter about it back then. Shame and social / cultural mores kept us from speaking out and who wanted to be dragged into a victim blaming courtroom where your sexual history might be delved into?
6
"... A decent guy wouldn't do it ..."
You're right in most cases. A lot of rapes, such as the one mentioned here, are committed by a group. The presence and behavior of others will lead many to do something that they wouldn't do otherwise.
Do a web search for "mob mentality" or "crowd psychology." Parents and teachers should warn children about this.
You're right in most cases. A lot of rapes, such as the one mentioned here, are committed by a group. The presence and behavior of others will lead many to do something that they wouldn't do otherwise.
Do a web search for "mob mentality" or "crowd psychology." Parents and teachers should warn children about this.
4
When a college or university attracts and admits such violence to its campus, it puts everyone on that campus--male and female students, faculty, and staff--at risk. And when it admits those who see such violence and do nothing, the failure is beyond comprehension. Vanderbilt--and every school--must address these wrongs. And every prospective student must be careful.
17
It is important to note, as the article demonstrates, that even where the legal system has worked in spectacular fashion, it only sets off the same dreary litany about how campuses are nests of unpunished sexual crimes and the suspension of civil liberties is the only answer.
But activists and their media cheerleaders are not easily swayed by events.
But activists and their media cheerleaders are not easily swayed by events.
5
The assailants were not Vanderbilt students, they were Vanderbilt football players; members of the NCAA's dirty little Ponzi scheme which permits profit making sports franchises to hide behind the legal apron strings of institutions of higher learning. Indeed at most of these colleges there are TWO very different admissions criteria at play; one for students and another for "athletes".
Jim Harbaugh's outrageous 35 million dollar salary paid at U of Michigan is a paradigm of the moral malnutrition and ethical bankruptcy of so many colleges who pay their full time faculty the equivalent of Harbaugh's couch cushion change and harbor a stable of subsistence wage poverty stricken adjunct faculty to actually deliver the curriculum.
At the vast majority of these schools, nary a penny of athletics revenue buys a single book for the library but does permit hooligans and future felons like those at Vanderbilt to wander the campus with student ID cards.
Parents and students knee deep in loan debt: is THIS what you intended to pay for?
Jim Harbaugh's outrageous 35 million dollar salary paid at U of Michigan is a paradigm of the moral malnutrition and ethical bankruptcy of so many colleges who pay their full time faculty the equivalent of Harbaugh's couch cushion change and harbor a stable of subsistence wage poverty stricken adjunct faculty to actually deliver the curriculum.
At the vast majority of these schools, nary a penny of athletics revenue buys a single book for the library but does permit hooligans and future felons like those at Vanderbilt to wander the campus with student ID cards.
Parents and students knee deep in loan debt: is THIS what you intended to pay for?
336
Somewhat true, but mostly true for the for the profitable or marginally profitable sports. Most colleges encourage students to be involved in extra curricular activities and at my daughter's college the school takes pride in stating that the majority of students are involved in at least one such activity. Doing so helps the students adjust and be successful. My daughter is on a track scholarship and is also a very engaged student. Athletic programs make a valuable contribution to the school community.
1
"The assailants were not Vanderbilt students, they were Vanderbilt football players"
While I agree that football players are often more athletes than students, smart student-athletes are in fact making the most of their academic opportunities. For example, Cardale Jones, the quarterback who recently led the Ohio State Buckeyes to a national championship, announced he was going to stay in school specifically because he wanted to complete his education. The athletic scholarship he received will allow him to become a first-generation college graduate out of one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cleveland.
I agree that college football shouldn't be what it is now, but saying that all college athletes aren't students is also incorrect.
While I agree that football players are often more athletes than students, smart student-athletes are in fact making the most of their academic opportunities. For example, Cardale Jones, the quarterback who recently led the Ohio State Buckeyes to a national championship, announced he was going to stay in school specifically because he wanted to complete his education. The athletic scholarship he received will allow him to become a first-generation college graduate out of one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cleveland.
I agree that college football shouldn't be what it is now, but saying that all college athletes aren't students is also incorrect.
4
yes, There's a vast difference between the student enrichment athletic activities to which you refer and the corrosively corruptive BIG money NCAA Football and Basketball programs.
3
This is a vicious and horrific CRIME! I think it's high time parents stop with the nonsensical raising of boys...."he's 110% boy" " boys will be boys", etc. this is at the expense of all our kids. The research on boys being more rambunctious
In school is only based on the fact that they have gotten a pass for bad behavior from birth. It also continues on in classes where their called on more, in the boardroom where they are given every right to interrupt a woman.
Prostitutes are arrested and johns are protected. Enough!
So it appears this kid got dumped and then drugged a girl, had his buddies gang rape her and recorded it. This is sick.
In school is only based on the fact that they have gotten a pass for bad behavior from birth. It also continues on in classes where their called on more, in the boardroom where they are given every right to interrupt a woman.
Prostitutes are arrested and johns are protected. Enough!
So it appears this kid got dumped and then drugged a girl, had his buddies gang rape her and recorded it. This is sick.
134
I take a different view. When sexual assaults are a product of the environment, they need to be treated as a public issue. Some sexual assaults are so heinous, however, that they are only explicable as the acts of sick minds. Purposely having sex with an unconscious woman is far beyond the pale. That's why the jury quickly convicted. And that's why it is not viewed as a Vanderbilt problem, but as a problem of sick individuals who happened to be at Vanderbilt.
8
While I agree that the heinous crimes committed against this woman were the acts of sick minds, where does the inaction of all these bystanders fit in your model? How is it not a problem of that community to have so many people who either witnessed what was happening as it took place, or saw evidence of it after the fact, and did absolutely nothing? This was not just one or two or even four individuals.
If universities are intended to be places of higher learning, shouldn't at least one of those lessons be about our collective responsibility to each other as members of society? On that score, Vanderbilt was obviously failing. I hope they've made changes since then.
If universities are intended to be places of higher learning, shouldn't at least one of those lessons be about our collective responsibility to each other as members of society? On that score, Vanderbilt was obviously failing. I hope they've made changes since then.
15
You didn't read the previous NYT article. It was the bystanders that intervened, and caught one of the perpetrators.
@Kenarmy - based on my reading on this case, bystanders did NOT intervene. In this case, the school viewed the security footage of the men dragging/carrying the woman into the building, and that footage is what set off the criminal investigation. I haven't read anything indicating that bystanders helped intervene in or report this incident - in fact I've read the opposite: that people saw her being carried, yet didn't rise the occasion and offer assistance or call for help.
Thank goodness for the security footage....without it the prosecution's case would've been far more difficult to make.
Thank goodness for the security footage....without it the prosecution's case would've been far more difficult to make.
7
It seems that these cases almost always involve athletes either as perps or enablers. While it is positive that colleges and universities are studying ways to address sexual assault on campus, perhaps a focus on athletic programs and coaches would yield more impact. After a big victory, you often hear head coaches talking about the "character" of their players, referring to their performance in the game. I wonder if they care about the character of these men off the field? So few of these players go on to make a living playing football. Shouldn't these multi-millionaire coaches be held accountable for preparing these men to be responsible adults?
62
In my parents' generation, you were an adult at age 18. And today, you can carry an automatic weapon and shoot people for your country at age 18. Shouldn't these young people, arriving on campus, already be prepared by their parents to be responsible adults? There is a moral decay in our society that is pervasive. And no matter how "religious" the country purports to be, it only seems to be getting worse.
4
The kid gloves colleges use on their athletes is directly proportional to that student's athletic ability.
5
The sport of football has more important issues to deal with, such as whether or not the Patriots play with deflated footballs.
6
"Yet none of those people went to the police, just as no one had intervened earlier after seeing Mr. Vandenburg giving drinks to the woman and then, with the help of the other three, carrying her after she passed out."
That speaks to some fine parents who taught their privileged children well. Gross and disgusting.
That speaks to some fine parents who taught their privileged children well. Gross and disgusting.
214
Since the girl was totally unconscious and doesn't remember anything I strongly suspect she was drugged. Too bad that young women today must not trust their male friends...ever.
4
This is not an issue on all college campuses, it is an issue of campus culture at Vanderbilt. Look at Columbia, another elite institution whose students banded together to support a student who was sexually assaulted. Her assault is old news by today's standards, but the student body continues to discuss the issue and push for a resolution. As a columbia alum, I'd ask that you please not lump all college students together. Some campuses actually do foster intellectual engagement and a desire for social change...
112
There is also Stanford in yesterday's news, allegedly an ace swimmer raped a passed-out girl on the street.
2
Natalie - it is an issue on all college campuses. Yes, many are now taking steps to address campus sexual violence, but until that is eradicated everywhere, it will continue to be an issue everywhere, including Columbia.
1
This is not an issue on all college campuses? Where have you been? I am about to send a daughter to college in the fall and let me tell you this is a huge issue, everywhere. Where would you like to start? Anna at Hobart William Smith? The list of colleges being investigated by the federal government? It is an epidemic. It should be the single biggest news story of our time. If ISIS were bombing college campuses they could not be doing more damage than is already being done to our young women.
Finally, criminal convictions in this case. Finally, a school that brought evidence forward. Much more of that needs to happen. But in how many cases do things get swept under the rug? How many young girls are urged not to report. And how many universities are more concerned about alumni support and tarnishing admissions numbers than they are with what is happening right under their noses? And they know, believe me, they know. These young women have worked darn hard to get into these vaunted universities. Their parents pack them off with hugs and kisses and a matching pottery barn bedding set and then what, six months later they are dead? Debased? Scarred for life, physically or emotionally? And who is raising these monsters who would drag a comatose woman into a room and attack her mercilessly. While not too drunk to record it all on their phones. This is not an issue of the culture at one school. It is a huge issue for everyone.
Finally, criminal convictions in this case. Finally, a school that brought evidence forward. Much more of that needs to happen. But in how many cases do things get swept under the rug? How many young girls are urged not to report. And how many universities are more concerned about alumni support and tarnishing admissions numbers than they are with what is happening right under their noses? And they know, believe me, they know. These young women have worked darn hard to get into these vaunted universities. Their parents pack them off with hugs and kisses and a matching pottery barn bedding set and then what, six months later they are dead? Debased? Scarred for life, physically or emotionally? And who is raising these monsters who would drag a comatose woman into a room and attack her mercilessly. While not too drunk to record it all on their phones. This is not an issue of the culture at one school. It is a huge issue for everyone.
8
The two worst social changes since my youth in the 70's have come together here: The over-emphasis on scholastic sports that makes good athletes feel above mortal limitations and the 21 year old drinking age which has turned the quest for forbidden fruit into an "extreme sport".
21
In today's USA, colleges don't want to take any sort of parental responsibilities, so I don't look for much change in the amount of input from faculty and administration. No one really wants to spend more time than they are professionally required to with 18 to 22 year old kids. And those young, lucky kids have been raised to isolate themselves from adult strangers as well. They would react negatively to any sort of old fashioned teacher/student relationships outside of the mandated 3 classroom hours per week.
So this is what we get: an atomized campus environment where everyone is an autonomous "adult" and each has their "right" to be not told what to do until things escalate to the level of illegality and the law is called. Too bad, but nothing about this awful incident will change those basic relationships.
So this is what we get: an atomized campus environment where everyone is an autonomous "adult" and each has their "right" to be not told what to do until things escalate to the level of illegality and the law is called. Too bad, but nothing about this awful incident will change those basic relationships.
51
Imagine there's no football. I wonder if you can.--Sung to the tune of John Lennon's "Imagine".
It is good that colleges and universities are addressing the issue of campus rape, including how to report it and how to avoid it. But if it is the hallowed football team or the hard-drinking Greek houses or other violent, out-of control college institutions that account for a preponderance of campus rape, maybe it is time to let go of that income and face up to the alums. If you are an institution of higher education and the place that will guide teenagers into adulthood, maybe you should require a certain standard of behavior from all the students you make part of your college family, and not just on an emergency basis. Old-fashioned as that may seem.
It is good that colleges and universities are addressing the issue of campus rape, including how to report it and how to avoid it. But if it is the hallowed football team or the hard-drinking Greek houses or other violent, out-of control college institutions that account for a preponderance of campus rape, maybe it is time to let go of that income and face up to the alums. If you are an institution of higher education and the place that will guide teenagers into adulthood, maybe you should require a certain standard of behavior from all the students you make part of your college family, and not just on an emergency basis. Old-fashioned as that may seem.
192
It seems pretty simple to me: Apply the law to all adults equally regardless of whether they happen to be attending college. Gang rape is gang rape rape.
Imagine if there were not "hook up" culture and casual sex.
1
I don't think that we should conflate hooking up with rape. In one, you have two interested and eager participants. In the other you have a perpetrator and victim. Sex is not rape. Rape is rape.
4
This is a very big issue. The valedictorian of my son's large suburban high school class is now in prison 1000 miles from home due to raping another first year student under similar circumstances. He was also caught on videotape dragging the young victim by the hair into a building where he raped her. He wasn't an athlete, so I think that although some athletes feel entitled, we have to realize that the problem is much bigger than that.
388
Yep. It isn't just athletes and it isn't just Vanderbilt. As I posted earlier, I just don't understand the mindset of guys who would do such a thing. And, being drunk or stoned is not an excuse or even a valid explanation.
Something was terribly wrong with these guys before they entered Vandy and before they got drunk. Maybe by the time they enter college it was already too late to change them for the better. That makes me question whether "sensitivity:" classes would help. Maybe only years of intensive therapy would make a dent in their brains.
It seems that the best any university can do is to educate women to be "on guard" at all times, especially on dates or at parties. Also, it might help if the majority of decent male students were to band to gether and make it clear to their pals who have rape tendencies that, if you do this, we're gonna get you.
Something was terribly wrong with these guys before they entered Vandy and before they got drunk. Maybe by the time they enter college it was already too late to change them for the better. That makes me question whether "sensitivity:" classes would help. Maybe only years of intensive therapy would make a dent in their brains.
It seems that the best any university can do is to educate women to be "on guard" at all times, especially on dates or at parties. Also, it might help if the majority of decent male students were to band to gether and make it clear to their pals who have rape tendencies that, if you do this, we're gonna get you.
3
Very sad. This isn't just about athletes. But excess alcohol consumption seems to be a component. And nearly every time.
I find it alarming the frequency of rape committed by football team members. Here in Providence, Brown University had a similar case recently, and I could cite numerous examples involving football players w/ team mates. Is it a "pack" mentality involving complex latent homosexual tendencies ? Or is it alpha males with too much testosterone who believe they are above the law?
22
".....changing behavior and culture on college campuses is likely to be a long and difficult process....."
True. But change is so overdue and required on our campuses. Women have been scarred for life by the violence of sexual assault and so few of the perpetrators have been punished. Too many colleges have turned a blind eye to rape. Now, we have a start and, hopefully, both students and administrators have received and understood the message that sexual assault will face the full weight of the law.
True. But change is so overdue and required on our campuses. Women have been scarred for life by the violence of sexual assault and so few of the perpetrators have been punished. Too many colleges have turned a blind eye to rape. Now, we have a start and, hopefully, both students and administrators have received and understood the message that sexual assault will face the full weight of the law.
10
I am a graduate of Vanderbilt. I am proud that the school is taking campus rape seriously and supporting prosecution. Most schools brush assault under the rug, damaging those assaulted, with life-long results. The notion that attackers, especially athletes (not all, of course) are 'above the law' and have some special privilege that excludes them from consequences.As a university professor, Almost without fail, the victim is 'punished' as administrators say, 'we can't ruin a student's future over this.' I have had several students come to me with stories of date rape and assault by multiple people. At a private university and a Jesuit one, I've checked campus assault reports; invariably there are far fewer numbers.
I'd add that 'silence' on campus is not callous ignorance. Importantly, I believe students think they are not so different from the victim and so sexual assault is equally possible for any of them. For Eisenberg, I would contend that students 'associated' with a university where rape occurs does damage perceptions of their chosen school, as sexual assault and may make any student a prospective victim or perpetrator, not to mention prospective students to avoid involved schools.
I'd add that 'silence' on campus is not callous ignorance. Importantly, I believe students think they are not so different from the victim and so sexual assault is equally possible for any of them. For Eisenberg, I would contend that students 'associated' with a university where rape occurs does damage perceptions of their chosen school, as sexual assault and may make any student a prospective victim or perpetrator, not to mention prospective students to avoid involved schools.
55
Well said, and I would add not only did it not sweep it under the rug, but Vanderbilt also importantly called the police, unlike my alma mater, where they have a shadow justice system that they can keep quiet. Universities have got to get out of the criminal justice system's way. These are violent crimes that law enforcement and prosecutors must handle in order to get the just outcome that Nashville achieved in this case.
4
Gee, English syntax at Vanderbilt not so hot either. Ms. Davis's points have been made countless times. I would say this: Students and progressive administrators agitated for an end to all curfews, single sex residences, bans on overnight mixed company. Dating is essentially a relic of the past or a euphemism for a sexual relationship that lasts beyond a single weekend. We have the hook-up culture, which inherently disrespects women, who don't seem to mind it. Is everyone happy?
2
Did you not read the article? A complaint was filed that Vanderbilt discouraged victims from reporting incidents like this. Why? Because it makes the school look bad. Vanderbilt is one of 100 colleges being investigated. I am sure they are taking this seriously, now that they are under investigation, but were they doing that before? All the colleges that are under investigation are certainly taking it seriously. I find it ironic that you are proud of your university for how they handled it. It fits right in with the author's point that alumni and students will defend their elite institutions at all costs
As a parent of a child who is away at school, I am seeing first hand what is happening. The question I keep asking is:
How can it be that so many grownups have let go of their responsibility of TEACHING their children how to handle themselves in the real world?
The current culture of binge drinking and all the concomitant disasters that are happening on our college campuses is "Lord of the Flies" writ real.
www.planCstrategies.com
How can it be that so many grownups have let go of their responsibility of TEACHING their children how to handle themselves in the real world?
The current culture of binge drinking and all the concomitant disasters that are happening on our college campuses is "Lord of the Flies" writ real.
www.planCstrategies.com
9
Preppie predators.
But even that term is distracting. Predators.
There, that about says it. What wonders meis, in what world did these young men live in, inside their heads, that even such a horrible and vicious attack could have even remotely occurred to them.
"Good breeding" just means right schools and lots of checks written by daddy these days. That such depravity could lie undetected until suddenly springing into bloom in college, I find unlikely.
There is a part of privilege which flirts with being predatory. For our society, that is frightening. Because many of these young, self-unaware, well-groomed young people grow up to hold significant power.
Power. That is the real sickness here. With privilege comes power, and with power comes impunity, and with impunity comes... a feral heart.
But even that term is distracting. Predators.
There, that about says it. What wonders meis, in what world did these young men live in, inside their heads, that even such a horrible and vicious attack could have even remotely occurred to them.
"Good breeding" just means right schools and lots of checks written by daddy these days. That such depravity could lie undetected until suddenly springing into bloom in college, I find unlikely.
There is a part of privilege which flirts with being predatory. For our society, that is frightening. Because many of these young, self-unaware, well-groomed young people grow up to hold significant power.
Power. That is the real sickness here. With privilege comes power, and with power comes impunity, and with impunity comes... a feral heart.
41
Sports.
De-Jock America and re-establish learning institutions as such.
Get rid of jock and fraternity culture and you will cure this problem.
$6 Billion spent on public colleges and universities, Division I athletic programs alone in fiscal year (FY)2010, with costs rapidly spiraling upward in recent years. (Desrochers & Kirshstein, 2012).
Gang Rape ='s Team Rape - same group male aggression and objectification of all human interaction. Lose the overpaid jock coaches and the totally corrupt influence of professional sports.
America should get over whether a football is over or under inflated. It should not be the lead item on the news. Sexual violence, wife beating and rape are just the collateral damage of moronic jock culture. The rest is hot air.
De-Jock America and re-establish learning institutions as such.
Get rid of jock and fraternity culture and you will cure this problem.
$6 Billion spent on public colleges and universities, Division I athletic programs alone in fiscal year (FY)2010, with costs rapidly spiraling upward in recent years. (Desrochers & Kirshstein, 2012).
Gang Rape ='s Team Rape - same group male aggression and objectification of all human interaction. Lose the overpaid jock coaches and the totally corrupt influence of professional sports.
America should get over whether a football is over or under inflated. It should not be the lead item on the news. Sexual violence, wife beating and rape are just the collateral damage of moronic jock culture. The rest is hot air.
85
Insurance men have raped. Hardware store men have raped. Fast food employees have raped. Econ majors, violinists, handymen, executives, politicians and electricians have raped.
Rape is a violent felony that has nothing at all to do with vocation. Your bitterness against college athletes notwithstanding, alcohol abuse and binge-drinking probably do more to facilitate bad behavior than just about anything.
Rape is a violent felony that has nothing at all to do with vocation. Your bitterness against college athletes notwithstanding, alcohol abuse and binge-drinking probably do more to facilitate bad behavior than just about anything.
6
But all those other professions don't have huge institutions that want to sweep the crime under the rug, and kangaroo courts to protect the criminals.
5
Yeah - lots of men have raped, but in America gang rapes tend to be a team sport and also teams attract Sandusky type predators apparently, in part for the cover that money provides them. Don't make women go dry as if their having a few is 'asking for it.' That is truly a blame the victim cocktail.
8
Shame on every student that witnessed this and/or the aftermath. It is heart breaking that students could walk past this young woman and do nothing, or watch a video and not report this to the police. I have two daughters in college and I pray I have taught them better than this!
71
Let's hope the parents of males teach their sons accordingly as well.
5
Don't just pray. Have a really hard conversation with them about this. Talk to them about how to stand up for vulnerable students and how not too lose control of their senses?
3
Being of the elite is like being over any law.
2
It is what these rich spoiled brats would want you to believe. My grand-father was taught quite differently: with privilege comes responsiblity. As an officier during WWII, he went into retreat making sure everyone of his men was safely retreating. As an executive, he demanded his boss to speak politely to the workers. Today, some of my colleagues have trouble saying hello to the cleaner.
Possibly some ethics and manners programme needs to be set up for privileged students.
Possibly some ethics and manners programme needs to be set up for privileged students.
Why no protestors? Well, the boys got caught and are going to prison. What more do you want?
1
Glad to see these spoiled, rotten men receive the justice they so deserved. One has to assume that this case represents maybe one in a thousand campus assaults - the difference here being the victim had the will and courage to go through a lengthy court trial, facing unimaginable humiliation. She is the victim, and in my opinion, the hero.
38
I went to Vanderbilt as a grad student, and during my yearly pelvicexam, the nurse practitioner told me she saw enormous numbers of women come in for pelvic exams after a weekend party at a fraternity house, and not knowing what happened. Her examinations, of course, revealed that they had been vaginally or otherwise penetrated. Let's dignify common sense and acknowledge that a huge number of those women were raped. I saw the exact same script play out at my undergrad in the early 2000s.
Conversation about sexual assault rightly criticizes alcohol, but misses two other important factors. First, gender socialization (as discussed in Cordelia Fine's "Delusions of Gender"), which renders women easy victims, at war with their bodies and passive about enforcing boundaries; and men held to standards of brutish masculinity. Second, the cultural attitude that transgression of boundaries and domination of the vulnerable is "sexy" rather than criminal, and the entirely absent message that pleasure, respect, and connection are the basis of non-criminal sexuality. The most abundantly available and violent porn ever made hammers the transgression/domination model into our pliable minds with the click of a button, and is setting ever-more disturbing norms for our sexual identities.
Porn is brainwashing young men and women that "rape" is sex. I hope young people wake up, even if the Vanderbilt campus still seems to be sleeping.
Conversation about sexual assault rightly criticizes alcohol, but misses two other important factors. First, gender socialization (as discussed in Cordelia Fine's "Delusions of Gender"), which renders women easy victims, at war with their bodies and passive about enforcing boundaries; and men held to standards of brutish masculinity. Second, the cultural attitude that transgression of boundaries and domination of the vulnerable is "sexy" rather than criminal, and the entirely absent message that pleasure, respect, and connection are the basis of non-criminal sexuality. The most abundantly available and violent porn ever made hammers the transgression/domination model into our pliable minds with the click of a button, and is setting ever-more disturbing norms for our sexual identities.
Porn is brainwashing young men and women that "rape" is sex. I hope young people wake up, even if the Vanderbilt campus still seems to be sleeping.
165
You might want to add date rape drugs to the list, not just alcohol. I believe that the majority of "drunken" women have been drugged.
2
In all the comments, very few (if there are others than you) have mentioned the impact of pornography. It is not just in assault cases. It has created problems for a lot of individuals and for a lot of relationships. I can imagine that many will find this observation to be the product of repression or some such. Go ahead.
Oh. It's Porn. Corrupting out youth. I get it. Forcing them to drug young women with drug laced punch and then taking violent advantage of them?
Sorry, I have a problem with that reasoning.
Sorry, I have a problem with that reasoning.
1
Kudos to the alcohol companies for somehow getting a complete pass in this entire debate.
21
Plenty of people drink and do not commit rape. It's amazing that so many men (in these comments and elsewhere) demand that women take "personal responsibility" and not drink to avoid rape, but when a court holds men responsible for their actions, suddenly alcohol is to blame. Committing rape is far beyond "impaired" judgment, it is actively and intentionally choosing to harm another in one of the most hateful and despicable ways possible.
10
How about including the drug companies that supply the date rape drugs?
1
Why should the rape reflect on the University or the students? What happened is monstrous and the guilty should pay, not those innocently associated with them. I don't blame students in this media climate of collective guilt for being muted or defensive about it. I usually hate the expression "I'm sick of. . . " but I really am sick of institutions or men being targeted as monsters because there are some monsters among them. We've managed to recognize that group libel is wrong with most every group except institutions and men. I'm sick of NFL players, most of whom are completely innocent, being targeted as animals when the NY Times statistical blog shows that, on average, they likely commit crimes less frequently than others in their age group, including domestic violence. But the NFL's own commercials give the opposite impression. There are people out there actually arguing that women should automatically be believed in rape cases, including in the Times. What they want is the antithesis of justice. It is all part of this same idea of collective guilt, which is about as medieval as you can get. And though nothing justifies what happened to this woman, I'm sure there are students at her school angry at her for getting so drunk she couldn't defend herself at all, whether they say so or not. If you want to reduce sexual assault on campuses first, ban alcohol.
23
Ah, blaming the woman. Not surprised to see this sort of a comment.
21
Are you sure she wasn't drugged? Also, are you blaming the victim who if she, lacking experience, drank too much and passed out... was not protected by friends but rather raped.
27
Why do you assume she was drunk? They were handing her drinks, and they most likely had date rape drugs in them.
26
Party culture? Such an oxymoron. What an enormously sad review of the mores of our "institutions of higher learning"
74
well said. There is no such thing as "party culture". College students should well be more informed about where to look for culture, which is obviously not to be found in parties but in the library.
1
Drive through the Vandy campus on game day and you will see the "party culture" in action. The party culture exists there as it does on nearly every college campus. Does it promote sexual assault? No, not directly, but indirectly it provides the ingredients for it to occur. The consumption of intoxicating liquor, plus smoking a little weed, results in the suppression of inhibitions and the abandonment of moral behavior, which can lead to sexual assault.
2
We're living with the offspring of a generation of parents (not all of them, obviously, but some of them) who refused to tell their children no. Unfortunately, no is a very important life lesson.
139
Great. Blame it on the parents. These men and their victim are all adults.
2
Your comment on a generation of parenting has some truth to it, but I don't think you can blame campus sexual assaults on that phenomenon. I remember the exact same types of assaults, excuses and denials being pervasive when I was first at university in the late 1980s. Sexual assaults of all types have been pervasive and tacitly accepted for many generations, and insistent predators have always ignored the word "no." Trying to blame this on a particular generation is misguided.
15
Truer words were never spoken. Thank you.
1
While China and India churn out 100,000 engineers a year, we have a culture where guys who play with balls are top dogs thus assuring the decline of our empire. It is not only the campus culture that needs review, the overall culture has issues.
386
India has HUGE problems with sexual assault of women, rape, murder and assault of juveniles. I would hardly hail the "culture" toward women in either country as particularly edifying. But yes, they do have high standards in education....and if you have a billion people, producing 100,000 engineers isn't so hard!
13
Well, they also have millions who live without electricity, toilets, education, the ability to read....the list goes on. And India had spent the last year and a half grappling with a horrifying spectacle of vicious gang rapes that have even led to the death of the victim. There have also been prominent Indian businessmen accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault against their female colleagues or employees.
Point being...while I agree that America has a ridiculous notion of what makes someone a "hero" or worthy of iconic status - based primarily on the ability to dribble/kick/throw/hit a ball better than most others - it can't just be as simple as a "their culture" vs. "our culture" argument. Yes, higher education (and society nationwide) need to reasses the standards by which we elevate people (mostly men), but it's not because it makes us less competitive or puts us at a disadvantage internationally, though those are important considerations. It's because our values system is truly perverse if we base it upon a limited skill set that has virtually nothing to do with a person's character, intelligence, and non-athletic abilities.
Point being....it is
Point being...while I agree that America has a ridiculous notion of what makes someone a "hero" or worthy of iconic status - based primarily on the ability to dribble/kick/throw/hit a ball better than most others - it can't just be as simple as a "their culture" vs. "our culture" argument. Yes, higher education (and society nationwide) need to reasses the standards by which we elevate people (mostly men), but it's not because it makes us less competitive or puts us at a disadvantage internationally, though those are important considerations. It's because our values system is truly perverse if we base it upon a limited skill set that has virtually nothing to do with a person's character, intelligence, and non-athletic abilities.
Point being....it is
4
It seems to be the case. I could never understand that but, I was not born in the USA...
As a college professor, I am appalled at this kind of behavior.
What is it about colleges that create this situation? Is it about putting this many young people together? Is it about this being the first time "out of the nest" for so many of these young people?
Is it about alcohol?
Is rape REALLY more prevalent at college than in other segments of society with similar contributing factors?
Here is the bottom line: this HAS to be taken seriously! And it has to be taken seriously 1) on a case by case basis, 2) at the level of every school, and 3) on a national level.
What is it about colleges that create this situation? Is it about putting this many young people together? Is it about this being the first time "out of the nest" for so many of these young people?
Is it about alcohol?
Is rape REALLY more prevalent at college than in other segments of society with similar contributing factors?
Here is the bottom line: this HAS to be taken seriously! And it has to be taken seriously 1) on a case by case basis, 2) at the level of every school, and 3) on a national level.
127
Good question. Here are some statistics to begin with in answering it. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/rsavcaf9513pr.cfm
2
Even more frightening, this type of behavior is prevelant in the military where lots of 18 year olds, just out of the nest as you say, are in close proximity with the opposite sex and have a little money in their pockets.
2
Kirill, if you are going to post a link to an article in answer to Anthropologist's question, then why not post the article's title?
"Rape And Sexual Assault Higher Among College-Age Non-Student Females than Female College Students in 1995–2013"
"Rape And Sexual Assault Higher Among College-Age Non-Student Females than Female College Students in 1995–2013"
1
I think you should interview members of the football program and the faculty and ask them what they are going to do to stop it. As you noted, the student body changes constantly and their investment in their degrees is so great that they don't want to see that investment devalued. The faculty, however, could integrate lessons about respect, responsibility, gang psychology, the bad effects of alcohol, etc into classes in many disciplines, and hope to change the culture.
87
This problem is not limited to football players. As David Eisenberg has so well stated on here, perpetrators of nasty sexual assaults need to be found and prosecuted, regardless of whether they are athletes or not, and only those individuals that commit such crimes should be singled out by society.
4
I am the chair of the Women's and Gender Studies Department at The College of New Jersey. We discuss these issues in most of our classes, especially about the culture of rape that dismisses male responsibility in the crime by virtue of blaming the victim (she was drunk, should have known better, way she dressed, she asked for it etc.). I recently reviewed the student evaluations for members of my department and was so dismayed at how young men were disgusted with the conversation and that they knew better so this was an insult to them. The responses were vitriolic, and unfortunately they are not an aberration but common comments. According to these folks, they way we use women's bodies in commerce, advertising etc. have no bearing on how we view women as objects. But once a woman is an object, violence against her is much easier. If we, as a society, are reluctant to state the obvious and are much more comfortable with "women are raped" than "men rape women," then nothing will change. This does not mean that men, as a group are rapists. Indeed men are also victims of rape.But the fact remains that the overwhelming number perpetrators of rape are male. The more we try to address matters such as this, it seems the more we are maligned as "man-hating feminists" whose discipline has no value--particularly market value.
9
@AMN
Very valuable contribution but let me ask you this question: Are the female students in your class more inclined to go out with the exciting possible-rapist type or the safe-Clark Kent type? I am not blaming the women but rather the culture that portraits dangerous and aggressive men as sexually attractive and exciting and nice-guy as boring.
Very valuable contribution but let me ask you this question: Are the female students in your class more inclined to go out with the exciting possible-rapist type or the safe-Clark Kent type? I am not blaming the women but rather the culture that portraits dangerous and aggressive men as sexually attractive and exciting and nice-guy as boring.
2
In fact, since the 2011 Dear Colleague letter from the DOE/OCR, threatening to withhold all federal funding from any institution which did not follow the new strict policies for adjudicating sexual assault claims, all colleges (including even Harvard after 28 of their law professors objected) have bowed down to the new mandates.
Reputation is hard to uphold when a school is bankrupted by the government.