By Victoria Byrum
Her story began like this:
"I was at a party at a UFA and I was drinking. It was a Friday night. I ended up upstairs in one of the bedrooms with a friend and a bunch of people I didn't know. We ended up passing around a bottle of alcohol, and one by one people trickled out until it was just me and four guys I didn't know.
"Pretty soon I was the only one drinking, and somehow I ended up on one of the beds kissing a guy. Then I blacked out. I had had enough to drink that I had no idea what happened. The first thing I remember is waking up facing a wall I didn't recognize, on a futon I didn't know. I was still drunk enough things weren't really coherent, I didn't really know what was happening. I realized I was in a pair of clothes that weren't mine, and I was next to a guy I didn't know. I got up, went upstairs, and found my clothes in the bedroom. I put them on and he drove me back to LoRo. I went up to my room and slept for two days.
"I wasn't entirely sure what had happened till I talked with my roommate who had been at the party. She told me we had definitely had sex. I believed her completely. More than one person had seen us, and no one had tried to stop it or even said anything. All I ever ended up knowing was his first name.
"I never said a word. I didn't want to think about it or deal with it. This is probably the first time I told the entire story to anyone, and it's been over two years."
This story, told by a University of Richmond class of 2007 woman, is far more common than many students might think.
A report by the National Institute of Justice titled, "The Sexual Victimization of College Women," states that "women at a college that has 10,000 female students could experience more than 350 rapes a year."
Kerry Fankhauser, the Westhampton College assistant dean, said the University of Richmond probably has upwards of 150 rapes per year. University police reported six accounts of forcible sex offenses between 2002 and 2004.
Neither Patrick Benner, the assistant dean of Richmond College resident life, or Angie Harris, the Westhampton College assistant dean of resident life, could recall a rape report that had gone through the university judicial system.
Benner described what would happen if a student ever did report to the deanery, saying, "If there ever were a case, we would first notify the victim of all of their options, then let them make the decision about how to proceed."
Harris also leaves the decision up to the victim.
"Our greatest concern is the victim's well being," she said. "We offer them more of a supportive environment than anything else, encouraging them to write letters to their assailants or other helpful things."
Though the students may not report to the police, both deaneries are legally obligated to disclose the number of victims who visit them.
The Student Health Center and Counseling and Psychological Services, on the other hand, have no legal obligation to report to police, as both adhere to a confidentiality clause.
Peter LeViness, the director of CAPS, said, "The only time we would ever report to the police would be if the assailant were a stranger from off-campus, or a repeat offender, a threat to students' safety."
CAPS may not disclose numbers to the police, but they do record the reasons that students use the center.
According to LeViness, since 2004, only three students have visited CAPS regarding sexual assault or rape. An anonymous survey conducted by CAPS this past spring showed that 9.8 percent of women and 3.9 percent men
who took the survey had been sexually assaulted while a student at the university. These low numbers, LeViness explained, may be due to the low response rate of the student body or because the phrase €˜sexual assault' was not clearly defined.
"At the very least, the numbers are usually an underestimate," he said. "Plus, students more distressed would have been less likely to take the survey."
Dan Fabian, the Richmond College assistant dean and faculty head of Stealing Home, an on-campus organization that deals with assault, believes that drinking is the biggest issue regarding sex offenses.
"Nationally," Fabian said, "71 percent of men and 51 percent of women involved in sexual assaults were drinking at the time. You can have sex. Just don't mix it with drugs and alcohol. It will be better anyway."
Lt. Adrienne Meador, a University of Richmond police investigator who specializes in on-campus sexual assault cases, believes that, "alcohol use leads to a significant amount of self-blame. Victims fall into stereotypes, thinking, €˜I knew better'."
Kate Harmon, the student president of Stealing Home, says that alcohol not only shifts blame, but could remove it entirely.
"People don't know what happened to them was wrong," she said, describing how alcohol not only lowers
inhibitions, but cognitive abilities as well. Still, Harmon argues, "If you do it (rape), you do it. Who cares if you're drunk?"
While the use of alcohol by victims may discourage students from reporting rapes or sexual assaults, it is not the only factor that faculty and students cite. Time was another issue continuously brought up.
"Most people do not respond immediately. They take a few months to process what happened," Fabian said.
Juliette Landphair, the dean of Westhampton College, also addressed the time barrier.
"Months or even years later, they [victims] have not sought out support. Because they haven't addressed it, their lives fall apart, mentally and academically," she said. Other circumstances also affect the rate of reporting on campus. Fankhauser, a sexual assault survivor, sees the apathy on campus as another hindrance.
"Students here get so overwhelmed and focused in on themselves instead of looking out at what's going on," she said, emphasizing the lack of student involvement in sexual assault issues. "What is going to get people going? Getting a community perspective. This is a community. You live here for four years. Look outside yourself and take ownership."
Richmond College officials have struggled with ways to educate men.
"You'd have a really good speaker or RA program, and no one would attend," Steve Bisese, said the former Richmond College dean who now is vice president for student development.
"Students choose not to attend these events," he continued, describing how even resident assistants were often forced to go to their own programs.
"I am a huge fan of students taking charge. It takes a passionate student to have a rallying cry," Bisese said.
Educating men about sexual assault is vital, administrators agree. According to Fabian, a national survey conducted in 2001 showed that one in four men would rape a woman if they knew that there would be no consequences.
"Men are primarily the perpetrators, whether the victim is male or female, so it only makes sense that we educate them," Fankhauser said.
According to Fabian, who is also an orientation coordinator, Stealing Home had asked the University of Richmond Players to perform a play called "Think Again." This play consists of multiple scenarios that depict rapes on a college campus, and is shown separately to males and females.
"Men, especially when they are 18, become uncomfortable when this issue is brought up," Fabian said. "They laugh, which would be detrimental to women in the audience." Fabian said this particular aspect of orientation will not be changing in the near future, though the structure of the play itself will.
This year, a new campus group called S.A.R.T, or the Sexual Assault Response Team, began work. According to organizer Kate Harmon, this team consists of seven University of Richmond students who have been trained through the Richmond YWCA in sexual assault and rape responses. These students carry a pager 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which will be used when a student reports to the police or CAPS. The S.A.R.T member on call will serve as an advocate for the victim, providing emotional support and a medium through which to communicate.
"It's easier to talk to someone your age than, say, an assistant dean," Harmon said.
Jessie Dorne, a S.A.R.T member, says that most people can't articulate what happened, or decide what to do in their situation. S.A.R.T.'s job will be to help them through the process.
S.A.R.T officially began the week after Spring Break, but Harmon says it has yet to be used. One explanation for this is the difficulty of publicizing such a program.
"It's hard to do a Spiderbyte saying, €˜Have you been assaulted?'," Harmon said. University police Lt. Adrienne Meador also says that the idea of peers knowing what happened may be potentially problematic.
"One problem would be from a privacy perspective," she said. "Victims may not want their peers involved, especially on a campus this small."
Stealing Home has also begun a forum called Saturday Nights, where victims are given the opportunity to anonymously express their experiences. These expressions can be written accounts of their stories, poems, drawings, songs, or any other form of self expression. The initiative, Fabian explained, began as a website for Duke, and was adapted for University of Richmond students. Fankhauser, who has been involved in the Saturday Nights effort, says that the school hopes to publish a booklet of Richmond's contributions to distribute among students by the spring of next year.
The university administration has also attempted to raise the reporting rate of rape on campus. Harris developed a new, anonymous reporting website for students to record their experiences. Instead of going to the police or the health center, students can formally report what happened without feeling pressured to decide what action to take next.
"It's hard to separate steps like tests and police reports from, €˜I have to make a decision'. It's all so overwhelming," Harris explained.
Fankhauser agrees that this new system of reporting is a great new development.
"Students don't realize that reporting doesn't have to mean pressing charges," Fankhauser said.
Also under development is a plan for what will be known as the Westhampton Center, a $3 million building project. Landphair says that the center will be attached to the current Westhampton deanery, and will house numerous new resources for Westhampton women. One of these resources includes the Westhampton College
Resource Director, a new administrator whose job will be to handle issues of rape and sexual assault.
"We know that campuses that deal with this best have a professional staff member whose sole responsibility is to deal with this," Landphair explained. The center is in its initial fundraising stages.
The underreporting of rape is not a problem exclusive to the University of Richmond. Information included in a sexual assault pamphlet distributed by Stealing Home said that, according to the FBI, rape is the number one most underreported violent crime in the nation. There is no one solution that might fix this problem, though certain steps can be taken in order to lessen the severity of it.
"I think what people need to realize is how long lasting the effects of something like this may be," the class of 2007 rape victim said. "Even if you try and push it to the back of your mind, it doesn't go away. And it's something you don't realize right away but it happens. It's important to deal with it right away, and save yourself a lot of pain."