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Volume 128 Issue 10
Kansan.com
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Now four months into University of Kansas administrators' response to her alleged sexual assault, Ivory is left with one sentiment: "Nobody cares."
The name of the complainant in this story has been changed at her request. The name of the respondent of the accusation is also being protected.
EMILY DONOVAN
@emdons
Now four months into University of Kansas administrators' response to her alleged sexual assault, Ivory is left with one sentiment: "Nobody cares."
Ivory, a sophomore, filed one of the 17 sexual assault
that the respondent be put on probation, meet with IOA and pay restitution for out-of-pocket therapy expenses. Student Conduct and Community Standards subsequently decided that there had been no violation, and told Ivory so in a meeting on Aug. 18.
She thought her case was closed. She went home and cried.
Now, her case is being reopened against her will for a Formal Hearing Panel conducted by Student Affairs.
VIA STANDARD MAIL AND ELECTRONIC MAIL.
This is to inform you the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access (IOA) has completed its investigation into the allegation that you were sexually assaulted by Mr. when he engaged in sexual activity with you when you were incapacitated and unable to provide consent.
The University conducted this investigation as an alleged violations of the University of Kansas Sexual Harassment Policy and in accordance with the Discrimination Compliant Revolution Process. The Sexual Harassment Policy may be found at: www.ucsu.edu/policies/IOA/Sexual_Harassment.htm . The
https://documents.ku.edu/policies/OA/Sexual_Harassment.htm. The KU Discrimination Complaint Resolution Process may be found at:
http://www.htre.ku.edu/policies.procedures/eo_aa/discrimination_resolution
We have found using the preponderance of the evidence standard that it is more likely than not that [blank] assaulted you by kissing and touching you when you were incapacitated and unable to provide knowing and voluntary consent to engage in any sexual activity with him. As a result of this investigation, we have recommended to the Director of Student Conduct and Community Standards that [blank] be placed on probation for a period of six months, that he meet with staff from IOA to discuss the issues of consent and the interplay with alcohol and incapacity and that he be required to pay restitution to you for any out of pocket expenses you may have incurred because of seeing a therapist due to this.
Center Dreams | 2246 West Campan Road Room 153 | Lawrence, KS 66045-7521 | (785)864-8414 | Fax (785)864-8069 | www.tola-k.edu
She went in thinking it would get better if she reported to University administration. She thought IOA would communicate with her the way she had requested.
She was wrong.
complaints that the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access (IOA) has investigated so far in 2014.
According to emails and confidential letters to and from Ivory obtained by The University Daily Kansan, as well as interviews with Ivory, she accused the respondent, a male University student, on May 5 of non-consensual oral sex and attempting to penetrate her in November 2013. On June 30, IOA had finished its investigation, issued a conclusion, and recommended sanctions:
She saw the respondent for the first and last time that night. She said she got a text from him the next day with his first name. She said she still doesn't know anything other than his name, which fraternity he's in and the major listed on his Facebook profile.
"I think he was like 6-4, 6-5, over 200 pounds," she said. "A really large person to try to fight off"
It started at a bar in November 2013, the fall of her freshman year.
She said when his fraternity's designated driver picked them up as the bar was about to close, she thought they were going to take her to her home, not to spend the night at his fraternity.
That wasn't my pain, she said. Her memory of the night is choppy. She said he took her clothes off at his
"That wasn't my plan," she said.
fraternity. She said she felt uncomfortable, said no, tried to get him to stop and told him repeatedly that she wanted to go home.
"There was no point in the evening where I wanted to engage with this person sexually," she said. "None. And at every single point I made it clear that I was uncomfortable and that I did not want this to happen."
The respondent did not return The Kansan's voicemails.
The Kansan was not able to obtain the full IOA investigative report, which would include witness testimony of that night. Ivory signed a notarized Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act student records information release to allow the University to release records and information related to her sexual assault complaint to The Kansan reporter on Sept. 8. According to the University's Director of News and Media Relations Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, no records will be released until after her case review is completed, after the scheduled formal hearing, to avoid influencing those involved in the case, including witnesses and panel members. She said Ivory and the respondent have rights to review records that will be presented at the hearing.
After that night, Ivory said she didn't initially know that she could report what had happened and didn't know where or how to report it in the University. She had also heard news stories of nothing happening to alleged rapists when other people reported alleged sexual assaults and she did not want to go through that experience. The next day, and for months afterward, she tried to ignore that anything had happened.
"I didn't know what else to do," she said. "And I didn't think that anyone would help me."
In April, she finally told someone.
Her friend Amanda Schulze, then a senior from Wichita, knew how to report to IOA and what the University could do because she served on the Title IX Sexual Assault Training subcommittee. She told Ivory that there was a process
that could be effective.
If she didn't say anything, nobody would ever know what she said the respondent had done. That's what convinced her to report to the University.
"I wanted to feel like campus could be safe for other people and I felt like this person was dangerous," Ivory said.
After class on May 5, Ivory reported the alleged assault. With Schulze at her side, she sat down in IOA Investigator Jennifer Brooks' office in Carruth-O'Leary Hall.
According to IOA procedure as well as Ivory and Schulze's accounts, Brooks took notes as she had Ivory walk through the events of that night. IOA investigators follow a checklist, making sure investigators explain how IOA handles cases and giving complainants a list of resources.
On that checklist is "correspondence regarding investigation."
IOA normally sends all official documents by both standard mail to the complainant's listed address and by email to the complainant's @ku.edu email address. Ivory lived in the dorms as a freshman. Over the summer, her mail would be forwarded to her family's house.
Ivory hadn't — and still hasn't — told her family about her alleged sexual assault.
"I was very,very private about the whole thing," she said. "And I was hurting a lot."
According to procedure and accounts, Brooks asked if Ivory wanted both letters and emails. Ivory said to not send letters to her family house. She said to only email her.
"It was reiterated multiple times that she did not want anything sent to her home." Schulz said.
Ivory said she saw Brooks write down a note to only email and not mail and assured her that she would not be sent any mail to her parents' home. Schulze also said Brooks said everything would be emailed and not mailed.
The mail came to her family's house anyway.
Confidential PDFs obtained by The Kansan are all labeled as sent via standard mail and email: a summary of the May 5 meeting saying IOA would investigate, a copy of the notification of investigation addressed to the respondent, a directive that he not contact Ivory, and IOA's conclusion and sanction recommendations.
Ivory said she received the letters in two bundles, the first in the middle of June and the second at the end of June. She said they looked like any other official KU letters, which startled her. She opened them before her family saw them.
"My dad, very easily, with no bad intention, would have seen that and thought it was a bill or something," she said.
Ivory felt exposed. But she didn't contact IOA to make sure no more letters came. She said she was busy, she didn't know who to contact and she didn't think IOA would fix it.
Barcomb-Peterson said Jane McQueeny, IOA executive director, would not be able to comment on Ivory's case until after the scheduled hearing.
Ivory said no one from IOA was checking up with her and she didn't understand what she could ask.
On June 30, IOA sent its conclusion. IOA found that it is "more likely than not that [the respondent] assaulted [Ivory] by kissing and touching [her] when [she was] incapacitated and unable to provide knowing and voluntary consent to engage in any sexual activity with him."
"If somebody is incapacitated, then they're not able to consent to any sexual activity." Brooks said speaking in general during a Sept. 5 interview with The Kansan.
IOA's conclusion did not address Ivory's accounts that these sexual actions happened when she said no.
IOA recommended the respondent be put on probation without specifying
SEE IVORY PAGE 2
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