Last month, when Rolling Stone published a sensational account of an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house, the story emboldened rape victims nationwide to speak out—and seemed to put another nail in the coffin of fraternities accused of running amok.
Now, though, the story appears to be unraveling. That has caused deep concern for many activists and administrators, who fear the magazine’s incendiary article and subsequent backpedaling will arrest the momentum of years of sweeping efforts to combat sexual violence on college campuses.
Among the questions on their minds: Will the debacle keep future rape victims from speaking out? Let more fraternities off the hook? Cause university administrators—already under intense pressure to respond to sexual-assault accusations—to hold back, fearing a rush to judgment they might later regret?
On Friday, Rolling Stone apologized to readers for not trying to talk to the men that Jackie, the alleged victim, said had attacked her. “There now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account,” wrote Will Dana, the magazine’s managing editor, “and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced.”
The magazine’s announcement sent shock waves across campuses nationwide. Some students and observers were quick to portray the apology as vindicating their belief that the prevalence of rape on college campuses is exaggerated. But many others, including advocates for sexual-assault victims, saw a troubling pattern: The victim was being blamed, they said, and that could have repercussions later.
“If Rolling Stone feels like it should’ve conducted its research more fully, it should’ve done that,” Dana Bolger, a founding co-director of Know Your IX, a victims’-rights group, wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “But throwing Jackie under the bus for its journalistic mistakes is not only unfair to her but to survivors everywhere. Victims were already met with skepticism when they spoke out. Who’s going to possibly want to speak up now?”
Traumatized rape survivors often forget details of their experiences, she added. “Just because there are ‘discrepancies’ in Jackie’s story doesn’t mean she’s lying. It doesn’t mean she wasn’t raped.”
Many who had been following the case took to social media to make that point. Using the hashtag #IStandWithJackie, more than 1,000 Twitter users weighed in in the first four hours after the news broke to defend the accuser.
One tweet read: “You know how many gross white boys at frats across the country are going to throw vindication parties at their frats now?”
‘Dueling Narratives’
In a statement released on Friday, UVa’s president, Teresa A. Sullivan, sought to reassure students that pressure to improve the campus climate won’t let up. “We will continue to take a hard look at our practices, policies, and procedures, and continue to dedicate ourselves to becoming a model institution in our educational programming, in the character of our student culture, and in our care for those who are victims,” she wrote.
The state’s attorney general, Mark R. Herring, said that sexual-assault victims “should never feel further victimized by a response that is inadequate, suspicious, or judgmental.” The magazine’s backtracking “leaves us with serious questions,” he said, but “we must not lose the sense of urgency that students, alumni, campus leaders, law enforcement, and many Virginians have brought to this conversation.”
The controversy illustrates the enormous pressure campus leaders face to act quickly and decisively on sexual-assault allegations even when the facts are still murky, said Peter F. Lake, director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University.
“College presidents routinely face situations where they’re in the fog of war,” said Mr. Lake, who serves as a legal consultant to colleges on sexual assault and other issues. At the same time, “any college president has to be sure they’re acting on information they can verify and not just acting on what they’re reading in the paper.”
No one wants a repetition of the Duke lacrosse scandal, which tarnished the reputations not only of the falsely accused players, but also of the university.
The “dueling narratives” playing out in Virginia, Mr. Lake said, are similar to those that Pennsylvania State University alumni had to wade through when that campus was rocked by reports of a high-level attempt to cover up a football coach’s sexual abuse of children.
Many activists have also expressed concern that the questions swirling around the case will set back efforts to crack down on sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, and other misconduct by fraternities.
On Friday an association representing 74 fraternities across North America—including Phi Kappa Psi, whose UVa chapter is disputing the allegations lodged against it in Rolling Stone—asked Ms. Sullivan to reverse her decision to suspend Greek activities until after the winter break. There was no indication the university planned to do so.
“As we’ve said all along, it is not right to punish an entire community of students based on allegations against a very small subset of those students—especially when those allegations have not been investigated or proven,” Peter Smithhisler, president of the North-American Interfraternity Conference, said in an email to The Chronicle.
Some students and outsiders who have accused universities of being too quick to believe stories of abuse, particularly when fraternity members are involved, reacted almost gleefully to the news on social media. Mr. Smithhisler, however, chose his words carefully.
“While we are heartened to discover that the horrible story shared in the Rolling Stone article is untrue, that does not reduce the significance of the issue of sexual violence on college campuses nor the importance of encouraging timely reporting and thorough investigation of such incidents,” he said, adding that fraternities “want to be part of the solution.”
Dangerous Skepticism
Nevertheless, skepticism abounds after public backtracking like Rolling Stone’s. And doubts about Jackie’s story are bound to inhibit future victims, said Kathleen A. Bogle, an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University.
“It is very sad that a sexual-assault case that may be false was so widely reported and discussed,” she said. Only 2 to 8 percent of sexual assaults turn out to be false, she said, pointing to widely cited research. “However, any false report is going to fuel suspicion of victims when they come forward, which is terrible for the victims themselves and for anyone who cares about the sexual-assault problem on campus.”
As one student tweeted: “If you’re using the word ‘hoax’ to describe what’s going on you should be ashamed of yourself.”
Regardless of how much of Jackie’s story withstands closer scrutiny, the process of uncovering the truth when rape accusations are lodged can be brutal on the alleged victims. David S. Cohen, an associate professor of law at Drexel University, cringed when he saw how Jackie’s story had been dissected in the Washington Post article that broke the news that the fraternity was disputing key points in her account.
“The article read like they were cross-examining a criminal defendant as opposed to listening to someone who clearly experienced a traumatic event in her life,” he said in an interview on Friday. “I’m very concerned that women on college campuses are going to be afraid that if they come forward, they won’t be believed—and that they’ll be interrogated by college administrators, the police, and any news outlets that pick it up.”
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, college-completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.
UVa’s Tumultuous 2 Weeks
The revelations that emerged about Rolling Stone’s reporting were the latest twist in an episode that rocked the Charlottesville campus and higher education in little more than two weeks. Here’s how the story unfolded:
November 19. Rolling Stone publishes the article, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVa.” That evening, the university’s president, Teresa A. Sullivan, responds with a statement that does not directly address the allegations in the article but touts measures to prevent sexual assault that the college has taken.
November 20. The university names an independent counsel to investigate the alleged incident. The next day, after observers point out he is an alumnus of the fraternity in question, Phi Kappa Psi, the choice is scrapped.
November 22. Ms. Sullivan releases a second statement, which appears to accept the allegations as fact and announces that the university’s fraternities have suspended activities until early January.
November 25. As protests flare on the campus, the university’s Board of Visitors holds a special meeting to discuss campus rape, and passes a resolution supporting a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual assault.
December 1. In a speech to students, Ms. Sullivan announces a series of steps the university will take to combat campus rape, including negotiating new contracts with fraternities and instituting bystander-intervention training for students and faculty and staff members. That same day, The Washington Post opens media criticism of the Rolling Stone article, reporting that its author did not speak to the alleged rapists.
December 2. Media criticism of Rolling Stone’s reporting grows, anchored by Slate’s comprehensive deconstruction of the article and a piece in The New York Times.
December 5. The Post reports that Phi Kappa Psi disputes central assertions in the Rolling Stone account. Among other things, the chapter says it did not hold a party on the weekend of the date cited in the article. Rolling Stone publishes a short apology. In the evening, UVa releases a statement from Ms. Sullivan stating that the university is “aware” of the day’s developments. Ms. Sullivan says that the university is focused on student safety and supporting sexual-assault victims. “Today’s news must not alter this focus,” she says.
December 6. Rolling Stone updates and expands its apology, with more detail on the discrepancies and a clarification that it is not blaming Jackie for them. “These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie,” the updated apology says. “We apologize to anyone who was affected by the story and we will continue to investigate the events of that evening.”
—Andy Thomason
