Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    AI and Microcredentials
Sign In
Campus Safety

‘I Want to Get This Right’: Scenes From a Conference on Campus Sex Assault

By Sarah Brown July 25, 2016
Washington
Students and advocacy groups at Stanford U. protested in June when a judge sentenced a former student to only six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
Students and advocacy groups at Stanford U. protested in June when a judge sentenced a former student to only six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.AP/D. Ross Turner

The case was familiar to everyone in the room: Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, was found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman earlier this year. A projected PowerPoint slide highlighted some of a judge’s reasons for sentencing Mr. Turner to just six months in jail for committing three felonies — a decision that sparked a national uproar.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Students and advocacy groups at Stanford U. protested in June when a judge sentenced a former student to only six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
Students and advocacy groups at Stanford U. protested in June when a judge sentenced a former student to only six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.AP/D. Ross Turner

The case was familiar to everyone in the room: Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, was found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman earlier this year. A projected PowerPoint slide highlighted some of a judge’s reasons for sentencing Mr. Turner to just six months in jail for committing three felonies — a decision that sparked a national uproar.

Alcohol shouldn’t be an excuse for Mr. Turner’s behavior, the judge explained in the statement, but it was a factor. That affected his sentencing decision.

“Is everyone equally disturbed by this?” asked Michael L. Milnor, a former criminal investigator who is now the chief of police in Altavista, Va. Mr. Milnor, who was leading a workshop on investigative strategies for sexual-assault cases, scanned the group sitting before him: about 50 officials in higher education and law enforcement, as well as representatives from rape-prevention groups. Heads were nodding in agreement.

Figuring out the role of alcohol, he told the audience, is a hurdle they would have to overcome when conducting campus sexual-violence investigations.

Mr. Milnor’s session was part of the National Center for Campus Public Safety’s first conference, held here all last week at George Washington University, at which the center unveiled a new curriculum for college officials and police officers focused on conducting “trauma informed” sexual-assault investigations.

The center was established in 2013 through a funding agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Margolis Healy, a campus-safety consulting firm. In an April 2014 report, the White House’s sexual-assault task force asked the center to develop the curriculum by September of that year.

Since then, the center has solicited feedback from federal agencies — including the Office for Civil Rights, which has waged a strong campaign against campus sexual assault — and run several pilot offerings of the curriculum, tweaking its content and design based on responses from campus officials and others.

‘A More Holistic Approach’

Last week’s conference didn’t just give Title IX officers and other administrators their first chance to engage with the new curriculum and with experts on sexual-assault investigations. It also offered them an opportunity to connect with others who investigate and try to prevent sexual assault, compare notes, and ask questions.

Nearly 100 people attended, and 33 colleges — including four-year public and private ones, religious colleges, and community colleges — were represented.

ADVERTISEMENT

The new curriculum isn’t about checking a compliance box for Title IX, the federal gender-equity law, or for the Clery Act, the federal campus-safety law, said Andrea Young, the national center’s program and training manager. It’s designed to teach best practices with the goal of helping students — and to stress the importance of bringing a range of perspectives to the table.

“We didn’t just want to have a Title IX investigator up there telling us how to do an investigation,” Ms. Young said. “We wanted to take a more holistic approach.” She said the curriculum will be offered at a number of campuses over the next year; two have been confirmed as hosts for the fall.

Given the intensity of trauma-based work, it’s easy for administrators and others who run sexual-assault investigations to get burned out, said Steven J. Healy, a managing partner and co-founder of Margolis Healy. That’s why the curriculum includes “self care” breaks each day, during which participants can stretch, relax, and jot down reflections.

Kati Lake, director of the recently founded campus-services division at the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, said she had come to the conference to learn about sharing information when campus and criminal investigations are taking place at the same time.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ms. Lake said she was also interested to hear whether college officials felt they had the training and resources to handle sexual-violence cases. “Do they feel prepared,” she asked, “for the emotional, spiritual, physical reaction of a victim coming forward?”

Tiffany Cox, the Title IX coordinator and director of equity and inclusion at Tennessee State University, said her chief question coming into the conference centered on that issue exactly: How could she make sure that she wasn’t revictimizing students who reported sexual assaults?

Interview Strategies

“What’s the most likely defense?” Carrie Hull, a detective with the police department in Ashland, Ore., posed that question to the audience near the beginning of a morning session on “interviewing the respondent” — the person accused of sexual misconduct.

She was explaining how easy it is to have preconceived notions of how such an interview will unfold. Murmurs began throughout the room. “Consent!” Ms. Hull said. “Let’s acknowledge it: You’re walking into the room thinking you have some idea of what they’re going to say.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Ms. Hull and one of her three co-teachers, Chantelle Cleary, the Title IX coordinator at SUNY’s Albany campus, ran down a list of interview strategies: Use constructions like “Help me understand. …" Ask about the student’s background — where they’re from, what they do outside of class, and where they spend time on the campus. Ask about witnesses. Seek evidence, like text messages and social-media accounts.

“These,” Ms. Hull said, waving her smartphone, “are little miracles for corroboration.”

It’s crucial to allow students to answer questions in their own words, Ms. Hull said. Even if there’s a long pause, she said, don’t jump in with any prompts. And if a student balks at answering, try not to slip into interrogation mode, Ms. Cleary said.

If an alleged victim didn’t answer a question, she pointed out, you wouldn’t become visibly frustrated. “We shouldn’t be doing that to a respondent.” A better approach, she said, might be to emphasize that “I want to get this right” before rephrasing the question.

Consent’s ‘Gray Area’

After a lunch break, the attendees returned for the week’s 11th session: investigative strategies. The presentation, led primarily by Mr. Milnor, grappled with some of the thorniest questions in the area of campus rape.

ADVERTISEMENT

“At what point does intoxication become incapacitation?” Mr. Milnor asked the group. And at what point does intoxication become an excuse for the accused? Can it be an excuse? One audience member pointed out how difficult it can be to determine incapacitation: Campus officials might define it one way while many students see it differently.

The discussion soon turned to the issue of consent, which might seem like a yes-or-no concept, Mr. Milnor said, strolling around the room. “Is there ever a gray area on consent?” An audience member piped up almost immediately: Yes, because consent to one thing doesn’t mean consent to everything. So, Mr. Milnor continued, how do you handle that in an investigation?

Then he introduced another question: There can’t be consent when there’s force involved, but “what does force look like?” For instance, he said, if the case involves a professor and a student, does the professor’s influence over that student — by virtue of his or her position — qualify as a type of force?

Read More About 'Yes Means Yes'
Affirmative-consent rules are intended to set clear standards for what’s required of students. And they’re changing how colleges adjudicate alleged assaults.
  • ‘Yes’ to Sex? Students Consider What That Looks and Sounds Like
  • As Consent Rules Change, Big Questions Come to the Surface
  • The Legal Limits of ‘Yes Means Yes’

Later on, the group was shown a brief clip from NBC’s Today on a sexual-assault case. A post on the accused man’s Facebook page detailed a “sexual-activity calorie guide.” The guide listed “removing her clothes with her consent” as 12 calories, while doing so without consent was more than 2,000.

ADVERTISEMENT

Is that enough evidence to prove that the man engaged in sex that wasn’t consensual? Mr. Milnor asked. Probably not by itself, one audience member suggested, but the fact that someone even thinks sex can happen without consent is a sign that the person might have committed rape.

“Bingo,” Mr. Milnor said.

At times, the three instructors had to work to prompt audience responses. But once the session turned to case studies, the participants intently discussed in small groups how they would investigate particular situations.

Representatives from each group then presented briefly to the room. Their plans for tackling each case were sophisticated, and reflected that many of the participants already had a lot of experience carrying out thoughtful, nuanced campus sexual-assault investigations.

ADVERTISEMENT

But given the volume of questions at each session on Wednesday, it was clear that everyone still had a lot to learn.

Sarah Brown writes about a range of higher-education topics, including sexual assault, race on campus, and Greek life. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.

A version of this article appeared in the August 5, 2016, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
SarahBrown2024
About the Author
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown is The Chronicle’s news editor. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Content

As Consent Rules Change, Big Questions Come to the Surface
Colleges Under Investigation for Sexual Assault Wonder What Getting It Right Looks Like
What ‘Yes Means Yes’ Means for Colleges’ Sex-Assault Investigations
Many Title IX Coordinators Are New to the Job and Juggling Many Duties
Should Colleges Be Forced to Swiftly Report Rapes to the Police?
Overseeing Sex-Assault Cases Is Now a Full-Time Job

More News

Photo illustration showing Santa Ono seated, places small in the corner of a dark space
'Unrelentingly Sad'
Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah.
Illustration of a rushing crowd carrying HSI letters
Seeking precedent
Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Is Discriminatory and Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Argues
Photo-based illustration of scissors cutting through paper that is a photo of an idyllic liberal arts college campus on one side and money on the other
Finance
Small Colleges Are Banding Together Against a Higher Endowment Tax. This Is Why.
Pano Kanelos, founding president of the U. of Austin.
Q&A
One Year In, What Has ‘the Anti-Harvard’ University Accomplished?

From The Review

Photo- and type-based illustration depicting the acronym AAUP with the second A as the arrow of a compass and facing not north but southeast.
The Review | Essay
The Unraveling of the AAUP
By Matthew W. Finkin
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome propped on a stick attached to a string, like a trap.
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Can’t Trust the Federal Government. What Now?
By Brian Rosenberg
Illustration of an unequal sign in black on a white background
The Review | Essay
What Is Replacing DEI? Racism.
By Richard Amesbury

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: a Global Leadership Perspective
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin