Swarthmore Vacates Finding Against Student Expelled for Sexual Assault

Swarthmore College has agreed to vacate a disciplinary board’s finding against a student who was expelled after being found culpable in a case of sexual assault, The Delaware County Daily Times reports. The college and the student, who is not named in court documents, agreed on November 13 that new information raises “sufficient questions” to cast doubt on the fairness of the campus hearing that led to his expulsion.

The accused student filed a federal civil lawsuit in January, asserting that the college had made him a “whipping boy” amid pressure to demonstrate a zero-tolerance policy on campus rape. The student was initially exonerated by the disciplinary board, but his case was reopened after two students filed federal complaints accusing Swarthmore of discouraging students from filing reports of sexual assault, among other things.

As part of the agreement, the accused student has dropped the federal complaint.

“While the terms of the agreement do not allow us to discuss it in any detail, we can say that over the past 18 months we have been working hard to make sure our student-conduct procedures are as fair as we can make them for all parties involved,” said Alisa Giardinelli, a Swarthmore spokeswoman, in an email to the Daily Times. “We do believe that if we are made aware of new information that could affect a student-conduct decision, it is the right thing to do to re-evaluate.”