Statesman August 29, 2012

THE STATESMAN

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA DULUTH

WWW.UMDSTATESMAN.COM

Freshman numbers call for less housing

BY ANNE KUNKEL kunke063@d.umn.edu

Two hundred and fifty dorm rooms will sit empty this year at UMD as freshman enrollment drops below 2,000 students for the first time in years.

“We’re in a situation we’ve never been in before,” said John Weiske, the housing department director at UMD. This will be a big change after the past few years when freshman numbers have been unusually high. They have been so high that the housing department didn’t have enough on-campus rooms for students, and some were sent to live in hotels for a semester.

In 2010 there were 2,040 freshmen living on campus. Another 120 were living at the Edgewater Express, a hotel down on London Road about 1.4 miles from campus.

“That total number only equaled about 90 percent of freshmen, since 10 percent usually find a place off campus to live,” said Weiske.

This year there will be approximately 1,900 freshmen enrolled at UMD, with 1,750 living on campus.

“UMD’s new freshman enrollment has consistently been above An empty lounge in Lake Superior Hall remains silent on Tuesday, Aug. 28. Freshman enrollment dips below ALEX LEONE/STATESMAN 2,000 since 1999,” said Mary 2,000 students this school year.

Keenan, enrollment manager at decrease in freshmen will account bers has provided new housing campus because we have needed Apartments has been opened up UMD. as many spaces as possible,” said for graduate students, something Keenan also said that even for a 2-3 percent drop in overall opportunities for UMD. “We have never marketed to Weiske. though upperclassman enrollment enrollment this year. that has never been done before.

However, this decrease in num- returning students to stay on Now an entire floor of Junction numbers have stayed the same, this

An investigation into sexual assault at UMD

Surveys reveal big gap in sexual assault reporting at UMD

BY EMILY HAAVIK AND TRAVIS DILL haavi010@d.umn.edu dill0169@d.umn.edu

Based on the reported number of incidents, the University of Minnesota Duluth campus would seem to be relatively free of sexual violence. The number of sexual assaults reported to the federal government from 2008 to 2010: three.

But an eight-month investigation by two Statesman reporters found a different story: Hundreds of women every year, according to surveys commissioned by the university, said they had been sexually assaulted.

In 2010 and 2011, as many as 650 female UMD students out of 11,233 - or one in 17 – said they had experienced attempted or completed sexual assault, the university surveys found.

Hannah Rivenburgh, public health associate at the Minnesota Department of Health, said that low numbers of official sexual assault reports indicate a culture in which victims aren’t comfortable reporting.

“We get really concerned when it says zero,” Rivenburgh said.

“That’s quite common, and that’s pretty scary because it means that there’s not a culture on campus in which it’s accepted and OK to come forward and report.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) commissioned a 2007 study

that found 16 percent of rape victims will ever report their assault.

Another DOJ study shows one in five women, or 20 percent, will be sexually assaulted during her years in college. UMD’s surveys support that, indicating that every

year, 2.8 to 5.6 percent of its female students – or from 150 to 300 – say they experience attempted or completed sexual assault.

“Then if you see numbers like one and two (reported incidents),” Rivenburgh said, “that’s when we

get really worried that this issue isn’t being talked about on campuses.”

All universities that receive federal funding must report alleged sexual assaults and other crime statis-

tics to the Department of Education under the Clery Act, passed

by Congress in 1998.

Although it is typical for see SURVEYS, A3

ALEX LEONE/STATESMAN

Find more on this investigation inside • • • •

Sexual assault victims feel pressured to drop charges, A2 UMD changing some policies on how it handles sexual assaults, A4 No sanctions in 14 years, A4 No one is immune: A former UMD student’s story of sexual assault, B2

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29

Sexual assault victims feel pressured to drop charges

BY EMILY HAAVIK AND TRAVIS DILL haavi010@d.umn.edu dill0169@d.umn.edu

Two University of Minnesota Duluth students say that when they reported they were sexually assaulted to campus police, they felt that police discouraged them from pressing charges.

In a February 2010 case, the investigator wrote in his report that he doubted the woman reporting a rape was telling the truth.

After he emphasized to her the negative effect the charges would have on the man she was accusing, she recanted her story. Later, she told a different officer that her original account was the truth.

In the other case, from fall 2011, the woman reporting sexual assault said the officer told her “he doesn’t think the case would go very far because I didn’t say no forcefully.”

She, too, ended up deciding not to press charges.

It is “never appropriate” to discourage victims from pressing charges, said Stephen Thompson, the sexual aggression services director at Central Michigan University.

Thompson has conducted more than 2,000 trainings and presentations on sexual assault prevention at government agencies and universities, including at UMD. He reviewed police reports from the two cases at the request of the Statesman reporters.

“In both cases, the women said ‘stop,’ and certainly in law enforcement training that’s all you’ve got to do,” Thompson said.

As for whether the case should move forward, he said: “It’s not up to law enforcement to decide that, it’s up to an attorney.”

Lt. Sean Huls, who was interim director of the UMD Police Department until July 9, said his department has never encouraged a sexual assault victim to drop charges.

“If that is being accused, that would be false,” Huls said.

“There would be no benefit to UMD to discourage victims.”

According to a UMD police report: “Amber” told Officer Jacob Willis of the UMD Police Department that she had gone to a man’s apartment after meeting him at a friend’s apartment that night. (Amber’s real name has been withheld from the article.)

She said they started making out, but she told him she didn’t want it to go any farther. She said she went to sleep, and when she woke up he was on top of her having sex with her. She said she told him to stop but he kept going, and she believed he ejaculated inside her without using a condom.

According to a witness quoted in the police report, both Amber and the man she was with were under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.

After Amber and the suspect were interviewed, Officer Erik Blair interviewed a witness described as a friend of Amber’s who told Blair that the victim had been flirting with the alleged perpetrator all night.

According to police records, the witness said, “(Amber) is always like that. ... She’ll be OK with something and then she’ll freak out later.”

The witness was also quoted as saying that she didn’t know Amber well and they had only socialized together twice.

Officer Mike Brostrom of the UMD Police Department, who had been present for the interview with the witness, spoke to Amber in a meeting room in the Darland Administration Building.

As Amber described the alleged assault, Brostrom noted in his report that she wouldn’t look at him. She was playing with something on the table, her hair was covering her face, and she spoke softly, he wrote.

“I have been to a specialized training course on interview and interrogation,” Brostrom wrote. “Based on her body language and

Former UMD student JD Holmquist was drugged, beaten and sexually assaulted in the fall of 2009.

A2

SUBMITTED

Read JD Holmquist’s story on page B2 the things she was telling me, I felt her statements specifically about the time when she was having sex with (the alleged perpetrator) to be un-truthful.”

Brostrom wrote that he told Amber that because of her testimony, he would likely charge the suspect with a crime.

“I told her that if he was convicted, a crime like this would follow him around for the rest of his life,” Brostrom wrote. “I added that the serious nature of this crime would affect his day-to-day life on nearly every level. I said that I knew she was a good person and she wouldn’t want something like this to happen to someone who didn’t do a bad thing. I told her again that we are all human and we make mistakes. I assured her that no one would pass judgment on her for changing her statements ... At about 35:10 minutes into the interview, (Amber) came out and said ‘It was consensual.’ ” Brostrom wrote that at this point Amber became even more “emotionally upset.”

“Her head hung even lower and she began to sob harder,” Brostrom wrote. “She could not speak some of the time, only nod her head yes and no to my questions.”

Brostrom wrote that the next day, he met with the man Amber had accused of assaulting her and told him “about the new information I had learned from (Amber).

He was very relieved and thanked me for helping him in this situation.”

Stephen Thompson said that he thought this was “irregular.”

“When the police officer indicated to the offender that there was some information that

had come out and basically the story had changed, that’s not normal with law enforcement,” Thompson said. “I would think that’s confidential.”

About a month later, on March 28, Officer Willis met with Amber to follow up. Willis wrote in his report that approximately four minutes into the interview, he asked Amber what she told her friend after the incident.

“She replied: ‘That I was raped,’” Willis wrote. “I asked (Amber) why she told him this, and she said: ‘Because I was.’ (Amber) then began to cry. (Amber) said that she only told Ofc. Brostrom that it was consensual because he told her that (the alleged perpetrator) would go to prison.”

VICTIMS OFTEN ‘CAN’T MAKE EYE CONTACT’ Several experts reviewed Amber’s case for the the Statesman, and questioned the UMD Police Department’s handling of the investigation.

Alisha Blazevic, a sexual assault nurse examiner at the Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault, didn’t review the entire case but said Officer Brostrom wrongly interpreted the alleged victim’s body language as a sign of being untruthful. It may have indicated the opposite, she said. “(Prosecutors often say) look at how this person felt in the moment this just happened to them. They can’t make eye contact with a male police officer who’s interviewing them,” Blazevic said.

Gary Bjorklund, head of the criminal division for the St. Louis

County Attorney’s Office, also said that kind of behavior is used as evidence by prosecutors.

“They go into a shell,” he said.

“A lot of times, the victims, they will respond in a way where they are very, very - covering themselves, they’re embarrassed and the nature of their body language can tell a lot.”

Bjorklund said police shouldn’t inject their opinion when interviewing a person reporting a sexual assault.

“We typically … tell law enforcement: Don’t put your opinion on people’s credibility into reports. ...

Their opinion in court is not relevant,” he said.

The crime of sexual assault, Bjorklund said, doesn’t just follow the alleged perpetrator.

“The officer talked about, you know, false allegations can have a lifelong effect on a suspect,” he said. “Well, sexual assault, the effects of that can have a lifelong effect upon a victim.”

Brostrom did not respond to an email and his superior, UMDPD Director Scott Drewlo, said he was declining to comment for the article. Questions about the incident were referred to Lt. Huls, who was then interim director of the Police Department. Huls said he wouldn’t question Brostrom’s handling of the investigation.

“I can speak specifically that Officer Brostrom has been to intensive interrogation and investigation training where he is trained to pick up on cues of untruthfulness,” Huls said. “I can’t speak for the specifics of this, but generally whenever we interview see CHARGES, A4

HOW TO PREVENT Do not have sex with anyone without their consent.

According to UMD’s sexual assault protocol, sexual assault is any sexual activity involving a person who does not or cannot consent. An intoxicated person cannot give consent. Examples of sexual assault include rape and touching of private body parts (both under or over clothing). Examples of unwanted sexual contact include indecent exposure, obscene phone calls, sexting (texting sexual content), and internet distribution of sexual materials. You can find the entire protocol online (d.umn.edu/umdoeo/sexual_assault_protocol.html).

A3

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29

Surveys:

TEACHING POLICY ‘NOT USEFUL’

Continued from A1 reported numbers to be low, UMD’s report of three sexual assaults from 2008 to 2010 is lower than at many schools of similar size. Comparable institutions in the region reported an average of 8.2 per year over the same time period. Some schools in the region showed numbers as high as 14, 15 and 20 from 2008-10.

UMD does not require incoming students to participate in sexual assault prevention education, except for a 10-minute segment in a video during freshman orientation week. The video doesn’t tell about Duluth-specific resources or what to do if you are sexually assaulted.

Some other colleges in the region—including The College of St. Scholastica, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Cloud State University—offer more extensive education.

Rivenburgh said that the reported numbers almost always increase when schools offer prevention

UMD was told by the federal government as recently as April 2011 that it should provide sexual assault preventive education. The Obama administration and the U.S. Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to campuses nationwide offering guidance on how schools should educate students on sexual violence prevention and handle investigations of alleged assault.

However, UMD still has not followed some of the recommendations presented in the “Dear Colleague” letter, which said all schools should implement a preventive education program for their new students and that “schools should take proactive measures to prevent sexual harassment and violence.”

Vce Chancellor of Student Life Lisa Erwin oversees the Office of Student Conduct, which handles allegations of student-on-student sexual assault.

“I think these ideas of teaching about sexual violence—what it

Percent of UMD Students who reported, in the last 12 months, they were the victims of an attempted or actual sexual assault: YEAR

PERCENT

STUDENT POPULATION

LIKELY NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO WERE ASSAULTED

2011

4.3

11,806

211 to 467

2010

5.6

11,279

215 to 413

Number of forcible sex offenses UMD has officially reported, as part of its federal mandate:

2 1 0 2008

2009

2010

Number of students disciplined for sexual assault: 0 SOURCES: 2010 BOYNTON HEALTH SERVICE SURVEY AND 2011 AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH ASSOCIATION-NATIONAL COLLEGE HEALTH ASSESSMENT II FOR UMD

efforts that encourage students to come forward.

CRUCIAL EVIDENCE DESTROYED A UMD student said that when she was raped on a Friday in the spring of her sophomore year in 2011, she didn’t know what to do.

She said she waited until Monday to call UMD Health Services.

She was then informed of forensic and medical testing that is provided at local hospitals free of charge.

By this time she had showered, and crucial evidence had been destroyed.

“Before it happened I did not (know what to do), which is why I did not go get a rape kit or anything,” said Stacy, a pseudonym, as the Statesman does not generally identify victims of sexual assault.

“I’ve heard of them, obviously, but I didn’t know details.”

Stacy isn’t alone. Another alleged rape victim interviewed during this investigation, “Marissa” said she didn’t know how to report an assault.

“I had absolutely no idea (what to do),” she said. “Who researches this stuff when it hasn’t happened to them? Because no one thinks it’s going to.”

is—are really, really, really important and where to report in general, certainly,” Erwin said. “But I don’t think it’s useful to teach people policy and procedure.”

During UMD’s move-in weekend, the university asks the Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA) to present three sexual assault workshops that up to 35 students per workshop may attend voluntarily.

But those are voluntary workshops, and they address the issue to a small fraction of new students each year. Last year, UMD saw an enrollment of 2,105 new students.

When asked about mandatory education for incoming students, Cat Riley, coordinator of the Office of Student Conduct, and Erwin both said incoming students are unlikely to listen if policy is pushed on them.

“My experience over many years working with college students is that they are not going to read all the policies,” Erwin said. “I think students need to be equipped with where to find things.”

Riley said incoming students are hit with a flood of information and they are probably not worried about student conduct policies.

“I think there are a lot of avenues for students to know where (sexual assault) information is.

Number of forcible sex offenses reported by comparable midwestern colleges, 2008-10: School University of Minnesota Duluth Mankato State University Marquette University, Milwaukee University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

Enrollment 11,664 14,955 11,689 11,216

University of Wisconsin La Crosse University of Wisconsin OshKosh University of Wisconsin Whitewater University of Northern Iowa North Dakota State University Fargo University of North Dakota Grand Forks

10,009 13,192 11,139 13,303 14,189 13,172

Total Reported 3 15 5 13 5 20 15 13 5 8

SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

It’s online in several places,” Riley said. “Students are tech savvy; they can go online and type in ‘sexual assault protocol.’”

‘A LACK OF VISION’ But some experts say UMD’s approach to sexual assault education is wrong.

The Minnesota Department of Health’s Rivenburgh said the idea that students won’t listen comes from a “lack of vision.”

Rivenburgh is spending the year researching universities’ attempts to prevent sexual assault. She said she strongly favors mandatory preventive education, particularly during welcome week.

“The highest rate of victimization for college students is during the first few weeks of their freshman year of college, when they’re the most vulnerable in terms of what the expectations are and they’re maybe drinking more than they did in high school,” Rivenburgh said.

Megan McKendry, co-communications coordinator and board member of Students Active for Ending Rape at Columbia University in New York, said mandatory education has been shown to improve people’s attitudes concerning sexual assault. She, too, pointed out students’ increased vulnerability in the first few weeks of their freshman year.

When told that administrators at UMD believe incoming students aren’t likely to listen to information on sexual assault policies, McKendry said: “That sounds like a poor excuse to me for not having implemented preventive programming.”

TAKING ANOTHER LOOK

the right timing, the right messaging and the right ways to reinforce that messaging,” Black said.

JD Holmquist, a former UMD student who said he was drugged, beaten and sexually assaulted at an off-campus location in 2009, said he thinks preventive education should be mandatory.

“I feel like every freshman needs to have that sexual health seminar that UMD has to offer,” he said.

Holmquist was a peer sexual health educator during his time at UMD. He said he felt like UMD gave him great support after he was assaulted. He received counseling at UMD’s Health Services.

“I’m sure there are ... students at UMD who have been sexually assaulted and feel like the university did nothing,” he said. “(But) a part of me feels like if you didn’t look for the help, then you didn’t really see what UMD had to offer in terms of support, because I was completely blown away by the level of support that I felt through the entire process.”

‘A PART OF ME FOREVER’ Stacy, who had her rape exam too late to collect evidence, never reported her sexual assault to law enforcement, she told reporters.

The counselor at UMD’s Health Services office talked to her about reporting the assault, but she didn’t want the police to contact her assailant. “(Reporting) was never explained very well to me,” Stacy said. “I always felt if I reported it, he would

find out and that I would have to go further and press charges or something, which is not something I was comfortable with doing.”

Stacy said the alleged perpetrator gave her a warning after he attacked her.

“He got up out of the bed, looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Don’t you dare tell anyone what happened here tonight’ and then left,” she said. “And then I lay there still kind of in shock for ... probably five minutes, and then went downstairs and told my friend that we needed to go.”

Stacy, who said she was a sophomore when she was assaulted, withdrew from UMD after she finished the semester and one summer class. “(Staying in Duluth) didn’t even seem like an option,” she said. “I didn’t want to be up there. I was that uncomfortable with everything.”

Stacy said that since moving back home, she has been working and taking classes at a community college. She plans to go back to school in St. Paul this fall or next spring. She said the rape still affects her.

“It’s something that is going to be a part of me forever,” Stacy said.

“It’s never going to go away. But it’s something that with time I’ll learn how to cope with differently, and I think will end up making me a better person. And I am more skeptical. ... I think it’s opened my eyes to the reality of the world.”

After being questioned by reporters for this series, UMD administrators said they have begun reconsidering how to inform students about sexual assault.

UMD Chancellor Lendley Black said the administration is taking a look at what is covered in First Year Experience courses and how to ensure students are informed about key topics in a way that will stick with them.

“It’s a matter of finding

SEXUAL ASSAULT WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED:

• Go someplace safe.

• PAVSA advocates, UMD Health Services, Duluth Police • Call 911 to report to police if you are in danger. or University Police can help you get medical assistance.

• Call PAVSA’s free, confidential 24-hour crisis line at 218- • The forensic medical exam, including evidence collec726-1931 and/or tell a person who will support you. tion, will be provided free of charge at St. Luke’s Hospi• If there’s any chance that you want to report your tal or Essentia Health (St. Mary’s Hospital) Emergency assault to the police now or in the future: Departments.

- Do not shower or douche.

• Other confidential resources include UMD Health Ser - Save the clothes you were wearing at the time of vices Counseling and UMD campus ministries. Your

the assault in a paper bag. professors are NOT confidential—they are required

- Save sheets, blankets, or anything else that may to report. The Women’s Resource and Action Center have evidence in a paper bag. Do not throw (WRAC) is also available to help but is non-confidential. anything away or try to clean up.

• Get medical attention as soon as possible at a local *Based on information provided on the UMD and U of M websites emergency room.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29

A4

UMD changing some policies on how it handles sex assaults

BY EMILY HAAVIK AND TRAVIS DILL haavi010@d.umn.edu dill0169@d.umn.edu

Since two Statesman reporters began a months-long investigation that revealed troubling information about how the University of Minnesota Duluth has handled sexual assault cases, administrators for the school say they are taking more steps to prevent sexual violence among UMD students.

UMD health educator Dori Decker said that increased efforts are being made on campus to strengthen a victim-centered support and response network. These steps include possibly forming a task force to look at violence against women.

“Just having a consistent dialogue about it and … exploring the ways that we might be able to act as a campus community in policy work or initiatives that work toward creating a safe environment,” Decker said. “Not to say that we don’t have a safe environment, but there’s always room for creating a healthier environment.”

The university and community partners have submitted a grant “that would support educational programming and expanded victim services on campus,” Decker said. “With or without funding though, I am optimistic there will be momentum with some new initiatives.”

This series of articles found that although anonymous surveys indicate hundreds of students are sexu-

ally assaulted every year, no perpetrators have been disciplined by the university in the last 14 years. Few victims come forward, and some of those who do have been pressured to drop charges. Victims have also said that they didn’t know what to do when they were assaulted.

To address some of these issues, Decker said she would like to see a renewal of a student group specifically targeted at motivating men to prevent sexual assault. One such group, called Challenging All Men to Prevent Sexism (CHAMPS), worked to raise awareness from fall 2008 to fall 2010.

“I’d like to see a (men’s) student group again and I think it’s important for students speaking to students,” Decker said. “We’ve used the peer model before through what we do at Health Services and I feel like that really is effective.”

‘A WORK IN PROGRESS’ Decker also said the school’s Health Services department will be working with UMD’s Office of Cultural Diversity to “work together with representatives across campus to assess what’s being done and possibilities for the future, regarding sexual assault.”

The director of the Office of Cultural Diversity, Susana PelayoWoodward, who also oversees the Women’s Resource and Action Center, was instrumental in developing the university’s current sexual assault protocol.

Woodward said she believes the university’s policy is strong, but

NO SANCTIONS IN 14 YEARS

BY EMILY HAAVIK AND TRAVIS DILL haavi010@d.umn.edu dill0169@d.umn.edu In the last 14 years, no alleged perpetrator of sexual assault on the UMD campus faced disciplinary actions from UMD. Two perpetrators in the last 10 years faced criminal charges. Both were sentenced in 2009, according to Gary Bjorklund, criminal division head for the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office. Bjorklund said there is one more UMD case pending investigation. These records don’t include off-campus incidents, which are handled by the Duluth Police Department, or disciplinary actions administered by the UMD Athletic Department.

While UMD has a policy for disciplining students

Charges: Continued from A2

sexual assault victims it’s victimcentered; we’re empathetic.”

He acknowledged that Brostrom’s line of questioning is not typical in a sexual assault case.

“It is not typical to question a victim’s story, but each case is unique,” he said. “I was not present, so I don’t know why the questioning took the course it did.”

Capt. Scott Drewlo, the new director of UMDPD, responded for the article as well. He was not present at the time of the case.

“Officers are kind of trained to be objective finders of fact,” Drewlo said. “I don’t want to say that line of questioning is out of line, but there are other ways that you can interview people and still accomplish that role of being an objective finder of fact.”

Personnel records provided by UMD show that Brostrom, who was hired by UMD in 2004, completed a sexual assault training course in November 2010, several months after he conducted the investigation of Amber. There is no apparent record of him taking a previous course while at UMD. WHEN ‘NO’ WASN’T ENOUGH On Oct. 31, 2011, “Marissa” (also a pseudonym), a UMD freshman, told police she had been sexually assaulted.

But she told Statesman reporters she felt that police talked her out of

there is still a need to focus on educating students about the issue of sexual assault.

“That is the part that I think is still a work in progress,” Woodward said. “How do we educate students when they come here?”

Experts such as Hannah Rivenburgh, public health associate at the Minnesota Department of Health, are strongly in favor of mandatory preventive education, particularly during welcome week.

“The highest rate of victimization for college students is during the first few weeks of their freshman year of college, when they’re the most vulnerable in terms of what the expectations are and they’re maybe drinking more than they did in high school,” Rivenburgh said.

Unlike some other universities in Minnesota, UMD does not have mandatory preventive education on sexual violence. The only time sexual assault is discussed with all incoming freshmen is in a 10-minute segment of a general safety video. The basic message is how to stay safe, but the video does not tell students what resources are available to them should they be assaulted.

There are also three optional workshops on sexual assault during welcome week that reach a total of about 100 students – a small fraction of incoming students.

Rivenburgh said preventive education is important not just as a one-time presentation. Colleges need lasting programs and continuous exposure to this issue, she said.

“What we’re talking about is the

will later on,” he said.

After Marissa contacted police, Officer Erik Blair of the UMD Police Department interviewed her at her apartment.

Blair wrote in his report: “I then asked (Marissa) how she said no and what her reason was. ... I again asked if she remembered how she told (the alleged perpetrator) to stop. (Marissa) stated she said ‘Just stop, come on, just stop,’ but never did anything about it.”

Blair noted in the report that the first time Marissa said no, it wasn’t forceful.

“The police officer asked me how I said ‘No,’” Marissa said in an interview for this article. “He told me that he’s not telling me what to do, but he doesn’t think that the case would go very far because I didn’t say no forcefully. So because of that ... I called the police station and I was like, ‘Drop the charges.’ I called (the Office of) Student Conduct and I told them to drop the charges.”

How forcefully the word “no” is stated is irrelevant, said Thompson, the sexual aggression services director at Central Michigan University. “‘No’ is enough,” he said.

Thompson said that with inexperienced law enforcement officers, the emphasis is often on how much the alleged victim says no.

In his own investigations, Thompson said, the emphasis is on, “Did she scream yes?”

Marissa said she said no several times. She also said she tried multiple times to pull away.

“I was just telling him, ‘Stop,

[

Capt. Scott Drewlo, the new director of the UMD Police Department, says he looks forward to a stronger partnership between the Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA) and the UMDPD. “I’m just so excited about the opportunities here and working with PAVSA,” Drewlo said. “And getting PAVSA more involved on campus and with our cases even, just to ensure that we can take them as far as possible in the prosecutorial avenues.”

Drewlo, who took over direction of the department on July 9, was asked to comment on the two sexual assault cases discussed in these articles for the Statesman. In both cases, Drewlo said that it would have been helpful to have a PAVSA advocate involved to “shepherd the case” and guide communication with the victim.

Drewlo said that he has a good relationship with PAVSA and plans to bring them into a closer relationship with the UMDPD. He said he also hopes to bring RAD (rape awareness defense training) onto UMD’s campus.

“I’m really looking forward to being able to do some proactive stuff here with PAVSA, and not only PAVSA but DAIP—Domestic Abuse Intervention Program,” he said. “I’ve got kind of a unique opportunity here to get out in front of it.”

QUICK FIXES ‘DON’T NECESSARILY STICK’ But Chancellor Lendley Black said while he is open to mandatory education, he doesn’t think it is necessarily the answer.

“Sometimes it’s easy to jump to a lot of quick fixes that don’t necessarily stick and so it’s a bit complicated,” Black said. “But it just takes a lot of work and we will get there, but it’s a matter of finding the right timing, the right messaging, and the right ways to reinforce that messaging through various means.”

Vice Chancellor of Student Life Lisa Erwin agreed.

“I think these ideas of teaching about sexual violence, what it is, are really, really, really important and where to report in general, certainly,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s useful to teach people policy and procedure. That’s not the point. The point is to understand the behavior, what’s OK and what’s not, and then to know what to do if it happens to you.”

who commit sexual assault, no student has been disciplined in at least 14 years, said Judith Karon, the school’s director of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity.

Karon said that there are two complaints in the UMD complaint database, which dates back to 1998.

She wrote in an email, “there was no finding of any violation of a university policy and therefore no discipline in either of those cases.”

Karon said that for most of that time, UMD directed all sexual assault cases to the UMDPD. “Prior to 2010, our office did not conduct non-criminal investigations of reported incidents of sexual assault; those cases were only handled by the UMD Police Department or other law enforcement agency given the criminal nature of sexual assault,” Karon wrote.

For over a decade, colleges have been required by federal law to have an internal avenue for handling complaints of sexual assault.

In 1997, the Office for Civil Rights issued guidance to schools stating “the importance of having wellpublicized and effective grievance procedures in place to handle complaints of sex discrimination.”

pressing charges in the incident.

“I had felt like it was just a waste of all that stress of telling people ... to just end up dropping the charges,” she said. “And I didn’t even end up getting any sense of relief from it; it’s just worse than when it started.”

In the incident, which occurred Sept. 22, Marissa said she walked back to her apartment with a male classmate. He asked to come in for some food, and she agreed. She said that she had one drink but he got “pretty drunk.”

The two have differing accounts of what happened next.

He told police they were kissing and she let him penetrate her with his fingers. According to the police report, he said she “would tell him to stop and then he would start kissing her again, and then she would ‘go with it.’” Marissa, according to the report, said the man penetrated her with his fingers, but “she kept telling him to stop, and (the man) was telling her, ‘You know you want me to do this,’ and (Marissa) didn’t really do anything to make (the alleged perpetrator) stop.”

In the report, Marissa was quoted as saying that the man took off her pants, exposed himself and pulled her on top of him, and she tried to pull away three times. She said she then told him she was going to scream, and he let her go.

Marissa left out some details in her first account of the ordeal, which Bjorklund said is common with sexual assault victims.

“Initially on a lot of times they don’t give out the details that they

UMD PD LOOKING AHEAD

safety and success of the students on campus, and every student deserves and legally is guaranteed the right to an education free from discrimination based on sex and free from violence,” she said. “So sort of on a big philosophical picture you could argue that this is one of the most important things to think about on campus.”

Sexual assault is considered a form of sex discrimination.

“I’m shocked that there has not, until 2010, been a way for students to complain, you know, to report an incident to the officials and take action against the perpetrator of that attack,” said Megan McKendry, co-communications coordinator and board member of Students Active for Ending Rape at Columbia University in New York. “That amazes me. It’s almost unbelievable.”

Karon said, “Every time we have an individual who is found to have violated policies and procedures, we have acted accordingly.”

When presented with the lack of disciplinary actions by UMD against students for sexual assault in the last decade or more, Chancellor Lendley Black said he was surprised.

“If it’s true, it is concerning to me,” he said.

Black said the school is continuing its efforts to make the campus safe and welcoming.

“We are and will continue to be very proactive in helping our student body understand what sexual violence is and how to be aware both in terms of those who may be victims as well as those who may be perpetrators,” Black said.

stop, stop,’ you know, over and over and over,” Marissa said. “And he’s like, ‘I know you want me to do this.’”

Blair returned one email and phone call to comment on the case, but after speaking with his superiors stopped responding. Capt.

Drewlo said that Blair was made aware of his option to comment.

Drewlo responded for this case as well, although he wasn’t employed

by UMD at the time. Drewlo said there may have been a better way to frame the question, but the forceful component is important.

“It is a necessary question that the prosecutors like to have,” he said.

Gary Bjorklund also commented on this case, saying “Officers should not … discourage victims from prosecuting; the same token is I think they need to have some level of candor with them, so it’s a fine line.”

In both that case and the February 2010 case, Drewlo said that it would have been helpful to have a PAVSA advocate involved to “shepherd the case” and guide communication with the victim. He hopes to have this

system in place in the future.

FRIENDS ‘HATE ME NOW’ After Amber reported her alleged assault, she said her friends didn’t believe her.

According to the police report, she said that her mutual friends with the alleged perpetrator “all said that it wasn’t something that he would do, and that they didn’t believe her. (Amber) said she didn’t want these friends to hate her.”

Marissa said the same thing happened to her. The alleged perpetrator told her friends he had been questioned by police, she said.

“All of my old friends hate me now,” Marissa said. “They all think that I just ran around crying wolf.”

Marissa said she felt conflicted – both relieved and disappointed – when she dropped the charges.

“This kind of screwed me up a little bit, and he shouldn’t just get to get away with that,” she said. “But I guess it doesn’t really matter what I want at this point.”

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29

Freshman Crash Course

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What’s in a name?

[ Richard L. Griggs ]

SUBMITTED BY UMD ARCHIVES

BY KAITLIN LOKOWICH lokow003@d.umn.edu

There are some names that are synonymous with UMD—Griggs, Kirby, Bagley, Cina—the list of buildings named after faceless administration of days past seems almost endless. Like for instance, who is Griggs? Why is there both a building and a field named after him?

Richard L. Griggs was born in Barclay, Pa., in 1886, but attended elementary and secondary school in Virginia, Minn. He continued his connection with the Minnesota school system, graduating from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1907.

His relationship working with higher education did not come until later on in his career. He held positions in many different business outlets throughout his lifetime, from iron ore and banking, to helping found the Greyhound Bus Company.

It was not until 1939 that Griggs was appointed to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, which is an elected board that governs the state’s public institutions of higher education, where

he served 24 years. He became involved with UMD right as the campus got its start in 1947. Originally Griggs was against the Legislature creating a new U campus in Duluth, fearing that adding campuses would weaken the university.

Once the Board of Regents passed the bill, Griggs worked hard for the betterment and development of the campus, donating 160 acres of land on which the main campus now sits.

Griggs donated a total of $123,512 toward Griggs field. The total cost of the project in 1968 totaled $198,586. As Griggs was a financial supporter of UMD, Griggs Hall was dedicated to him on Aug. 20, 1965.

Years after these projects were completed Griggs still remained involved with UMD. He donated $50,000 in 1976 to establish the UMD Raymond W. Darland AllAmerican Scholarship to provide financial aid to outstanding students at UMD. Griggs passed away in 1987 at the age of 100, remaining in Duluth even after his career with the school.

NAME THAT

SCULPTURE

BY ANNE KUNKEL kunke063@d.umn.edu

Wandering through the halls and grounds of UMD you’ll see some pretty interesting things. Some of these are sculptures and statues. If you stop to pause and ponder them, however, you’ll notice that only a few have plaques explaining what they are. In my opinion they should all have plaques. I remember my first few days on campus as a freshman walking the grounds and seeing these structures and wondering to myself what the heck some of them are supposed to be. Like that giant circle thing in front of the science building. And the one that looks like someone slipping on a banana peel in front of Darland Administration.

So about a week ago my search for answers began. I knocked on doors, stopped people in the hallways, made numerous phone calls, and dug up nothing. Until one fateful day I made my way down past the annex and to the archives of the library. There I met a wonderful lady who helped me compile a list. Finally I had a starting point, and this unforeseen challenge of finding UMD’s sculptures was close to over.

But then I had a thought: why should I do all the work? So here is my challenge to you. Below you will find a picture of each statue on campus, and a list of statue titles, but I’m not going to tell you which title goes with which statue. You have to figure it out for yourself. Then in a couple weeks, I’ll tell you if you are right.

ALL PHOTOS BY ALEX LEONE/STATESMAN

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29

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Outdoors Editor lemke082@d.umn.edu

Duluth parks offer unique fun RACHEL KRAFT/STATESMAN

Honeybees collect pollen Tuesday, Aug. 28, from flowers within Hartley Nature Center.

BY ERIC LEMKE lemke082@d.umn.edu

Duluth is an outdoor city.

With over 12,000 acres of parks to explore, the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the natural beauty is easy. There are three parks within walking distance of campus and each offers its own unique features and amenities.

Bagley Nature Area: Right on campus, Bagley is the easiest and quickest way to submerge yourself in the natural beauty around you. Home to the LEED-certified Bagley Classroom and the popular fall and spring 5K runs, Bagley has a lot to offer. With over 50 acres of wooded trails and ponds, Bagley is a great place to go for a run, a walk, or to simply sit and enjoy the scenery. The overlook at the top of the hill gives breathtaking views of east Duluth and Lake Superior. In the winter the trails are groomed for crosscountry skiing.

Hartley Park: Take a quick jaunt down the road from campus and you will run into Hartley Park. This huge expanse of wilderness boasts a variety of woodlands, plains, and ponds to create a unique park right in the middle of town. The main entrance to the park, off of Woodland Avenue, has a nature

Life continues to thrive out of soil, as moss clings to a granite outcrop in August.

RACHEL KRAFT/STATESMAN

center that provides equipment rental throughout the summer and winter months to help fuel your recreation. If you are keen to try your hand at mountain biking, the park is home to several miles of flowing single track that is maintained by local trail clubs (bikes are available to rent at the RSOP rental center). In the winter the park’s trails are groomed for crosscountry skiing as well.

Chester Bowl: One of Duluth’s most unique parks sits right on the other side of campus. Chester Bowl is home to stunning views of Lake Superior, a babbling brook that cascades all the way down the Duluth hillside, and a small ski hill that is a popular spot for young aspiring skiers to hang out. The two large ski jumps that can be seen from campus mark the ski hill at Chester Bowl. They are an homage to the parks past of hosting ski jumping. There are also several miles of groomed cross-country ski trails in the winter. Whether you are skiing the slopes in the winter or walking along the creek as it babbles through crevasses on its way down the hill, Chester is a quiet place to get away from the hustle and bustle of campus.

Take the time over the next couple weeks to get out and explore the unique parks that Duluth has to offer and you won’t be disappointed.

No one is immune A former UMD student’s story of sexual assault

BY EMILY HAAVIK AND TRAVIS DILL haavi010@d.umn.edu dill0169@d.umn.edu

“What did I do wrong?” is the question JD Holmquist asked himself after he was sexually assaulted.

Holmquist was a junior at UMD when he was drugged, beaten and sexually assaulted. It was his first semester at UMD. He had just transferred from St. Cloud State University (SCSU), where he didn’t feel safe after coming out as being gay, he said.

On Nov. 14, 2009, Holmquist went to Fitger’s with his cousin to celebrate his 21st birthday. His last memory of that night is walking into the Red Star nightclub in Fitger’s. Then he woke up in St. Mary’s Hospital.

“I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there,” he said. “But my whole body hurt and I was looking at my hands and there was a lot of blood.”

Holmquist had been given Rohypnol, he later discovered, either at the Red Star or the Rex bar in Fitger’s. He was with friends, but the security cameras show him walking toward the Lakewalk alone at the end of the night. He

was found some time later by a middle-aged couple. He was beaten up and nearly unconscious, lying in the woods between Fitger’s and the Lakewalk. His attacker was never found.

Most college students who are sexually assaulted are women. But men are raped, too.

According to a 2007 study, approximately 6 percent of men are victims of completed or attempted sexual assault during their years in college. Numbers in UMD surveys range from 1.8 to 2.7 percent in the past year.

Megan McKendry, co-communications coordinator and board member at Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER), a national organization based in New York, said it is rare for male victims of rape to come forward.

“It’s especially difficult for men because this has sort of been cast as a women’s issue,” McKendry said. “There are a lot of barriers in terms of cultural expectations and norms around masculinity that make coming forward for a man, even experiencing rape, just really painful and difficult.”

Holmquist said his breaking point was later the same day he reported the assault. A police offi-

cer came to his house to pick up the clothes he had been wearing the night before.

“I kind of just broke down and cried,” Holmquist said. “And I told my mom, ‘I go to school to—I’m learning how to teach people how to prevent this from happening to them, and it happened to me.’ And I think that was kind of like the tipping point that really made me passionate about sexual health, sexual awareness and sexual assault.”

As a 6-foot-2, 200-pound male sexual health educator, Holmquist calls himself the “poster child” of someone who should be safe from sexual assault. And yet it happened to him.

“I always told people when I was teaching them about sexual health, ‘It’s not your fault, you didn’t ask for this,’” Holmquist said. “But then it happened to me and I was like, ‘What did I do wrong?’ And all of the sudden I was questioning everything I had ever learned.”

Natalie Klueg, a friend of Holmquist, said the experience shook him.

“I think he always sort of moved about the world thinking he really understood when he was in danger and when he wasn’t, and that there were things that he could do

to make himself safer,” Klueg said.

“And that was part of him being an empowered gay man. And what this did for him was really take that from him for a while.”

Later that year, Holmquist began telling his story in sexual health seminars. He is now pursuing a master’s degree in environmental health and sexual health, while working full time at a marketing firm. He said being assaulted made him passionate about sexual health.

Klueg thinks Holmquist has found healing in telling his story.

“This did not conquer him,” she said. “I’ve really watched him turn it into something that has just made him stronger.”

Kaitlin Lokowich Student Life Editor lokow003@d.umn.edu

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Multimedia Editor/Managing Editor merid003@d.umn.edu

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Additional Info The Statesman is the official student newspaper of the University of Minnesota Duluth and is published by the UMD Board of Publications weekly during the academic year except for holidays and exam weeks.

The editorials, articles, opinions and other content within the Statesman are not intended to reflect University of Minnesota policy and are not necessarily those of the student body, faculty, or the University or its Duluth Campus.

The Student Service Fee dollars the Statesman receives covers printing costs for the academic year.

The Statesman and the University of Minnesota are equal opportunity employers and educators.

The Statesman promotes responsible activities and behaviors.

Advertisments published in The Statesman do not represent the individual views of the newspaper staff or those of the University of Minnesota Duluth community.

To order home delivery please contact Jessi Eaton at 218-7267112. Periodicals postage is paid at Duluth, Minnesota. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the UMD Statesman, 130 Kirby Student Center, 1120 Kirby Drive, Duluth, MN 55812.

USPS 647340. For advertising inquiries please contact a sales representative at 218-726-8154.

DISCOVER POSSIBILITIES DESIGN YOUR FUTURE Helping UMD students and alumni with all stages of career planning:

22 Solon Campus Center 218.726.7985 www.d.umn.edu/careers

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Deciding on a major Internships Writing a resume Job search and interviewing Graduate school

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29

The Statesman is back

An editorial from the Editor-in-Chief

BY MATT BUSCH busc0115@d.umn.edu

My name is Matt Busch, the new editor-in-chief of your UMD Statesman. This is my very first issue in charge, and I have to say I am incredibly proud of the work done already by the Statesman staff this year.

In the past the freshman edition has typically been, for lack of a better word, fluff. We would tell incoming freshmen where to buy cheap food, how to get along with their roommates, and dodge the dreaded freshman 15. This year is a little different.

The work done by Emily Haavik and Travis Dill in their eightmonth investigation into sexual assault is some of the best work we’ve ever had the privilege to print here. We were worried about potentially upsetting people, but we feel that this is information that needs to be in the hands of parents and incoming students during

move-in week.

Sexual assault has become an epidemic in this country, and on this campus. I personally have many friends in my life who have had to deal with this very problem. The fact that a higher number of sexual assaults tend to happen during the first couple weeks of school is what, for me, pushed these articles into the first issue.

Over my many years at UMD I have heard rumblings that our paper has been somewhat lacking.

I realize we need to improve and I can promise you that we will strive to. I feel that this first issue is a giant step in the right direction for the Statesman.

So, dear readers, hold the Statesman up. Have high expectations.

Be proud of us when we do well, get upset when we mess up. Let us know when we are wrong. We want to get better, and you deserve better. I want this first issue to be a warning shot - the Statesman is back.

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Welcome, UMD Students!

Whether you are a new or returning student, UMD’s faculty are here to help provide you the academic challenge and stimulation, meaningful learning, and personal growth that ought to be part of everyone’s university experience.

Public higher education has been crucial to improving so many aspects of our lives and our world, yet it is chronically underfunded by our state legislators, and even under attack by some interests. We – faculty and students alike – must continue to remind those who hold public office and those who run for public office of the importance that we attach to public higher education that is accessible and affordable, and of the highest quality.

Publicly governed and publicly funded universities nurture democracy by enabling people from all walks of life to have the educational opportunities once available only to the wealthy. As UMD moves forward, let all of us be willing to speak and act in ways that make our university and its community the best that they can be.

University Education Association – Duluth The faculty union for the University of Minnesota Duluth

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29

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