Poster Incident Spurs 2 Claremont Colleges to Tighten Date Rape Policy

The first signs of turbulence on the serene campuses of the Claremont Colleges were posters--dozens of them plastered in rows on the walls of dining halls, on the outsides of buildings and even on trees.

They appeared one February morning, all identical, with a photo of a Pitzer College student and text labeling him as a rapist.

This action by a new, secret women’s organization led to meetings of angry students who accused the schools of ignoring complaints about date rape.

As a result, two of the five elite, private undergraduate colleges plan to rewrite their policies for student conduct to define date rape and establish penalties for students convicted of it in campus judicial proceedings.

In addition, all five colleges intend to step up programs warning students about date rape and acquaintance rape.

Could Be Expelled

The Pitzer student was ordered off campus until the college judicial proceedings began the week of April 11. If found guilty in these proceedings, conducted by students, faculty and administrators, he could be expelled.

The women’s group, Sisters Protesting Ignorance, Rape and Lies (SPIRAL), took responsibility for the posters. Its anonymous members insisted in college newspaper articles that “no less than this radical act would bring this issue to the attention of the Claremont community.”

“I hate to say this,” said a college dean who asked not to be identified, “but the posters clearly stimulated a lot of activity. The way SPIRAL did things is not the way we want things done, but it got results.”

As the first case of a student allegedly forcing sex on an acquaintance goes before Pitzer College’s Judicial Council, both Pitzer and Pomona College are planning to rewrite their regulations.

No Charges Filed

Jack Sullivan, acting dean of students at Pitzer, said the women who accused the Pitzer student of raping them chose not to file charges with Claremont police. College deans say that some victims will not file charges because of embarrassment.

“We can only encourage them to do that, to make it as easy as possible, but if they refuse, there is nothing we can do,” Sullivan said.

The same would hold true in cases of more extreme assault or felonies, Sullivan said. “I could report to police, but if the complainant refuses to file a charge, they can’t enter the case.”

But even if criminal charges aren’t filed, campus judicial proceedings are in order because students are governed by codes of conduct, college officials said.

Specific Penalties

The proposed changes in college regulations would define all forms of sexual harassment and assault, speed judicial proceedings and establish specific penalties for cases of sexual harassment, including date and acquaintance rape. Penalties would include suspension and expulsion.

Such cases are now covered in all the colleges’ codes of conduct by regulations against endangering others through physical assault or harassment. Scripps, Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd colleges are not changing their policies but are offering more special programs for incoming students, spokesmen said.

Sullivan said that Pitizer’s aim is to remove any possibility that “somehow date rate is viewed differently. Rape is rape,” he said. “It can be committed by a date, an acquaintance or a stranger. The key issue is lack of consent.”

“Essentially, date rape is unwanted sexual intercourse, but it’s broader than that,” said Toni Clark, dean of women at Pomona College.

“It’s defined as forced, unwanted intercourse with a person you know,” Clark said. “The forced intercourse can come from threats or tone of voice as well as from physical force or weapons.”

Administrators said no other cases of date or acquaintance rape have ever been reported in the Claremont Colleges.

Lena Robinson, head of campus security, said her department has never been notified of a date rape case, “perhaps because the students would be embarrassed or afraid.”

Claremont Police Chief Dexter Atkinson said his department has not been notified of the alleged incidents involving the Pitzer student. Police step in only when a victim files a crime report, he said.

Detective Nolan Woods, who investigates sexual assault cases for the Claremont Police Department, said: “It’s my impression that a lot of victims don’t want police involved.”

‘Difficult Issue’

“It certainly goes on, but it is a difficult issue for people to come to terms with,” Clark said. “(Date rape) is not new. Dealing with it is new.”

Clark and other deans said confusion and fears surround date rape, so that often the victim is not sure she has been raped and the rapist may feel he has done nothing wrong.

Freshmen are the most vulnerable, they said. In a typical case, a freshman woman who is away from home for the first time may have little experience in social activities with men. Attracted to a senior man, she may be unsure about how to accept his sexual advances. And if he tries physical force or verbal coercion and she resists him, he may not think she is serious.

Sullivan refused to comment on the Pitzer case other than to confirm that hearings began last week. He refused to disclose the names of the women involved, how many women had filed charges or whether there had been previous complaints against the Pitzer student.

Written in 1960s

Sullivan said the hearings are being conducted in accord with Pitzer’s judicial code, which was written in the 1960s and reflects a time when the school was concerned about justice for civil rights activists. The code allows a student accused of a violation to question his accusers but does not extend that same right to those bringing the charges, Sullivan said.

Pomona College’s code allows the accused student to have “representatives,” such as witnesses, present during the hearing, while the person bringing charges may not.

Some California colleges are considering rewriting their codes because of a resolution passed by the state Legislature last September. The resolution, written by Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), urges California colleges and universities to write new policies into their codes to define date rape, specifying penalties and providing special educational programs for freshmen.

In light of the Hayden resolution, Cal State Los Angeles is establishing regulations against sexual harassment, a spokesman said.

At Caltech, student codes do not specifically address date rape, spokesman Hall Daily said, but “awareness is growing more and more, and we’re giving workshops and special sessions on sexual responsibility.”

‘Broader Categories’

Shannon Ellis, an administrative assistant at USC, said date rape falls “into broader categories (in the codes) that were written to cover things that might never be anticipated.”

USC has handled such cases in campus judicial proceedings and has had “a small number of convictions,” Ellis said.

In a recent study, the Assn. of American Colleges concluded that “date rape occurs on virtually all campuses, small or large, private or public, rural or urban.”

In a 1985 study for Ms. magazine, Kent State University Prof. Mary Koss surveyed 7,000 students on 32 campuses and found that one-eighth of the women were rape victims. Although one in every 12 male students admitted having tried to force or coerce women into sex, none of them identified themselves as rapists, the study found.

‘No Consciousness’

“It’s an unfortunate sign of our times,” said Scott Warren, dean of freshmen at Pomona College. “When I was a freshman, this would never have been dreamed of as an issue. There was no consciousness of it.

“Now I feel we’re really out in front in writing a full-blown date and acquaintance rape policy.

“You’d think the farthest thing from a freshman’s mind is worry about issues of rape,” Warren said. “But we don’t have any choice but to raise the issue and get it taken seriously so there won’t be any victimization.”

Several students said they are satisfied by the Claremont schools’ efforts to acknowledge date rape as a serious issue.

“SPIRAL’s posters proved to have a positive effect,” Pomona senior Paul Nagai said. “Unfortunately, this serious infraction of school law (defacing school property) had to occur before changes were made.”

Nagai vowed to work to change policies “until the conviction rate of any type of rape is comparable to the conviction rate of other types of violent crimes.”

Support Group

Jennifer Scura, a freshman at Scripps, said: “In the process we have now, something has to become a crisis . . . before people take action.” Scura said she is helping to form a victims’ support group, although she is not a victim.

At the Monsour Counseling Center, which serves students at all the Claremont Colleges, psychologist Kevin Austin said: “We have had some men come in who were very fearful of what SPIRAL did, because they felt they were vulnerable to the charges.

“It’s really frightening to them,” Austin said. “This (accused) Pitzer man was a student, and they had a hard time believing he could be charged with rape. If he could, maybe they could, they reasoned. They said: ‘If he’s like me, then I’m vulnerable too.’ ”

Students need to “re-examine and reclassify” sex, Austin said.

“A lot of them believe in the notion that it’s ‘yes’ until ‘no.’ That he has a right to sex until she says no,” he said. “Some men also believe that women say no when they mean yes, and both of those perspectives leave both men and women vulnerable and confused.”

‘Campuswide Attention’

The charges against the Pitzer student, Austin said, “brought campuswide attention to an issue that only certain professionals and victims had been aware of previously.”

Denise Wheeler, director of Project Sister Sexual Assault Crisis Services in Pomona, said the number of rape victims calling its hot line doubled in the past year. Now about 40 calls a month come from the East San Gabriel Valley and some San Bernardino County communities.

Included in those calls, Wheeler said, are those from the Claremont area, including the colleges, which have increased by about one-third. She said she could not give exact figures on the number of calls from Claremont students.

“I think what is happening is that as we do more educating about date rape, people talk about their own experiences and they recognize (that) what happened was rape,” Wheeler said. “Rape is rape; it doesn’t matter who does it. And all of the victims suffer rape trauma syndrome, even years later.”

She described the syndrome as anxiety attacks, loss of sleep, withdrawal and confusion.

‘Primary Concern’

At Pomona College, Clark said informing freshmen about date and acquaintance rape is “a primary concern.”

“They’re so vulnerable,” she said. “Probably they will never have had much to drink, they won’t know what’s expected, and find themselves in a situation that’s out of control, and they’re completely unprepared for it. We don’t want that to happen.

“The days of in loco parentis (colleges serving as substitute parents) are over. We can’t protect our students. We can educate them in the dangers of society and help them to deal with them--that’s all.”