Harvard Student Expelled After Rape of Classmate

Harvard faculty voted Tuesday to dismiss a student who admitted sexually assaulting a classmate in a case that sparked a campus debate on whether date rape was treated seriously enough.

D. Drew Douglas was dismissed--a punishment akin to expulsion--after faculty rejected a lesser punishment of withdrawal that would have allowed him to petition for readmission to the school.

A large margin of the 250 faculty members who attended voted to dismiss.

The exact vote was not announced. All 650 of the College of Arts and Science had been invited.

Douglas pleaded guilty last year in a criminal court to battery and indecent assault, or improper sexual touching.

The school’s administrative board investigated and found the then-sophomore had committed an act of rape.

About 250 students gathered to protest that the faculty would even consider a lesser punishment.

“Harvard expels people for plagiarism, but not for [sexual assault],” said senior Dan Hennefield. “That just seems really unjust.”

Douglas and the unidentified woman were friends when they spent a night together in April. The woman later complained to the college’s administrative board, which then investigated.

Douglas and the woman agreed that he assaulted her while she slept, according to the Boston Globe, which cited unidentified faculty members.

Douglas was sentenced to five years’ probation, including 18 months under house arrest at home in Wisconsin. Officials would not identify his hometown.

Whatever the vote, it would have little effect on Douglas because the case already has devastated his life, said his attorney, James L. Sultan.

“His career at Harvard is over,” Sultan said.

The school may be a leader academically, but it is lacking when it comes to rape prevention and education, said student Anna Baldwin, 20.

“The fact they [were] considering dismissal versus withdrawal is indicative of Harvard’s failure to take rape seriously.”