Kids & Family

Q&A With Oxy Professor on the College's Sexual Assaults Scandal

Sociologist Danielle Dirks analyses how Oxy administrators allowed matters to get out of hand and what can be done to right the wrongs.

On May 19, Occidental College graduated the largest class in its 126-year history—552 graduates who, in the words of commencement speaker and Columbia University Professor Andrew Delbanco, were among the top 5 percent of America’s 18 million undergraduate students to have had the privilege to attend such a distinguished institution.

But the recently concluded academic year at Oxy was also arguably one of the roughest in its history, marked as it was by accusations of ineptitude on the part of college administrators handling allegations of rape and sexual assault by students on campus.

Earlier this month, the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education opened a Title IX gender discrimination investigation against Oxy in response to an April 18 federal complaint by two Oxy professors who allege that at least 42 students have been raped or sexually assaulted on campus over the past four years and that college authorities have failed to properly address their complaints.

Danielle Dirks, one of the professors who filed the federal complaint and who teaches sociology at Oxy, recently spoke to Patch about the sexual assault scandal sweeping the college. Excerpts from the interview:

Patch: Why is the Oxy administration in this kind of negative limelight? Why can’t it rectify what seems to be a fixable problem?

Danielle Dirks: That, I don’t really know. But it’s been shocking. They’ve talked to survivors, they’ve had faculty experts, they’ve hired outside investigators, they’ve taken tons of recommendations—so it’s not a lack of recommendations that seems to be slowing them down. It’s really a surprising inaction, and I don’t know why there’s such foot-dragging. On the other hand, any college that acknowledges that it has a sexual assaults problem is going to take a hit in terms of its reputation and ability to raise funds.

We thought for a while that this was a policy problem. And now we’re wondering if this is a people problem—that the people in the administration are either incapable or unwilling to make action happen and to produce changes. We were hopeful for a long time, but in the end we had to rely on outside agencies to get real change. And now, because of the federal investigation, Oxy will become a national leader for reform—and that will eventually raise the profile of the college.

Patch: Do you think that instead of college administrators the LAPD should be handling sexual assault investigations?

Danielle Dirks: Some of our students have actually gone through the LAPD and it’s been sad to note that the people [administrators] who take reports from students have discouraged them from going to the LAPD. Of course, it’s extraordinarily difficult for anyone to bring a sexual assault incident to the police—there’s a level of fear about not being treated properly or taken seriously and being asked invasive questions.

In fact, schools have had to develop systems of adjudication because the police were not handling them. I know there are a lot of questions as to why the police aren’t involved—and it’s simply because rape is not treated as a serious crime. It’s the only crime where the victim is put on trial, and I think that really discourages people from going forth. In the case of a lot of students who have gone to the police, the district attorney has said that there’s not enough evidence [to prosecute suspects]. I really question how much evidence you have to have. The D.A. is looking for the so-called perfect victim and the so-called perfect perpetrator.

Meanwhile, the conviction rate for sexual assault is 3 percent and you have to wonder if we live in a society that supports rape culture, that doesn’t want to believe men and women when they come forward. People think college rape is a one-time ‘he said, she said’ thing, when the fact is that most serial rapists on campus are predators who plan their activities and have an average of six victims during their college career. And sex offenders over the course of their lives have an average of 300 victims. So that’s the why schools have to take this seriously—because the criminal justice system is not.

Patch: One of the aspects of your federal complaint revolves around alleged retaliation by college administrators against sexual assault survivors and their supporters on campus, including yourself. What kind of retaliation?

Danielle Dirks: We’ve had students moved from their jobs, or students’ jobs dissolved for the next year. Students have not been getting jobs they were very qualified for, even though they’ve been told in the interview process that they did great.

Patch: Given that sexual assaults on campuses is a nationwide problem, which campuses are on the cutting edge of reform and are models for Oxy to follow?

Danielle Dirks: Two campuses that are the gold standard are the University of New Hampshire and Carleton College. In the 1980s, Carleton had a lot of media attention because of its mishandling of sexual assaults, and that forced them to become a national leader [in reform]. And I think that’s a unique opportunity that Oxy has to right the wrongs of everything that has been done around sexual assaults on campus. There is really no reason why we, too, can’t be a national leader.

Patch: What specific actions have the University of New Hampshire and Carleton College taken?

Danielle Dirks: One of the things they’ve done is to hire an outside Title IX coordinator, which means they’re not under any institutional pressures preventing them from being able to say that we have violations of Title IX. There are some concerns at Oxy that the new Title IX coordinator will be accountable to the [college] president instead of to the faculty or the entire campus. The other thing that Carleton and the University of New Hampshire have done is that they’ve created intensive training programs for students and administrators likely to come into contact with survivors. And the colleges also have an external adjudication process for sexual assault cases, which are heard off campus.

Patch: What’s the significance of the recent vote of no confidence by the vast majority of the Oxy faculty in the college counsel and the dean of students?

Danielle Dirks: The significance of the vote of no confidence is that Oxy is the first and only campus where [two] professors have filed Title IX complaints. Also, I believe we’re the faculty that has voted on sexual assaults issues and has united to say that the administration can no longer continue on in the way that it has. Even if we have the best procedures in place, we simply do not trust that they will work if the same people [college counsel and students’ dean] are involved in any shape or form.

Patch: How do you think this scandal has affected Oxy’s reputation? Do you think it will affect admissions?

Danielle Dirks: I hope that people still continue to apply because you’d want to send your child to a college or university that’s actually talking about these issues. There was an article recently in which somebody said that six months ago he hadn’t even heard of Occidental College and that how he had. The narrative needs to be that we have a problem—we were told about it and we addressed it. And after the federal investigation and our own work in the issue, we have the best policies, procedures and personnel in the entire nation.

Patch: How much of a hit do you think the college has already taken?

Danielle Dirks: I know that there is definitely a divestment campaign going on. Parents and alumni are saying that they’re not going to support the college with funds until these problems have been resolved.

Patch: How reassuring is it to you and other supporters of sexual assault survivors when the Oxy administration says that it has hired outside experts to suggest reform and is prepared to work with the Department of Education in its investigation?

Danielle Dirks: We’ve heard these comments before. Nothing that was promised last fall has been implemented. And none of the best practices that were given to the campus a year ago this month [by the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition] have actually been implemented. The college agreed to 10 out of the 12 OSAC demands and maybe three of them were implemented. But they haven’t, for example, installed a 24-hour hotline (for victims) or taken the Title IX coordinator position outside the dean of students’ office.

There is a long list. And even now, when they come closer to implementing something they don’t actually link it to one of the OSAC demands. Until we see the implementation of changes, people are going to view reform as lip service and a PR ploy.

For the record: Occidental College Director of Communications Jim Tranquada had the following response to Professor Dirks’ concern that the college had not credited OSAC’s work:

“In his May 1 message, President Veitch specifically credited “the work done to date by the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition (OSAC) and the Sexual Assault Task Force” as the basis for the immediate actions he outlined. Later in the same message, in discussing the plan to complete a comprehensive revision of sexual-misconduct policies and procedures, he noted that the revision “will incorporate OSAC’s 12 Demands [and] the excellent research contained in its 80-point matrix.” The message linked directly to both.”

Tranquada also responded as follows to the concern expressed by some parent to Patch about how many alleged sexual predators there are on campus and whether some of them would be attending Oxy’s May 19 commencement:

“As you know, we can't comment on specific students or cases due to privacy laws. However, respondents who are found to have violated policy are sanctioned and are expelled if the severity of the violation is determined to warrant such a sanction. Respondents who are expelled do not graduate. Respondents are not graduated while they are involved in a pending case.”


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