Laura Hanson, a University of Oregon graduate and former member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority, has come forward in a Eugene Weekly article that ran on May 28 to tell the story of the university’s handling of her sexual assault that happened over two years ago.
According to the article, Hanson was assaulted in 2013 at a fraternity house on campus. Following the assault, Hanson says that she faced discrimination from her sorority and had her case mishandled by the UO administration after an email she wrote to the sorority was passed along to Title IX coordinator Penny Daugherty. In August 2014, Hanson filed a lawsuit against the university under Title IX (which protects against gender-based discrimination) for what she alleges — and the university acknowledges — was a delay in the handling of her case. The settlement totaled $30,000.
The UO administration has been under national scrutiny for its handling of sexual assaults following allegations against three players on the UO men’s basketball team that surfaced last May.
Hanson told the EW that she was assaulted by a member of Chi Psi fraternity at a watch party for the Fiesta Bowl in January 2013. She says that when she told her Gamma Phi sisters about that night, she found little support. She began to skip sorority functions where her assailant might be present and says she was charged $1,000 from the chapter for her absence.
Hanson says she fought an uphill battle to get help almost everywhere she tried. Her counselor at the counseling center left after her first appointment, and she was never set up to meet with another. Hanson says Daugherty told her not to report to the police because it was a “he-said, she-said” situation, and that Hanson’s sorority fees were reimbursed when they never were. Inside her sorority, Hanson says, she was shamed as “a liar and a slut.”
The Emerald reached out to Gamma Phi for a statement, but was told the chapter would not be commenting for the time being.
After the school year ended, Hanson’s case dragged on over the summer of 2013. UO spokesperson Julie Brown said in the EW article that the student code of conduct at the time allowed cases to be suspended over the summer, a provision that has since been changed. Hanson ended up coming back for a fifth year of school after missing so many classes during the first few months after the alleged assault. She said she emailed Daugherty in September 2013 and again in November 2013, but received no response.
Hanson told the EW that she only saw results after she wrote about her experience in a midterm essay for a conflict resolution class taught by Cheyney Ryan. After speaking with Hanson, Ryan went above Daugherty to report Hanson’s story to Vice President for Finance and Administration Jamie Moffitt.
In January of 2014, Hanson heard from then-assistant Dean of Students Chicora Martin that her alleged assailant had been found “responsible for sexual misconduct as defined in the Student Conduct Code.”
The student was required to have no contact with Hanson, was put on probation until graduation and was also assigned to keep a “Sexual Misconduct Journal: a five-part educational activity that encourages education and reflection on topics around this violation,” the EW reported.
Additionally, the article says that the university obtained copies of Hanson’s counseling records in a manner similar to those of Jane Doe, the legal pseudonym of the survivor involved in the men’s basketball lawsuit. Hanson’s attorney, Jennifer Middleton, who is also Jane Doe’s lawyer, says that Hanson signed a Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act waiver so that Middleton could access her records, but did not release them to the university administration.
Middleton told the EW that the university used what she described as “detailed and not entirely clear exceptions to FERPA” to access Hanson’s records. Debate about increasing confidentiality of student records is continuing in the Oregon State legislature.
Brown submitted the following statement to The Emerald in response to the EW article:
“The university is sorry for the experience of a former student related to a delayed conduct case and is taking measures to improve how we support students who report sexual assault. We do not agree with some assertions made in the Eugene Weekly article; however, we acknowledge there was a delay in the student-conduct process related to this incident. The issue that allowed for that delay has since been addressed and corrected – and the practice of suspending investigations during the summer has ended. The university continues to make sexual assault prevention and response a priority because there needs to be a stronger and more coordinated approach to ensure our students receive the services they need if an assault does occur.”
The accused student and Chi Psi did not immediately respond to Emerald requests for comment.
Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay