After reports of two recent on-campus assaults were invalidated, the campus struggled last week to cope with fact that two situations that created a culture of fear throughout the University had never happened.
After a student retracted a claim that she was physically assaulted near the Duke Forest Oct. 22 and evidence contradicted the same student’s report that she was sexually assaulted in Randolph Dormitory in 2002, the campus struggled last week to cope with fact that two situations that created a culture of fear throughout the University had never happened.
Even as people dealt with their confusion at the falsely-motivated hysteria that proceeded from the assault reports, many students said they felt some relief that the Randolph incident and the Oct. 22 assault never happened. A general sense of concern both for the woman and for future victims of assault also seeped across campus last week.
“The thing that was so scary was: What drove her?” sophomore Laura Pyatt said. “How could someone do something like this and use it as a way to galvanize campus? And why did she do it and make it so much harder for other girls in that situation?”
The Women’s Center and several sexual assault awareness groups spent much of the week dealing with the doubts. Jean Leonard, coordinator of sexual assault support services for the Women’s Center, said her office had concentrated its efforts on supporting activists, peer educators and people whom other students might go to with concerns.
“The most important bottom line to me is that this is an individual incident, and the outcome of any individual incident in no way changes the overall University response to sexual assault,” Leonard said.
She underscored the need to believe victims of sexual assault who do come forward and to continue to work for safety on campus. Reports of sexual assault, she said, are fabricated less than 3 percent of the time.
For several years, students and advocates against sexual violence have touted the Randolph incident as a rallying point for awareness and increased security on campus.
The student originally reported that a man attacked her in a dormitory bathroom during the middle of the night, beat her up and sexually assaulted her. Immediately after the report, several groups on campus organized rallies of support. Police canvassed much of Randolph Dormitory looking for leads and the bathroom was taped off as a crime scene while police gathered material evidence. No suspect was ever named.
Even as updates about the investigation faded out of the news, the alleged assault lingered in the consciousness of the student body. Current freshmen said they were aware of the incident, and several upperclass students said they occasionally thought of the assault when venturing alone to the bathroom at night.
Immediately after the incident, anxiety pervaded East Campus, students said. They recalled discussing potential threats during dinner and feeling fearful about walking alone inside the dorms as well as outside.
In the wake of the Randolph incident and another sexual assault in a Wannamaker bathroom during the same calendar year, the University changed the bathroom lock system, first by locking all bathrooms and then by limiting access by gender within residence halls. The move was contested by students as ineffective and frustrating.
When students learned last week that one of the instigating events for the move was likely fabricated, they criticized anew the way the University handled the situation.
“We went from too little to too much,” senior Adam Bonneau said. “One event should not have led to a bunch of reactions. It should have been an analysis of the whole situation.”
The University has grappled with how best to address criticisms that the campus is unsafe. After a series of armed robberies on and near campus last year and this year, students lobbied for better security. Senior Pasha Majdi, president of Duke Student Government, said the University has been receptive to many of DSG’s overtures.
“I don’t think they’ve been reactionary,” he said. “But I do think they’re very conscious of the level of fear on campus.”
Majdi encouraged the community to heed the University’s distinction between the perception and the reality that Duke has an unsafe campus.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, reaffirmed last week that campus is a safe environment. But he recognized that the administration must work to assuage fears in a community that has been “on edge” for several years.
Students, for the most part, echoed the administration’s response, calling for calm in the wake of recent incidents and careful planning for safety as a whole.
“Whenever one thing bad happens, the campus will sort of freak out,” freshman Eric Sliva said. “This just shows that that isn’t always the best thing.”
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