The second annual Committee on Standards mock hearing last night was the first event in the College's recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
About 50 people gathered in Collis Common Ground to watch several members of COS engage in a mock trial about an alleged acquaintance rape of a female student. The script was the same as last year's.
The COS is a group of two professors, three students and two administrators that hears cases dealing with undergraduate academic and conduct violations.
But since most hearings are conducted behind closed doors to insure the privacy of those involved, many students are unaware of the COS process, Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Officer Marcia Kelly said.
In a post-hearing interview, Dean of the College Lee Pelton said the purpose of this hearing was to "demystify the hearing and deliberations process."
Associate Dean of Students Dan Nelson gave the background of the hearing before the opening statements of the student-actors were made.
Lisa, a sophomore, brought Todd, a senior, in front of COS on charges that he raped her.
Both Lisa's and Todd's class deans advised them about the COS process before and during the hearing. Nelson said any professor or administrator can serve as a student's adviser during the trial.
Todd told members of COS his house was throwing an annual party called "Slow Comfortable Screw," which was named after the famous punch he later described as containing sloe gin, Southern Comfort, vodka and orange juice.
Todd said a woman asked him what was in the punch and he told her "a slow screw." When she asked what he meant, he replied "a slow screw, the slower, the better."
Todd told COS they talked for a while and she asked him to dance. He said when Lisa wanted to leave, she invited him to come her room later.
Todd said he showed up at Lisa's room at 2 a.m. to find her sitting on her bed in a revealing nightgown, he said.
He said Lisa was the first to initiate further contact "by unbuckling my belt buckle." When he asked her if she wanted to have sex with him, she replied "What do you think?" and took off her night gown, he said.
Todd said Lisa asked him to leave shortly after they had sex and he did.
Lisa then told her story, which differed on several accounts.
She said she only asked Todd to dance to a fast song and when a slow song came on "his hands were all over me." She said when she told him to come by her room she implied that it would be another day, not later on that night.
She told COS she was in her nightgown in bed because she was sleeping.
Lisa denied initiating anything and instead said Todd had tried to take her underpants off and she told him not to.
"I do not want to have sex with you," she said she told him that night. But she said he pinned her down and raped her.
Committee members asked questions concerning the levels of intoxication of the students, what Lisa did to make Todd think she was consenting, who initiated the different events of the evening and who was in control of the situation.
The committee then discussed the hearing in an executive session, in which Lisa and Todd were not allowed to participate. In real cases, the executive sessions can sometimes last longer than the hearing, Pelton said.
The voting members of last night's committee were Assistant Director of Admissions Heather McDaniel, Amy Candido '94, History Professor Pamela Crossley, Education Professor Andrew Garrod, and Dave Ostroff '94.
The non-voting administrators present were Pelton, who chairs the committee, and Kelly.
When committee members had a difficult time resolving the two stories, Crossley said "that's the nature of COS, we never have all the information we need."
Pelton said decisions are made in favor of the side with the "preponderance of evidence" meaning that the evidence shows "it is more likely than not" that a violation was or was not committed.
The committee did not make a decision last night because the mock trial was for educational purposes, Pelton said.
